The current financial crisis has brought about a drastic cut back in the staffs of newspaper and book publishers. Some of the traditional stock in trade of public libraries -- the books, newspapers, and magazines on the shelves -- may no longer be produced, or may only appear in vastly altered form.
| The Yoda link in the opening is to a wiki entry -- one "article" in a massive collaborative effort produced by serious fans / students of the Star Wars universe. The whole thing is called WOOKIEEPEDIA. I can't imagine that WOOKIEPEEDIA has a print counterpart, or that a single word of it could be read without a vast technology network humming along to deliver that word. But maybe the world has come to the point where those who want serious in depth news, or serious in depth study of a subject, will have to learn collaborative technology and do for Nebraska's Rainwater Basin Region or sweet corn varieties what the serious fans / students of an imaginary world have done for themselves. |  |
A few brave public libraries are trying community-wide wikis -- one of the key hurdles to overcome is to attain the initial critical mass of information that provides context for all the later corrections and embellishments. The Stevens County Wiki in rural Washington State is one example.
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