I have something to admit. I am a Wikipedia junkie. I have been schooled many times on how it is an incredibly unreliable source, even my husband refuses to take any statistics or information that I have gleaned from the source because he thinks it just can't be right because its free and anyone can edit it. I love wiki's, however. I find that they have details that you wouldn't be able to find in any other reference source, something a trivia/information junkie like myself lives for.
I took a look at the Book Lovers Wiki put up by Princeton Public Library. This particular wiki provides book reviews for books in the libraries collection, seperating them into genres, like romance, mystery suspense, etc. I think that this is a great idea. Often, OPAC's leave little to be desired when it comes to giving a review for materials that is more accessible to patrons and their sensibilities. This is a great way to provide reader's advisory, but again, how practical is it? Is it really used by the public? Apparently, this particular wiki was started as part of an adult summer reading club project, but it seems to have been abandoned since then. Decide for yourself.
I also took a look at the St. Joseph County Public Library System wiki for Subject Guides. This is great especially for me, a librarian who was weaned on Library of Congress and is slowly but surely getting used to Dewey Decimal. I also love the pictures of book covers. How often have you been asked for a book on photography, but the "blue" one. Kudos SJCPLS! While I think this is also a great wiki, I wonder really how useful it is or if it is just truly superfluous, especially since we already have an OPAC? Again, I think it comes down to whether or not it is worth it to take the time to do this, or if we just need to modify our OPAC's and websites so that they are more user friendly.
The wiki resource in this activity that I found the most useful definitely has to be the Library Practices wiki. As a librarian, having universal standards that I can take a look at. I will definitely add this gem to my toolbox.
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