Wikis

The freedom of the wiki

I don't need convincing about how useful wikis are as we've been using them in association with CamTools for several years now and I love the freedom of editing something and then making it live straightaway! At Education we have developed the wiki facility on CamTools as an intranet to host the majority of library resources, which means we can provide tailored information for readers. This is particularly useful for part-time & distance students who are not based in the Faculty. It's something we couldn't do with the existing Library pages as:
a) we are restricted by the software available
b) the pages have to conform to a particular design and format
c) we have to wait for pages to be approved by the IT team before they go live

List of course sites on CamTools

We have created wiki pages detailing Library resources & information for each course taught in the Faculty. Because of the flexibility offered by the wiki, we're able to change information and add links whenever we need to. We're currently working on pages for 2010-2011 - the first group of students, MEd Herts, arrive on Friday 10th September:

Library information on CamTools for MEd Herts distance students

We've also been compiling reading lists for PGCE courses - see the one for Art & Design students below:

Reading lists for courses

These reading lists link through to the Newton catalogue, as well as scanned articles, so students just have one place to access material for assignments.

Wikis have improved the way we can make information available to readers, and they have given us the freedom to design pages in a way we hope students will find clear. Long live the wiki!

iGoogle & feeds (Things 1 & 2)

Revisiting some familiar territory...

I came across iGoogle last year and started to explore how useful it could be. I played around with the different themes available, added a few standard things like the weather, BBC News feed and the obvious virtual pets! Since I became involved in the Cam23 programme, I have revisited iGoogle with my post for Things 1 & 2 in mind & have now added the following gadgets & feeds:

• RSS feed for Cam23
• Google Calendar
• COPAC
• Delicious
• RSS feed for the BBC News Education site - as I work at the Education Faculty, it's important for me to keep up to date with all the changes happening since we've had a new government
  

For fun, I've also added a gadget that regularly shows me a different Italian scene & some vocabulary to learn each day. Today, it's Venice! Who knows what I may learn tomorrow...








iGoogle & libraries

But what about iGoogle's role in libraries and with library readers? I can see that by making catalogues available as gadgets & providing RSS feeds for different services, libraries are using iGoogle as another platform for their users to access information. Here at Education we have an RSS feed for new books, and it was interesting to see other options (see 10 ways libraries can use RSS). However, having an RSS feed does depend on libraries encouraging their readers to sign up for them. We use CamTools to promote library resources to Education students, and as most readers are made members as soon as they start their course, they automatically have access to relevant information to support their studies, plus they receive announcements when something has changed or a new resource has been added (e.g. a new library Newsletter, powerpoint of a library presentation, change in opening hours, etc).

iGoogle is a very straightforward tool to use as it's fun to change the theme & contents when you like, and it's useful to have all your interests in one place. I can see myself using it as a personal tool for the foreseeable future - until the next thing comes along, anyway!