Wikis and libraries and how this weblog came to be.
Hello! I’m Caroline Johnson, an MLIS student at SLAIS (UBC, Vancouver, BC, in case you wanted to know). This weblog is an assignment for my LIBR 500 Foundations of Information Technology course. I’ve been secretly (and not so secretly) wanting to start a weblog for several months now.
When Brian Lamb spoke to my class about free, open, on-line learning, he gave us this story:
“When MIT first decided to offer free, open-access online learning, some segments of the academic world were ready for disaster: hackers coming and stealing academic resources, offering cheap, knock-off versions, student enrollment declining, and finally MIT declaring bankruptcy! Did this happen?” Brian Lamb, Abject Learning (his blog)
He actually had us going for a while. And he made his point. Enough to intrigue me into exploring this whole topic further. Now being a library student, I’m focusing on how libraries use wikis.
I’m a big wiki fan. Ever since a friend of mine introduced me to wikipedia several years ago, and even more so now that I’ve used wiki to collaborate on a project. Easily my favorite aspect of Web 2.0 so far (although I’m becoming addicted to tags, and Library Thing). So when it was time to choose a Web 2.0 tool to explore, wikis were a natural choice. What could be better than libraries and wikis together? (OK, chocolate sundaes, but that’s beside the point).
The purpose of this journal is to follow my explorations into libraries offering free and open learning (wiki’s, on-line courses, etc.). As often as I can for the next two weeks or so, I’m going to explore a different library and what they are offering and how it’s being received.
Header Photo: Boston Harbour with UMASS on the right. by pmboston (see it here)
All photos (except screenshots) used in my blog are licensed under Creative Commons.
