Assignment

Journal articles/Books/Book chapters that discuss the use of wikis in libraries. -- Articles or book chapters from the library literature preferred but not limited to. Please include a citation to the material in whatever style you prefer, a link to article or book (if available) and your name or initials.

Example Entry

Rethlefsen, M., Rothman, D. & Mojon, D. (2008) Internet Cool Tools for Physicians. Berlin: Springer.

Internet Cool Tools for Physicians has a big chapter on wikis, including overview and history, how wikis are being used in healthcare, select health-sciences wikis in use, as well as practical advice for evaluating information in wikis and creating your own. For only $29.95, it's a must-have for your medical library ~ librarians and health care professionals will likewise find it useful and easy to read.

 

Place Your Entry Below!

 

Allan, Charles.

 

Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons. C & RL News 2007 April; 68(4): 242-4. www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/apr/usingawiki.cfm

This article describes the use of a wiki for a specific purpose--librarians in an institution sharing and updating information for their library instruction programs. While this is not a basic how-to article on wikis in general and assumes that the reader already has some background knowledge of the purpose of a wiki, it provides helpful information on using a wiki for a specific goal. Allan stresses the need for a library instruction program to have coordinated information and to share creation and editing of handouts. He also points out that the wiki can serve as a centralized resource collaboration tool.  Working with a group of librarians scattered around the U.S., I think a wiki may be one possible way to keep our instructions and information updated on a regular basis.--Joan Nashelsky

 

 

 

 

 

Boulos MN, Maramba I, Wheeler S.

 

 

Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ. 2006 Aug 15;6:41.  

This article provides a brief description of  Web 2.0 tools, and a more indepth look into the application of the pros and cons of using them  in the education of health care professionals, patient education and medical and nursing education. It stresses the need for careful thought and research  still needed as we use these emerging tools in both teaching and learning . There are also two power point presentations by the authors. Stacy Wein

 

 

Barsky, E. & Giustini, D. (2007) Introducing Web 2.0: wikis for health librarians. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association 28(4):147-150.  http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/jchla/jchla28/c07-036.pdf   

Dean Giustini and Eugene Barsky, librarians at the University of British Columbia, are Web 2.0 gurus who have experience in creating wikis and blogs in the health sciences area.Their article provides a very useful introduction to wikis for health librarians, covering such areas as the concept of a wiki, wikis in medicine, wikis in libraries, wikis as knowledg base, selecting a wiki (Pbwiki, Wetpaint and Mediawiki are briefly discussed), and the challenges in using wikis.  Giustini and Barsky created  the UBC Health Library Wiki in September 2006.

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/UBC_HealthLib-Wiki_-_A_Knowledge-Base_for_Health_Librarians with the purpose to build a knowledge base for health librarians.   - Susan Murray

 

 

Bell, S. (2009) Wikis for Reference, Enthusiasts, and Government Information. Online Jan/Feb2009, Vol. 33 Issue 1, p20-23 

     This article reviews several wiki websites including The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Earth, and information sources created by 

     enthusiasts. Also reviewed are government authorized sites.  The author mentions that for the most part the wikis mentioned in the article are written 

     by experts on their related topics.  She also mentions that the authors place an emphasis on credibility by these "devoted experts working in support of a      cause."

     -Marlene Derrick

 

Bell, S. (2008) Wikis as Legitimate Research Sources. Online  Nov/Dec2008 32 (6):34-37

 

This interesting well written article looks at several examples of how wikis are being used in groups outside of librarianship.  The U.S. troops in Afghanistan are using a wiki to record and pass along information to new units when transfer occurrs.  You can’t look at this wiki due to security issues. The other sites reviewed are all accessible. Describes  and provides links to the health wikis NutritionPedia.com  WiserWiki . Sleep Apnea wiki .  It also looks at the Davis California wiki as an example of City Wikis where residents build a wiki about their community. I liked the diverse nature of the sample wikis and how the author looked at researched the use of these wikis.  I felt frustrated that I could not look at the first wiki.

 

Jean Siebert

 

Bejune, Matthew.   Wiki's in Libraries. Information Technology and Libraries 26(3): 26-38.

