Trove Digitised Newspapers and Wikis

In terms of the other topics of the week I decided to set up an account in Trove digitised newspapers a National Library of Australia project, which is a collection of various resources such as newspapers, magazines, books, maps diaries and letters. I had a go at editing mistakes in a few small articles just to get feel of it. I then chose Tuesday 4^th February 1936 edition of The Argus and corrected a significant part of an engagement notice I found.

It wasn’t particular hard to read but still had numerous spelling and grammar mistakes in it. I found the process to be very simple and the site is well organised and I found it easy to navigate through various newspapers to search for articles.

I realised I forgot to take a screen shot before correcting it but here is a shot of the final product:

I also had a good look at the links in the tutorial especially a slide show presentation which gave a brief run down on how a wiki works and can be used. I also looked at an article ‘Using wikis to create online communities’ and discovered that the word ‘wiki’ means quick in Hawaiian. It also talks about what a wiki is and its uses in an information orientated environments in particular in a library context. Librarians can use it as format or tool for updating subject guides and patrons can contribute and edit or update the information.

The uses of wiki are extensive, but it works well as a collaborative tool, sharing a wide range of information ideas, tips and advice with your community or particular group of people such as library community. A great example of how a wiki can be used is for sharing information for library conference’s especially for attendees who are unfamiliar with the location and getting around a new city. It is a way of sharing useful and unique information with others collectively about restaurants, conference events, tips, advice etc. and can be a very useful and invaluable resource. The article has given me a vivid insight into how a wiki can be used or applied to a particular setting.