Wiki Wiki

The disadvantage a wiki has is ironically the same as its advantage. Being written by its readers, and having little in the way of editorial control, a wiki is prone to being subjective, or strongly influenced by opinion

Because of this lack of vetting of entries, many teachers do not allow students to use wikipedia as an information source.


Consesus knowledge is a race to the bottom.

They have the elements that go into a MARC record: title, subject(s), author, year published, etc. When patrons go into an online catalog, they probably won’t know if what they’ve found is the sort of book they’re looking for until they pull it off the shelf. When users go onto Amazon.com, they will find a book synopsis, cover art, and reviews from people who have already read the book. This extra content helps people to get a better sense of whether the book will meet their needs. Why can’t we do that same at libraries?