Blog Post #3 - Using Wikis in the School Library

I read the article, "Using Wikis to Support Online Collaboration in Libraries," by Darlene Fichter. I love this idea. It is very important for school librarians to collaborate with teachers and this is a way to do it. Teachers often know excellent websites and books for the subjects they teach. Or they've been to a conference and come back with all sorts of good resources. I get emails all the time from teachers highlighting useful resources for fellow teachers and librarians. So instead of me creating a list of resources I know about, I could create a wiki and have various teachers contribute their resources, too. If we create a math wiki, for example, anyone with math resources could add to it. This is a way to take advantage of the collective knowledge of the teachers and school staff.
Wikis also provide a place for collaborative writing, editing and storing of reports, letters, meeting notes, etc. I belong to a parent group that often writes letters to the newspaper, school board members, school staff, and others. We email each other back and forth making corrections and suggestions, and sometimes it’s hard to follow the changes. A wiki could facilitate our writing efforts and make it a much easier process.
Another plus for wikis - there are several sites that will host wikis so wiki software is not necessary. This is good for those libraries on a tight budget.
So I plan to give it a try. I’ll find some other teacher who’s not afraid of technology and give it a go.