Did you know that you can use Wikipedia to direct web traffic to you? Long over are the days of information hoarding, and putting information on Wikipedia about your local and unique collections is one more way to disseminate!!

 This is especially helpful for your locally oriented special collection, or books that you have about your local hsitory... and not just for scholarly or academic libraries with a lot of unique resources. Let's say you have a book that is about the history of a neighborhood in your city. You can go to Wikipedia, create an account, add content, put in a link to your library, and viola! 

There are pitfalls however, such as being labeled as a spammer. You can't really go into Wikipedia and just add links, that makes you a spammer.  

 The idea was written about by Ann Lally and Carolyn Dunford: 

The Idea
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html

They suggested that we put links to our NWDA finding aids online: 

NWDA
http://nwda.wsulibs.wsu.edu/

More than 50% of all Google searches lead to Wikipedia: 

Wikipedia Users
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/460/wikipedia

So we tried, and because we only put up links, and not content, we were spammers according to Wikipedia standards. If you add content - try creating a page about your library, your town, something important to your community, or something you get asked about a lot, and then add links! It works!! Read Lally and Dunford's article!

 Here is the wikipedia article for the Idaho State Historical Society: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_State_Historical_Society

I just noticed today something new on Google Maps that connects the map to wikipedia and images! And, you, your staff, and your customers can participate in this as well! Talk about civic engagement... imagine if libraries sponsored a project using these tools!

I started at Google Maps and typed in Boise, Idaho and then on the map where it says "More" I checked off Photos and Wikipedia!

The wikipedia article and the image show up in the map browser, no new tabs, and no new windows! See this one for the Old Penitentiary!

I believe that Google Earth does this already, but this seems more participatory. For more information on adding wikipedia articles see Placeopedia... and on how to add photos see Panoramio!

Even though I know that sometimes libraries are supposed to be quiet, for the most part, remaining quiet hinders both learning and access. Who is going to ask questions is they are being silenced? Answer? No one.

So sometimes I think that the Nancy Pearl Action Figure is responsible for the shushing that I see. I've seen the doll referred to as the reason to be quiet, as in if someone in the library is being loud, they point to the doll and say, "Shhh!"

I just wanted to point out that Nancy Pearl herself does not think that Shushing is acceptable, and thought everyone would take it like a joke! In an article from The Seattle Times she is quoted:

"Pearl predicts that the shushing motion — triggered by a button on the
doll's back — will determine 'which librarians have a sense of humor.'
She likes to believe that today's librarians are secure enough in their
work that they won't take offense at the old cliché."

If it is an old cliche, but we still shush people at our libraries, are we doing it as a joke, or do we really mean it? And even if we're shushing people as a joke, do the customers think that? The customers do not want to be shushed, so maybe we should all stop our shushing?

What I want more than anything else in my local public and academic library catalog right now is to be able to text message the call number of my books to my cell phone. What a saver!

See this demonstration of the Western Washington University library text message service! (I used Jing to make it!) 

The Idaho State Historical Society is taking on new life! We're bringing documents to life, history to life, and now even our website! We don't have an OPAC or ILS yet, but we do have meebo now - so anyone can ask us directly what we have. Chat with me! We're making huge strides!!!