     I really enjoyed this article. It also has a site that accompanies the article.  The article focuses on wikis in the libraries and how they are useful.  It gives specific details on how wikis work to collaborate among libraries, collaborate among library staff, collaborate among patrons, and also to collaborate among patrons.  I enjoyed the specifics he went into, for example, he gives examples of library wiki's that use different wiki formats; like Ohio University uses bizwiki and Butler uses wikiref.  The website also has a powerpoint presentation on wikis!

     -Havalyn Nauss

 

Brisco, Shonda. Which Wiki is right for you? School Library Journal 5/1/2007. www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6438167.html

This is a good review for school librarians, or anyone for that matter, who want to choose wiki software. The articles offers pros and cons of three software sites: pbwiki.com, www.wikispaces.com and www.wetpaint.com . The articles gives an A+ to wikispaces and an A to the other two. JoAnn Babish

 

Brown, Malcom  The NetGens 2.0: Clouds on the Horizon (ID: ERM09115), Educause Review, January/February           2009:66-67

While off-topic in some ways, this 2 page review, by the Director of Academic Computing at Dartmouth opened my eyes to changes in the current college student generation, how  students  have  changed in their IT use  in the past four years, and what it suggests for the near future for  graduate programs  and places employing those graduates in the next decade.  Since this NetGen 2.0 generation will appear soon in academic medical centers and afterwards in hospitals, seems important that librarians understand that “the laptop has moved from ubiguity”, and “the smartphone has entered the stage of  ubiquity”. ~Patricia CM

 

Another Educause  item worth reviewing for its implications for library teaching is the summary of the discussion at the January 2009 conference.

Meeting the Top Challenges in Teaching and Learning Discussion Session

EDUCAUSE 2009 MidAtlantic Regional Conference • 8 January 2009

 

 

Burrows, T. (2008). Blogs, Wikis, MySpace and More: Everything You Want to Know about using Web 2.0 but are Afraid to Ask. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN: 155652756x. This rather comprehensive text explores the useful and interesting sites—big and small, popular and obscure—that make up Web 2.0. I was able to view it online; the information seems very thorough, complete with screenshots of the various resources. Tools are alphabetized via category type (Communications, e-Commerce, Games, Hosting, etc.). The book also offers dozens of alternative URLs that cover similar online territory, but with their own unique takes.  I would recommend this book to newbies (e.g., me) to the Web 2.0 phenomenon. ~~ Andrea Castrogiovanni.

 

 

Chimato, Mary.  It’s a Wiki Wiki World. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 26 (Sup. 1): pg 169-190.  Chimato discusses the ways that wikis increase social interactions among individuals.  A brief description of the use of a wiki, as well as step by step directions for putting this type of social software into place in a library is provided.    The author recounts the process of implementing and using a wiki at Stony Brook University’s Health Science Library as a main knowledge base, similar to an intranet.  In addition, other methods of using wikis are mentioned such as subject guides, a list of community resources, and journal clubs.  With proper training a wiki has the potential to increase the collaboration of all individuals at your library. -- Megan Besaw

Ciesielka, Debbie. (Oct. 2008). Using a Wiki to Meet Graduate Nursing Education Competencies in Collaboration and Communty Health. J Nurs Educ., 47(10):473-6. PMID: 18856102. This article describes the use of a wiki as a means to foster collaboration and meet core competencies related to community study.  Shannon Jones

Cobus, L. (2009, Spring). Using blogs and wikis in a graduate public health course. Medical Reference Services quarterly, 28(1): 22-32. PMID: 19197741.  This article discusses the use of wikis and other “Web 2.0” technologies in teaching information literacy to students in the health professions, and the use of those tools to foster collaboration, while critically evaluating Web content.  Taught by a librarian, the course focused on helping students “develop effective information-seeking skills and search strategies focused on public health outcomes,” and used Web 2.0 technologies, such as the wiki and blogs, to underscore their use and importance in the healthcare field (particularly in public health). This was an excellent discussion of using technology to engage and involve the student, and I appreciated the ideas that I can incorporate into the Public Health Informatics course that I co-teach. This article will not be helpful for learning more about wikis, but rather for those looking to apply the use of wikis into library instruction. -- CS

 

 

Farkas, Meredith G. Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication and  Community Online. 

