"Wikis are all about sharing information. 'Two heads are better than one' is an old saying, but the wiki equivalent would be 'the more heads the better'. Different people have different knowledge and skills, often very specialized. Having an encyclopedia that anyone can edit and contribute to allows people to share this knowledge very quickly and effectively" - to quote Sargia (Thanks, Sargia!)
Obviously, a wiki can be a useful tool for people working collaboratively within a team to acheive a certain goal. But that said, if they were trying to establish something like "best practice," I think there would be a most definite need for authors to provide their sources of information like with Wikipedia itself (otherwise the result could be less than desirable - there have been instances where people in a team have sometimes had different instructions given to them, depending upon whom they were talking to.) The beauty of Wikipedia is that corrections can quickly be made, and Wikipedia's requirement to provide sources of information (along with background pages to discuss them on) has lead to Wikipedia establishing an accuracy that now rivals Britannica.
More informally, it is a very quick and easy way to share opinions, for example like the Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki.
I think it would be quite interesting if our catalogue for instance, had a facility that let borrowers add their own book/CD reviews to catalogue records, like people do on Amazon or on the Internet Movie Database.
If I am thinking of buying a book or watching a DVD I like to read other customers' reviews, and I'm pretty sure something like this would be very popular with our customers if it featured in our catalogue !
I thought with the "subject guide wiki" of the St. Joseph County Public Library system that it would be a kind of alternative to the catalogue (perhaps a bit more user friendly for people not used to library catalogues), but I was surprised to see that it went beyond typical library stuff - eg. under Arts & Entertainment it had Local Attractions and Events, and even ads for local cafes.
It led onto things that I connect more with localeye, or recommended websites like in out Internet Gateway. If we were to do this I think it would result in a certain amount of unwanted duplication.
I enjoyed being able to add a tip to the CCL Learn wiki page (something I discovered quite by accident!) and to favourites.
