Princeton Public Library
April 14, 2008
Princeton Public Library, New Jersey
Happy World, by Ik-Joong Kang of New York, NY (photo by eszter).
A mixed media wall installation for the lobby of the Princeton Public Library.
This is a nice visual metaphor of people coming together in a wiki to create a greater whole.
The BookLoversWiki was a project of the Princeton Public Library Home for the 2006 Adult Summer Reading Club, to introduce library patrons to the concept of a wiki and to encourage them to participate (Janie from PPL). It is therefore more of an archive as opposed to a live page.
This wiki was created using pbwiki. It allowed patrons of the Princeton Public Library to share book reviews with each other and the general public. Generally speaking, I found this wiki easy to use. It has an Index to the reviews, including the intriguing category of 5 Star Reviews. It also has a Featured Review which has five stars. This reminds me of the Featured Articles in Wikipedia, however, it does not seem as if there is a particular process for a review to be chosen as a Featured Review.
This wiki is designed to encourage patrons to read more and share their book reviews with each other and to become more comfortable with Web 2.0. It seems that quite a few of the library users did choose to participate and post their reviews. And according to Ross Dawson (his blog), building “meaningful communities” is a desirable outcome of the use of Web 2.0 tools. While this is a fairly simple version of a wiki, it is a good example to show beginners. And any tool that encourages patrons to read is a good thing.
This wiki seems to fit in well with other features of the Princeton Public library web page. For example, BookLetters e-mail newsletter, Book of The Day, Ask A Librarian on-line reference service.
If I were a patron of the Princeton Public Library in the summer of 2006, I would definitely have used this wiki because I am always looking for ideas for new books to read and I enjoy sharing my opinions about what I’ve read.
Stevens County, Washington
April 9, 2008
Stevens County Rural Library District
Stevens County, Washington
Stevens County Rural Library District Wiki
It is easy to get to Stevens County Rural Library District Wiki from the Stevens County Rural Library District (second link down, directly below Good Reads). This impressive wiki project is a must-see! Unlike other libraries using wiki pages to announce events, share book reviews, and promote the library, they are building their own local encyclopedia about Stevens County (Washington).
This local wiki encyclopedia is an incredible example of people working together, harnessing the collective intelligence, expressing their knowledge, trusting each other and building community. This is exactly the kind of project that epitomizes Web 2.0.
And it is hugely popular: over 11 million hits for a small, rural library wikipage is off the charts! (11,165,850 hits, according to Alexa.com: results here). They have articles on many different subjects (including how to elect a town grouch. They have modeled their wiki on Wikipedia, using Mediawiki, and it seems very usable. “Wikipedia builds on transparency, simple linking, and a low barrier to entry for crowds of people to be involved in editing and authoring.” (What Is a Wiki, O’Reilly). This local wiki encyclopedia does the same thing.
This is an example of how wikis are great for large, shared projects. “A large number of recorded ideas means, of course, that it’s easy to get out of sync with project partners, and that’s where the wiki as shared memory comes in. Using a wiki for your big projects keeps all participants on the same page”(O’Reilly).
My only tiny suggestion for improvement would be that they consider including some images. They have obviously done a stellar job!
The library website, while somewhat rudimentary in design, is using other Web 2.0 tools (MySpace, live chat with reference librarian, Online Book Club), clearly working to encourage patrons to engage with the library and participate. The wiki somewhat overshadows the homepage.
If I were a patron of this library I would not necessarily use this wiki because it is not directly related to the library (i.e. it is not about books, reading, library events or workshops). However, if I lived in Stevens County or had a desire to go there, I would definitely use it!
Bull Run, Virginia
April 5, 2008
Bull Run Regional Library, Virginia
My first look (in this journal) at a public library using Web 2.0 tools.
The Bull Run Regional Library doesn’t seem to have much of a webpage, just a page with directions and hours of operation on the website of the Prince William County Library. There also does not seem to be a link from the Prince William County Library to the wiki page. I think that this is because the wiki is not formally affiliated with the Prince William Country Library, but rather was made by “a creative and dedicated person” who “made this wiki to provide information about Bull Run Library and to provide a platform for suggestions.” (from the wiki page here).
Bull Run Regional Library (Prince William Country Library Homepage)
This wiki was created using pbwiki. I am not a huge fan of pbwiki. We tried to use it for one of our course group projects and found it clunky.
The Bull Run Library Wiki is actively encouraging patrons to contribute, and incorporates several other Web 2.0 tools, with links to Library Thing and Library Elf (a cool little application if your library doesn’t provide email due date reminders), and offers an RSS feed from their Calendar of Events, which is a good idea! They also have a link called “Calculate the value of your library usage” which seems like a great idea (it’s always good to remind patrons of the value/cost of their library), but unfortunately it’s a dead link.
It was a little hard to find the other pages of the wiki. There isn’t a Table of Contents. There is a list of external links. I finally noticed a tab called Recent which led me to all kinds of other pages.
I liked the calendar of events at the bottom of some of the pages (adult, young adult, children).
There is a picture of the Children’s Section of the library on the Children’s Page, and it looks great! Fun neon sign. What a good way to help entice patrons to come into the library!
(Photo from BullRunLibraryWiki)
I liked the RELIC page “The Genealogy Doctor is in”. The Ruth E. Lloyd Information Center (RELIC) is a special collection devoted to genealogy and local history and is housed at the Bull Run Regional Library. RELIC
When I first looked at the Bull Run Library wiki, I found one of their contributors had added an image generated by showing the wiki website as a graph (here).
Bull Run Library Wiki as a graph
I liked the idea so much, I made one myself. You can try it too, if you want, at Website As Graph).
If I were a patron of the Bull Run Regional Library, I would definitely use this wiki as it contains a lot of valuable information that isn’t available elsewhere on the web.