Chapter 5 “Wikis” pages 67-84

Published by Information Today, Inc., 2007

ISBN 157387275X, 9781573872751

            This book can be previewed at Google Books.  Chapter 5 is devoted to wikis.  The author gives a nice overview of what wikis are and how they can be used by librarians.   She gives real-world examples and also outlines tips for implementing a wiki.  The book also discusses other social software tools such as blogs, RSS, tagging, podcasting, vodcasting and more.

 

Fichter, Darlene. Using Wikis to Support Online Collaboration in Libraries.  Information Outlook January, 2006 , 10(1) librarywikis.pbwiki.com/Collaboration+between+Libraries - 44k   Lynn Bragdon

This article gives readers a nice histoy and overview of Wikis and offers suggestions on how they may be applied in the library setting.  The author also includes a short list of library wiki sites.

 

 

 Fichter, Darlene. (2005) Using Wikis to Support Online Collaboration in Libraries.  Information Outlook 10(1): 30-3.1

 

library2.usask.ca/~fichter/articles/2006.01.Using_Wikis_to_Support_Online_Collaboration_in_Libraries.pdf 

This article gives a good overview of wikis. The reason for wikis is collaboration over a network and they allow users to "form personal relationships in cyberspace." Some examples are given:  Fichter describes some ways she used wikis to plan for a conference.  Some future forecasting is here in which it is predicted that wikis, Web conferencing, wireless mobile tools, social networking tools would take off, where email, instant messaging and discussion groups would decline.  Some uses of wikis here and now include sharing information in IT areas, disasters like Hurricane Katrina, moving from discussion to publication: avoiding the clutter of tracking in Word documents.   In libraries, they can be used to create knowledge bases, support courses, conference planning,  and creating subject pages.  A  Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, created by Meredith Farkas (www.libsuccess.org) is discussed, as well as other library Wikis.  --Cecile Bianco  (p.s. I apologize for doing the same article as Lynn, I was in a hurry and did not notice).

Health sciences wikis 

 

Hawn, Carleen,    Health Affairs, 28, no. 2 (2009): 361-368

 

“REPORT FROM THE FIELD: Take Two Aspirin And Tweet Me In The Morning: How Twitter, Facebook, And Other Social Media Are Reshaping Health Care”

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/long/28/2/361

 

Fascinating  look  at  ways in which social networking tools are empowering physicians to develop new methods of practice as well as an overview of how social media can be used to benefit patients and patient to doctor communication. Discusses problems in adoption, concerns raised by HIPPA, and why electronic health records pose problems, and  why most of U.S. health care is still conducting with the technologies of the twentieth century at best.  Argues that  using social media in health care "is about changing the locus of control to the patient" and altering the relationships between care givers and care receivers. In this view, patient portals, EHR platforms, blogs, video chat, and "tweets" won’t merely substitute for many one-on-one encounters with providers, but will also allow for richer engagement and deeper doctor-patient relationships. I think all medical librarian should read this new article which is timely and right on topic for this profession. With 38% of adult Internet users  currently using social media, the demands will only increase although wikis may not be in the picture for the deleivery of health care, other tools will be..~ Patricia C-M

 

Klobas, Jane (2006) Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration (Information Professional). This work seemed interesting because it discussed several different approaches to the use and type of wiki, as did many of the other resoruces I found through doing this assignment.  I think it is helpful to evaluate the use and type of wiki to determine if it will provide value-added information for collaborators and users of this type of technology.

 

"Wikis as information sources, as a form of publishing, and as tools for collaboration, are discussed in this book. The applications of wikis in library and information services, education and business are explored, with examples." ISBN: 1843341786

- Mark Hopkins

 

 

Lombardo, Nancy T., Mower, Allyson and McFarland, Mary M. (2008) 'Putting Wikis to Work in Libraries', Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 27:2, 129 - 145

http://www.haworthpress.com/store/E-Text/View_EText.asp?a=3&fn=WMRS_A_311588_O&i=2&s=J115&v=27

This articles describes how an academic health sciences library uses wikis.  There is a very nice overview about what a wiki is as well as a section on wiki selection criteria.  The rest of the articles describes the various ways that wikis have been utilized.  This includes descriptions of various wikis-based projects, which would prove to be excellent inspiration points for other libraries considering using wikis.

