My new Wiki - An instruction repository:
I created a wiki designed to collect, organize and share health-sciences-oriented library instruction materials. URL: http://hslteach.wetpaint.com/. There's a very similar (although far more general) wiki called Library Instruction wiki, which I very much enjoy (URL: http://instructionwiki.org/Main_Page). The library where I currently work, we have some shared teaching materials, but they are not as organized as they could be. The library where I last worked maintained a University-wide instruction repository that held many helpful documents that librarians used in their efforts to support the undergraduate writing program (there's great faculty-library collaboration at that institution).
Collaboration with a classmate:
I'm very interested in the journal-RSS-feed-collection work being done by my MLA classmate Bryan Nugent (URL: http://mlawikiclass.wetpaint.com/thread/1307773/RSS+Feed+Experiment%2FProject ) . I imagine it would fit nicely in with a class on current awareness and RSS feeds that I started teaching last autumn. My lesson plan is posted along with his excel spreadsheet of journal RSS feeds.
Blog vs. wiki
It is indeed crucial to think about the strengths and weaknesses of these various Web 2.0 technologies. Libraries certainly should be exploring and experimenting, doing our best to connect with (and help) users wherever they are. To me that means picking the right tool for the job (as with just about everything in life, I'm stubbornly learning). Blogs strike me as a slight variation on a very old theme: Dissemination of regularly updated, timely information. There are all sorts of added bits of stickiness connecting blogs with the bigger puzzle, but the essence of a blog is still not much different than a newsletter or a web forum. Their great for anything that is appropriately organized in reverse chronological order: event announcements, changes in services/goods, journal entries.
Wikis, in contrast, are great for collecting the collaborative efforts of a group. It's ideal for creating a readily accessible archive for any group project (library construction/ instruction repository/ any sort of knowledge base, eg. subject guides). My own not-so-unique-or-brilliant experience is that a wiki is only as good its contributions. There are very effective organizations with very smart and effective people who are simply not in the habit of sharing work in the way that a flourishing wiki demands. That's not the wiki's fault, but this is one more area where technology does not overpower organizational culture.
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