FOSTPL invites public to meet, attend Wiki webinar

The Friends of the St. Thomas Public Libraries (FOSTPL) will be meeting on Monday, October 27, 2008 at 5:45pm at the Caribbean Genealogy Library (CGL) on Raphune Hill, 2nd level, next to Mango Tango at Al Cohen's Plaza on St. Thomas. On the agenda: various committee reports, and an appearance by former Senator and legislative archivist/researcher Donald "Ducks" Cole in his capacity as Director of the division of Libraries, Archives and Museums.

FOSTPL's temporary venue change will encourage all current FOSTPL members and prospective members to attend a free professional development webinar at the Caribbean Genealogy Library on "Best Practices for Setting Up Wikis" from 3:30pm-5:30pm on that same date. The webinar is co-hosted by CGL and the St. Thomas-St. John Library Association.

"Best Practices for Setting Up Wikis" is a re-broadcast of a live event hosted by the Florida/Caribbean chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). There will be a repeat of the webinar on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 from 5:30p-7:30p at the Caribbean Genealogy Library.

A "wiki" (an Hawaiian word for fast), is a collection of hypertext documents (such as web pages) developed collaboratively. The most well-known of these is Wikipedia; technical support knowledge bases, libraries, and corporate intranets also take advantage of this platform for gathering and sharing information collectively.

No prior knowledge of wikis is needed. Familiarity with other online collaboration tools like bulletin boards, weblogs and/or instant messaging would be beneficial but not required to attend.

The Caribbean Genealogy Library is a VI nonprofit organization founded in 2000 by Elisabeth Swinson Sharp, her sister Grace Swinson Martin, and Susan Laura Lugo. CGL is funded through its membership fees and tax-exempt contributions made to the Caribbean Genealogy Library Fund of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands. CGL's library is open to researchers whenever volunteer librarians are on duty. The library's holdings include extensive information on all 50 states and some foreign countries as well as the Caribbean. For more information or how to join the Caribbean Genealogy Library, call Lugo at 715-4421, or any CGL volunteer at 714-2136.

For more information on the activities of FOSTPL, visit their web site, at www.fostpl.org.