-- Katherine Chew

 

Mathieu, J.  Blogs, Podcasts, and Wikis: The New Names in Information Dissemination. J Am Diet Assoc. 2007 Apr; 107(4): 553-5.

This was an introductory article on these new technologies for those in the field of dietetics.  The wiki portion of the article focused on a project to place the new Nutrition Care Process, which is revolutionizing the way food and nutrition professionals practice, on Wikipedia.   The advantage of doing this was to get the word out about the process to a lot of people by using minimal resources.  It was felt that wikis have an advantage over print reference materials because they can be fixed not only to correct mistakes but also to reflect new information in a timely manner.  The article also listed a few medical wikis and discussed the concerns about whether or not medical information on wikis is accurate.

--Susan Arnold

 

Matthies, Brad, et al.

Using a wiki to enhance library instruction.   Indiana Libraries 25(30):32-5.  https://idea.iupui.edu/dspace/bitstream/1805/1484/1/Using%20a%20Wiki%20to%20Enhance%20Library%20Instruction.pdf

Briefly introduces  educational theory and mentions some examples to explain successful use of wikis in higher education, before giving details of their wiki-enhanced BI program.  Librarians at Butler University used www.seedwiki.com to develop a three-part series of instructional sessions for Freshmen Business Experience, in collaboration with business faculty. 

 

This article provides both an example of dynamic instructional methods, and  of true integration of bibliographic instruction into the curriculum.  Judging from its references, this article was written in 2006.  Year is not given in the PDF. 

 

At our college, I can imagine certain faculty who use course management software using some of the ideas for an assignment.  Once familiar with CMS and with wikis, perhaps faculty would be interested in more collaboration with the library, especially if librarians managed the wiki.  It is already a task to manage CMS enrollment and would be quite time-consuming to manage wiki access too for students enrolled in a specific course.  It would also be time-consuming and rewarding as well to review students’ submissions.  At least using group assignments produces fewer documents to review and grade. 

 

At our library, I would feel good at this point to have a wiki list of free business resources on the Web, and to elicit some ediiting response from alumni as well as students currently enrolled in business courses.  But I am wondering: Don’t people resist having yet one more login to remember.  I’ll bet that no one would edit our wiki without the incentive of an assignment.  Also, I do not know how to encourage participation in the wiki from a broad range of legitimate potential users, and completely discourage vendors without having to constantly revise the page.  A one-person wiki originator cannot provide the oversight that the huge Wikipedia following can provide.

--Annette Osenga (email link)

 

 Stephens, M. Wikis: Chapter 5. Library Technology Reports 42(4): July-August 2006.

This is a partial archive of the chapter: https://publications.techsource.ala.org/products/archive.pl?article=2580

I think this article is useful in that it traces the history of the wiki and shows examples of ways in which libraries have used wikis. It also includes information on best practices. It's a good place for a beginner to start. -Emily Vardell

 

McCartney, Patricia R.  MCN.   Am J Matern Child Nurs 2008 May-Jun:  33 (3):190

"Wikis:  Virtual Community Collaborations", by Patricia R. McCartney, PHD, RN, FAAN

This article explains what a wiki is and how wikis differ from blogs.  She mentions that wikis are used in education, business, research, and  practice.  Wiki quality is also covered:  authority, accuracy, objective, currency, coverage and audience.  A couple of wikis for nurses is listed:  Nursing Wiki (http://en.nursingwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page and TIGER project (Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform - http://www.tigersummit.com is currently using wikis for collaborative work groups.  This article gives a good review of wikis, tells how they are used, and explains how to use wikis.  A demonstration on YouTude is listed (http://www.youtube.com/wathc?v=A204JcGQiY0). - Phyllis Whiteside

 

Oatman, Eric.  Make Way for Wikis: Easy-to-use software that lets students collaborate is heading to your school.  School Library Journal. Nov 2005; 51(11):52-54.

