I find it hard as a librarian to trust the information found on open wiki sites in answering questions for patrons. Having said this, I have used Wikipedia on occasion to find general answers for questions. When I have used this I let the patron know that the information is coming from Wikipedia.
I was very impressed with the wiki sites that cover specific topics. The subject guides wiki seemed to be organized very well. When I followed the links for cooking, I was impressed with the subcategories listed and that many some links brought patrons to materials in the Library's catalog. This site also had great community resources listed. This seems like a great way to put all the links we need in one place to help patrons and fellow staff members, and was lay out of the site was user friendly.
The library success wiki site was another site that I enjoyed investigating. I like the ability to see what other libraries and librarians are doing according to topic. When I looked at the weeding link, there were links to tips and successful models that are being used by librarians. I think it will be a great place to find ideas as well as share with our colleagues.
Bull Run Library's wiki site had some interesting links for patrons to use. One of them was the "library elf" that keeps track of your library materials, notifies you when items are due to avoid fines, tracks your loan history, and you can keep track of multiple library cards.
In conclusion, I thought that wick's for specialized purposes and groups is a good idea. The pros can outweigh the cons to providing a wiki site. Although, I prefer to use sites and resources that are checked for factual accuracy, I can see myself using some of the above mentioned sites.
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I too use wikipedia on occasion, especially for something that has happened recently it's hard for print encyclopedias to keep up. now that so many of them are coming out as print resources that might changed.
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