IL 2006: Wikis for LIbraries (a two-part session)

IL 2006: Wikis for LIbraries (a two-part session)
Nicole Engard, Marianne Kruppa, Chad Boeninger, Darren Chase

IL2006

Nicole Engard
Ms. Engard began with an introduction to wikis.  Wiki-wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian.  Wikis are basically just webpages that are viewable by anyone and editable by either anyone or by registered users.  She noted Wikipedia, the most popular wiki. 

Why is it a good idea to use a wiki?  It's easy to learn--no HTML required.  It's an easy way to share your knowledge and to collaborate.  You also have the ability to revert to old versions in case of an explosion of some sort.  You can track who has made what changes.

She showed us some examples of wikis:
--the ALA wiki for the annual conference in Chicago in 2005. 
--the LIS Wiki
--the Library Success Wiki
--the Internet Librarian 2006 Planning Wiki

Using the IL wiki, Engard showed us how to actually edit pages--what the syntax looks like: how to bold, italicize, link.  Most wikis have toolbars, similar to those found in word processing programs, so you don't even really need to understand the syntax.  Most wikis also offer RSS feeds so you can keep up with changes.

Wiki Software Options
--PBwiki.com (hosted ontheir servers, largest consumer wiki farm , offered in 23 languages)
--Twiki
--Jotspot
--There are many more that you can find to work within your specific server environment and limitations (e.g. ASP wikis to work on Microsoft servers)

She then discussed how her library used a wiki to create an intranet for the Jenkins Law Library.  Their original intranet was organized based on departments, not on tasks--something they changed with the new intranet that was wiki-based.  The new intranet allowed the content-creators to actually edit and control their own content. 

The categories for their wiki-intranet are all staff, human resources, research, outreach, tech services, info technology, etc.  Commonly used links are located on the right along with a calendar with work events on the right.  She emphasized that the intranet can be fun and doesn't need the same professional front required for your public website.

The site also includes the ability for people, once they've logged in, to bookmark their most commonly used pages, which are saved and auto-display in their navigation scheme.  Everything has a print-formatted button for easy printing for policies and such as well.

They are using WYSIWYG Pro, which does have a cost attached.  This lets staff edit content without understanding the wiki syntax at all.  HTMLarea.com has a list of more WYSIWYG editors.

Darren Chase
Chase is entertaining, in the "gee, this person would be really amusing to have as a dinner companion" type of way.  Their large library staff needed a place to collaborate, a knowledge base for their policies, and a resource with troubleshooting documents.  They wanted to have complete in-house control over the solution as well.

They considered their options (keeping the static HTML pages, using a traditional CMS, a blog, or a wiki).  After choosing a wiki option, they had to pick the software: PHPWiki, DokuWiki, Kwiki, MediaWiki, Twiki, and many more.  He highlighted the website WikiMatrix.org, which lets you compare various wiki sites based on the features you want to use.  You can use this to find a wiki that fits your library's needs and abilities in terms of server set-up.

They chose Twiki.  It provides easy editing, access control, file locking, revision control, webs (which allows you to create multiple wikis from one server installation), and various plug-ins.  They built it using Linux on an Apache server.  It includes PERL modules instead of SQL/databases.  For a wiki project to be a success, he says that it has to be easy for staff to use and join and you have to have hands-on training.

Marianne Kruppa
Marianne discussed the evolution of St. Joseph County Public Library's recommended web resources (a subject guides in a wiki format).  All of the websites are librarian-selected  and leads users to websites other than the library's.  They saw the subject guides that David Lee King had built at the Kansas City Library, and wanted to do something similar.

SJCPL's Subject Guides are now organized in a wiki.  The emphasis is on library materials and programs related to the various topics.  Feeds are available for new additions and changes.  They highlight all the online services the library has, online databases, encyclopedias, magazines online, and resources on their shelves too (canned catalog searches).  The guides are organized by major areas (business) and then sub-sections (consumer information, jobs, etc.).  They have the discussion option open to all patrons so they can talk about the subjects and continue the information sharing process (but only librarians can edit the subject guides themselves).

She highly recommends having a sandbox server--a place to play around with products and test software to experiment.  After some testing, they chose MediaWiki.  She recommends not calling the wiki a wiki, but calling it what it actually is.

They also have a staff wiki, where staff create content, collaborate, discuss topics, and where procedures and policies live permanently.  This required minimal training for the staff.  Telling them that they can't break it, since you can always revert to the previous version, was a huge confidence-builder.  It showed staff that they could have a voice within the organization directly by collaborating together on equal footing in the wiki environment. 

Chad Boeninger
Mr. Boeninger discussed creating research guides for his academic library.  They chose to use a wiki format because it's easy to add content from anywhere, there is more room for content and "nuggets" (annotations), it's searchable and organizable by categories, and (whoo-pah!) it has a huge potential for building community with the site's users.

He notes that wikis make excellent teaching tools.  It's easy to update, always available to the student, and that way you don't have to replace class handouts.  (Sarah's Note: You could print out little business-card-sized items with the name and the link to each of your wiki handouts and pass those out instead!  Maybe even Moo cards through Flickr!)

You can also create subject guides for common assignments, especially those that repeat every year, linking to resources that can answer each specific question.

He noted a few challenges with wikis--getting others to contribute (including faculty), more content = more maintenance, maintaining the organization and structure with content growth, it's difficult to see the new content, and spam.  If you have the wiki completely open, spam will be a big problem.  On the other hand, mandating log-ins and accounts will cut down on the contribution to the wiki.  Don't expect to be surprised if usage is different/less than you expected.  You don't get automatic "cool" access by having a wiki.  The patrons or other community will appreciate your work.

Other wiki projects they're involved with: they replaced their reference blog with a reference wiki.  They are using a wiki as a collaboration tool for the Ohio University's Second Life Learning Community.  Two librarians are collaborating on a Communications subject wiki as well.