Wiki: The Central Southern Flannelboard Factory

I've been more or less keeping up with our "21 things" but due to another long vacation weekend and a new work schedule, I haven't had time to do much writing about them. And I certainly haven't had time to do clever or insightful blogging, but I want to spew something at least to help stay on track--so huzzah! huzzah! huzzah! for the fight against perfectionism.

I created a wiki--the first I've ever made on my own--and I'm hoping to actually use it in real life at my job! I would like to help children's librarians in my area of the city share flannelboard storytime ideas & materials. I envisioned an online space where librarians could upload photos of their flannelboard creations, and then we could use the wiki all-edit format to suggest stories, rhymes, fingerplays, etc. that would go with each set.

Some thoughts on how it would be useful:

• Sometimes a librarian may unearth an ancient flannelboard set from the library dungeon. After ascertaining that it has no monetary value via the Antiques Road Show, and becoming puzzled as to its educational value since it has no text or title attached, sharing it on the wiki would draw on collective knowledge to figure out just what kind of story would have a goose, a pelican, and a frying pan--for example.
• Some flannelboard sets lend themselves well to multiple stories or uses. Groups of items, such as ten little teddy bears, work with multiple rhymes and fingerplays. Other sets, such as the animals from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, can be used in other stories as well. Wiki editers could add in more rhymes and ideas on the page for each set, or suggest connections to other sets and stories.
• The online format would make it easy to hyperlink to items like youtube videos (to share songs) or other websites with related content.
• Perhaps we could add an informal calendar to each page so that librarians could request to borrow sets on certain days if desired. The wiki could also include the current location of each set, making it easy to see which librarin should be contacted to send it out.
• Other librarians and teachers around the world could browse the wiki to get ideas that they could replicate in their own areas. I've often searched Etsy for flannelboard stories or browsed Flickr to see what others have made.

Now, some drawbacks:

• I may be the only local librarian who will use the wiki, at least in terms of finding time to photograph flannelboard sets and upload them to the website. I work at one of the smallest and slowest branches of a very large public library system, so I just have more time to do projects like this.
• Another hindrance is that our library system prohibits staff from connecting anything to library computers via USB port. Thus, I'd have to upload my photos at home. Hmm... I guess I'm willing to do that.
• Since many of us in this area have already created dozens of flannelboard sets, getting things started would take longer than, say, adding a flannelboard set once in a while when someone makes a new one.

Overall I think it has potential as a way to share, showcase and develop ideas. Feel free to take a look at what I've done so far. (Keep your expectations low. It's very plain and I clearly need to spend more time learning how to make it functional and awesome.)

http://southcentralflannelboardfactory.wikispaces.com/