oh so random

A few thoughts about recent topics, that didn't really fit into the posts I made about them ...

* One of the things that makes Wikipedia so useful and successful is the fact that there are so many users. And not just random users, like those of us who check on occasion (or even more frequently), but vested users who monitor content and catch pranksters and update content. Specialty wikis, by there very nature, do not have nearly so many community members and the interests of those who are there necessarily skew what will be present on it. Using Lib Success as an example, as a Children's Librarian my inclination is to see what they have related to that area. Answer? Nothing much. In programming, there's a link to the Mid-Hudson database, which I already know and that's pretty much it. If I expand to include teens, there's a little more, mostly because of the rising popularity of gaming in the library, but it's still pretty paltry.

Is this because as a user group, children are pretty well-covered in traditional library education, or just evidence that we librarians that serve them aren't very new-media inclined? I don't know, but it's a little frustrating. The question that then arises is if want to change the situation, do I register as a contributor here and try to add content, in the acres of free time that I have, or do I just start a new wiki, even narrower in focus in this one, or do I just suck it up and do nothing?


* On QL Chat, someone recently asked if there was still a point in having the website pathfinders on our webpage, and though I didn't respond there, my inclination is to say no. And in doing so, admit straight up that I've never been a big fan of pathfinders, either in print or online. The focus of most of them just seems too narrow to me to warrant them and I hate the clutter that the print versions necessarily incur. If we were to wikify them the way that the SJCPL has, then I might be more in favor of them. I still think the audience is a limited one and there's too much to click through, but the organization at least seems a bit more natural and I think that that helps.

* On both of these points - and as exemplified by the limited number of people who participated in this project - the big issue, and really it's a huge one, is how do you get participants? You can talk and encourage and hope but if people don't show up, you're pretty much out of luck.