Zack and Wiki

Wikis and I have a mutual understanding: I will only use them if I need to be completely entertained in between phone conversations that situate me in front of even the most basic of computers. I often doubt the power of wikis because...well, anyone can add information to them. Including me. And I don't trust me.

They're not "bad", per se, and I don't mean to make it look like I'm an anti-wik-ite. But, like with most information places on the internet, I never really find what I'm looking for. Maybe that's just my own faults though. Either way, with that in mind, I jumped right into the following places:

I found the St. Joseph County Public Library's subject guides to be pretty basic, but friendly and easy to access. It pretty much links you to an easy-to-access page where you can find equally easy-to-access pages. I clicked on Arts and Entertainment and got this. Not a lot of information, but not terrible.

The BookLoversWiki only infuriated me again as to how I could not sign in the first time. I tried looking at some fantasy book reviews. But to my surprise, there were only 3 books, and the last update was 2 years ago. Now, if I was logged in...sorry, I tend to carry grudges. ^_^;

While we're on PBWiki, I thought the Bull Run Library page was decent. But why not create a real homepage? Why rely on a wiki? I guess there's a sort of charm to that. Also, seeing as how more people go on wikies nowadays, this might be necessary to grab attention.

Now, the Library Success wiki was arguably my favorite. Granted, it did have a lot of that "linking to everything under the sun" aspect that I kind of detest about wikis -- you know, when you go onto a Wikipedia entry on Martin Luther King Jr., and after a half an hour of going through the various links that are embedded in the actual entry, you somehow wind up on a page about arabian leopards? The good thing here, though, is that at least the information is relevant and concise. I particularly took a good deal out of the marketing section.

I don't have much to say about the New Orleans Wiki, other than now, after a half an hour of clicking, I really want to go to the Audubon Zoo.

~KO