Reference Wiki

Greetings.

One resource that we would like to make you aware of is our reference wiki North Metro Tech Reference Wiki.

First, what is a reference wiki? A reference wiki is a tool that is being increasingly used by libraries and librarians. The purpose of a reference wiki is to allow library staff, and in some cases library users, to create editable information about the library and its resources.

There are several reasons for creating this wiki:

The wiki provides alternate routes to valuable library resources in case that the other routes are disabled.

The wiki provides basic information about the library and its resources.

Librarians post received or asked questions to the wiki. This allows librarians to share with other librarians their past experiences in helping a patron. It also allows a librarian to remember how they did something in the past.

The wiki is easily editable in case resources become out of date or there is a better way of helping a patron with a particular issue.

The format we chose to use for the reference wiki is Wetpaint. We felt that this was the format that was capable of being edited the easiest. There have been some complaints about Wetpaint being too commercial. However, you can request Wetpain remove any ads from your wiki if you declare yourself to be an educational wiki.

JWF