Wikis

I haven't used a wiki in library work specifically, but as a graduate trainee I contribute to the Cambridge Trainee Librarians website, CaTaLOG. This involves working collaboratively with the other trainess, so we use a wiki on CamTools where we write a website updates to-do-list, put our names down on the webmaster rota, and make a note of the updates we have made. It is useful for keeping on top of what needs to be done and who's doing what. Like Google Docs, wikis seem to provide a much less messy way to collaborate with others rather than sending multiple emails backwards and forwards. It seems that wikis have greater utility for collaboration between library staff than as a tool for communication with users: would we want to make resource guides available through something that users can edit, or would it just be best to make them viewable on a library website? The main advantages of a wiki seem to be that it is faster to update, can be fully-text searchable, and is easier to navigate. If it is possible to limit editing rights of certain material to only library staff, maybe this would be a good tool for sharing information more widely with users.

I can see that a wiki would be useful for internal library project management in order to coordinate activities. The Library Routes Project sounds great, and as an aspiring librarian I'll have to check it out. I think it's really exciting to see what can be achieved when people are given the opportunity to contribute to and participate in something. Though there are issues with this open participation, I really like the notion behind the idea that by working together people can create some really incredible things.

Google Docs

So Google Docs. Wow, what a great idea. It was extremely easy to use (for writing a basic document anyway), and I think will be enormously useful. I would probably tend to upload documents, presentations and spreadsheets from my pc rather than creating them from scratch within Google Docs itself, just because I like using Word etc., although I might try it out and see what it's like. As I will soon be starting my MA, I can see that this will be extremely helpful for any collaborative work I need to do, and can also appreciate that group projects within the library world would benefit from this tool. It also appeals because it provides a backup for my documents (I always worry that something might happen to my pc, and fear my work would be lost). While I've never been completely swamped with email attachments, it does seem a much less messy way to deal with documents that several people need to work on, and prevents the need of having to save multiple copies of the same thing on to your pc, which can get incredibly confusing. Definitely a tool I will recommend to others the next time I need to work collaboratively, hooray!