May 09, 2005

In 2.0 We Trust (or Do We?)

On the Library 2.0 blog, Michael Stephens posted a link to an article about trusting wikis and how it can translate to the ALAL2 project. I think Michael makes a good point.

I think people get scared by wikis and other social resources that allow user-created content. If you assume "good faith" in the content, that still leaves the door open to challenge the content when needed. I think too many people assume content is either perfect & reliable or total junk. People have gotten lazy in deciding what is truthful or corresponds with their beliefs. As socially driven applications increase, librarian instruction in finding and judging relevant sources becomes more critical. Instead of downgrading Wikipedia (or others sources) as useless or unreliable, librarians should be teaching users how to better use these types of resources. Users were already doing this long before the technology allowed it on a worldwide basis. How many times do you think patrons have asked their friend that they "trusted" a question rather than approaching the library?

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Comments

Posted by Mary Ghikas
Posted on July 25, 2007 12:17 AM

I agree. I hadn't known about Meredith's wiki for the Chicago conference -- until well past the conference. When I finally looked at it, I was really impressed, both by the fact that she just did it and by how much information people shared. Group 5 is using a wiki -- and I'm really looking forward to it.

Your point about the teaching role of librarians in regard to the wiki is helpful.

(Originally posted on Wed 10 May 2006 02:45 PM EDT)