During one discussion at Internet Librarian, I determined that there is a new Web 2.0 term out there being used by many librarians: “blogorwiki”. This term is often used when a librarian has heard of both blogs and wikis but is not sure which one they should be using in their library. Here’s a (very) basic set of guidelines for helping to solve your problem when you hear yourself saying “blogorwiki”:
A blog is generally used to publish static content in reverse chronological order. You may have multiple people contributing this content and you may also allow for others to comment on this content, but generally said content does not change once it has been published.
A wiki is generally used for creation and constant updating of many linked documents by many people. Wikis do keep copies of previous versions of documents since documents are expected to change.
I hope this helps to solve the “blogorwiki” problem. As always all constructive comments are appreciated.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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One Reply to “blogorwiki”
Michael, I’ll be using this at my talk at the Colorado Association of Libraries meeting this week. Thanks!
Michael, I’ll be using this at my talk at the Colorado Association of Libraries meeting this week. Thanks!