1 post tagged “wiki”

Here's the back story...

My position at HPL is not my only job.  I am also employed by a Presbyterian church in Hamilton doing child and youth stuffs and serve on some committees in this capacity as well.  One is for the Summer Experience program that provides youth leadership development, travel experiences and community building.  I did this program when I was a girl of 18 and served as a staff member during one of my summers off from Waterloo.  I really believe in the program and what it offers teens, young adults and churches alike.

With this said, I created a Wiki for our committee to better communicate since emailing one another was getting out of control (which was delightfully illustrated in the "Plain English" YouTube video).  In the beginning we were all very keen on using this new web tool and enjoyed setting up headings, links and the discussion topics.  Then the apathy set in and nothing else happened.  With Wikis you don't get the immediate response that an email provides and the dialogue begins to feel very one sided.  I agree they can be an excellent tool, you just need to be employing it with likeminded "web-ish" people.

I see Wikis as an amazing tool for the library, especially for children's programing at HPL.  Every branch has a rich heritage of programs, story time classics, SRC moments and we have no idea what is happening beyond our own branch's walls.  I would love to see a program bank with details on supplies, costs, outside resources, time savers and more to keep our well-oiled machine running smoothly or better even.  I found one like this on the Library Success wiki @ http://support.midhudson.org/ezprogram/ezprogram.htm and plan to use it the next time I need a program idea in a pinch.  I'm already excited about the T-Shirt program using the book "Generation T" and may even do it with my girlfriends some Saturday night.