wikified

Over the past few months, I’ve been debating the future of the list of blogging libraries I maintain on this site. For me, the two crucial questions that needed answering were: is the list still valuable and are people using it? Just as I was about to pose those questions here, I received a small flurry of messages from various corners of the biblioblogosphere about the ways in which the list was being used (I think it was just before CiL/PLA, when speakers were preparing their presentations), so I thought, “good”. In truth, the future of the blogging libraries list wasn’t ever in too much jeopardy since it continues to be a useful resource for my own presentations & courses, so I probably would have continued to maintain it, if only for selfish reasons, but it was nice to hear that others got some use out of it too.

So, once that was settled, my next consideration was: how can I make the list more self-sustaining? At the moment, people still have to email me their link to get their library blog on the list (so 1.0!) — how could I set it up so that people could add their links themselves and still not lose functionality (categorization and RSS being the two most important features in my book)? If you’re thinking “wiki”, you’re right! Say hello to the new Blogging Libraries Wiki. While there is still some tweaking to be done over the next few days (navigation, about page, help page, etc.), all the links have been transferred from the old blogrolling lists, so it’s fully up to date. And I’ve posted a note on the old page so if you’ve linked to that page, your link won’t be totally broken.

A few details about the wiki:

• it’s a MediaWiki wiki which was super easy to install, thanks to Dreamhost, my domain host. Dreamhost does one-click installs & upgrades of all sorts of goodies (WordPress too), so it was a painless process. The customization took a bit more figuring out, but thanks to the excellent documentation, that was relatively painless too.
• right now, the category pages are wide open for anyone to edit. I thought I’d start out that way and monitor the spam/vandalism level before considering login-only edits. Ideally, I’d like to stick with open editing so as to not discourage potential posters from adding their links (the fewer barriers to participation, the better!), but I’m realistic. We’ll see.

Wow, what a great improvement on an already great resource. Thank you!

Great job! I just updated the entries for the blogs for my library at Baruch College.

YAY! Very smart idea. It will definitely take the burden off of you for keeping the resource up to date. Rock on!

Hey, Amanda! This really great thing of you to do! I’ve found your list very helpful so I am glad you’re keeping it going in this way, which seems much more practical.

Thanks!

[...] What is really exciting me is how people are starting to see the practical use of wikis for smaller-scale projects. Amanda Etches-Johnson has been providing the library blogosphere with an amazing resource for years: a list of blogging libraries. While this probably was a manageable project in the past, the number of libraries that blog has grown ridiculously large and the number of libraries that start and quickly abandon blogs is even larger. It’s not something any one person can maintain unless it is their only job (and as far as I know, Amanda is a busy gal). So instead of abandoning the project, Amanda wikified this resource. Now anyone whose library has a blog or whose blog has changed URLs, met an untimely demise, etc. can add or update the information in the wiki. The burden is not 100% on Amanda, but is distributed throughout the blogosphere. And that’s what’s so beautiful about wikis — what one person could never do, the entire community can accomplish easily with a wiki. [...]

You’ve done a great thing, Amanda. Your efforts show how one person’s idea can start something useful, interesting, and worthy of developing through the collective hive–your wiki is certainly a great step in that direction.

[...] Amanda Etche-Johnson nos anunciaba hace unos días, en su post Wikified, la creación de un nuevo wiki para mantener actualizada su lista de bibliotecas que bloguean: [...]

Thanks for providing the blogging libraries wiki. It’s well organized and it’s a good way to see what others are doing with their library blogs.

One note – while Knowledge at Wharton (u of penn) – while it’s affiliated with the Wharton School – is not a library blog. I’m not sure who added that to the list, but it seems out of place.

Hello Amanda

I’ve always found your list to be useful and have been glad to have such a resource! Congratulations on the wiki which I agree, may be more easy to keep up to date!

As proof of that, I’ve been meaning to email you about our library’s blog for some time now but never got around to it – I’ve added it to the wiki – did it straughtaway without having to hassle you

Thanks again for the great resource and I look forward to watching the wiki grow!

Constance Wiebrands
Perth, Western Australia

P.S. The blog I added was Curtin University’s. For good measure I threw in the new blog of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), too!