Have you seen the DavisWiki? If not I highly encourage you to check it out. Created and maintained by the community of Davis, California, it is an amazing example of a highly functional wiki. A person can find nearly anything and everything on the DavisWiki. There is information on how to live cheaply, local gyms, the single scene, lost pets, and event calendar and more! Needless to say I've been coveting the wiki a little bit and thinking of ways that it could be implemented through libraries.
If a library is looking to get involved in and highlight their value to their community a city resources wiki would be a great place to start. There is a need for pages like the DavisWiki which I've noticed just among my own friends group. My friends maintain a listserv and every few weeks someone was asking for a recommendation to something (mechanic, doctor, restaurant etc.). So one friend decided enough was enough, deciding to start his own wiki for the group. After trying a few different platforms the group has created a home through PBWorks. There are already lists of places to camp, restaurants, things to do at 2am, event calendars etc. The group uses the wiki frequently, but all this great knowledge about hotspots in our community is only being shared with about 100 people. What if the local public library began the project allowing all members of the community to share their recommendations?
The library should be the information epicenter for any community. Anyone should be able to stop in and find out what is going on locally. Wouldn't it be nice to only have to visit one site to find out everything about a city? I've traveled before only to find myself hitting up one site for restaurant reviews, another for local night clubs, and another parks, only to be fairly dissatisfied with all of them. If the community themselves were adding the content it would probably be much more detailed and include a wide range of tastes rather than whatever the city web developer chose to add to the site.
In order to start a community driven wiki a library would only need to get the ball rolling. People will be much more comfortable posting if there is some structure and the beginnings of content. Once the basic framework of the wiki is put together consider having all of your library staff add their favorite places or some other detail to the site. Libraries can hold workshops teaching the community about how to add content of their own. A short YouTube video promotional video might be made as well. Consider talking to your local city web developer to see if the video clip could appear on the main city website. You may also consider enlisting the help of your teen advisory board, encouraging them to create their own teen section with places to shop, hang out, eat or whatever. The wiki will not succeed without community involvement, so make sure to advertise it and keep it updated.
I think this is a great idea, Erin! Library staff would very well get a big kick out of doing something outside of their usual library-specific activities. Although a community-driven wiki might seem more relevant to a public library I think it could also find support at an academic library among college/graduate students; though, it might be more difficult to gain support and approval from an academic institution's higher-ups.
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