This article--although geared towards school media specialists--explores the role of wikis in classroom settings.  The term Wiki is clearly defined and an easy-to-understand outline is provided on how wikis work, including several characteristics that most wikis share.  The Wikipedia model is also discussed and a number of pros and cons are pointed out, as evaluated by librarians.  Of interest is the "Making Wikis Work For You" section of this article, which provides terrific examples of wiki uses such as creating subject guides, using wikis to create opportunities for student envolvement and collaberation, and more.--Christina Rivera  

 

Ribaric, Tim (2007) It's Time to Use a Wiki as Part of Your Web Site, Computers in Libraries,  Nov/Dec 2008  vol 27 p. 24-29 

Tim Ribaric is the the digital services librarian at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. After giving reasons for having a wiki as part of a library website, the author describes how he created a wiki for the Brock University library website.  The focus of the article is on the technical aspects involved in creating the wiki using MediaWiki. This article would be of interest to those who wish to customize a wiki to resemble an existing library website and/or learn about suppressing wiki-ish commands that one does not want the public to see. The article has a list of links to MediaWiki resources on the Internet. - Rebecca Landau   

 

Robertson J, Burnham J, Li J, Sayed E. The Medical Matters Wiki: Building a Library Web Site 2.0. Medical Reference Services Quarterly Spring 2008 27(1):21-32.

This article describes the creation of the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library's Medical Matters Wiki.  It was a solution to the problem of updating static web pages.  The librarians can now update their library material selection pages without a middleman, but also allow their library users to do the same.  The authors describe how the staff made the decision of which wiki to use and give a good overview of things that should be considered before committing to a wiki.  They show an example of a wiki comparison chart. The library staff finally decided on Wikidot.  At the time of publication the library staff was still evaluating its potential as a library staff/library user communication tool.--Rosemarie Taylor

 

Robertson J, Burnham J, Li J, Sayed E. The Medical Matters Wiki: Building a Library Web Site 2.0. Medical Reference Services Quarterly 2008 Spring; 27 (1): 21-32. In addition, to the above information, I just wanted to expand on the comparison chart. It shows in great detail the differences between four different wiki programs. Some of the areas covered are whether or not ads are allowed, cost, permissions, history, storage quota and others. The chart would be quite useful in assisting someone trying to decide between programs. The text of the article explains the process they went through in determining what program they selected so other libraries could go through a similar process if they wantetd. RR

 

Secker, J. (2008). The adventures of LASSIE: libraries, social software and distance learners. Serials 21(2),112-115. University of London (England) libraries studied social networking sites to conclude that such would be of great help for distance learners. They felt they had inadequate tools for supporting distance learners and that Facebook, Moodle, and RSS technology were used to centralize learning and teaching resource material for those in the virtual classroom. They advised librarians to loosen up on our tendency to love rules and organized information exchange. I liked that they advised librarians to loosen up since I think of the British as a bit more formal, and I think it is good advice to librarians working with the net to be a bit less rule-obeying and more open minded. I wanted more substance to the help for distance learners, but referring to use of the sites was okay.Had to choose an article with a good doggy name, but I would not necessarily suggest it as a must-read. It could be used in teaching for those students who always want only a short article. MMG

 

Wagner, C. Wiki: A Technology for Conversational Knowledge Management and Group collaboration. Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 2004 13:265-289. http://cais.isworld.org/articles/13-19/default.asp?View=Journal&x=19&y=7

'This article introduces Wiki technology, the behavioral and organizational implications of Wiki use, and Wiki applicability as groupware and help system software. The artcle concludes that organizations willing to embrace the "Wiki way" with collaborative, conversational knowledge management systems, may enjoy better than linear knowledge growth, while being able to satisfy ad-hoc, distributed knowledge needs.' --Y Zhang 

 

Watson K, Harper C. Using blogs and wikis to communicate with library clients. InCite. 2006;27(12). http://alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2006/12/. Accessed March 10, 2009.

This article describes wikis and how they are different from blogs. It also provides links to library Web 2.0 examples. Last but not least, it provides tips for employing Web 2.0 technology. - Lisa Travis

 

Using blogs and wikis in a graduate public health course.

Med Ref Serv Q. 2009 Spring;28(1):22-32.    BY  Cobus, L.

- Very good overview for this particular focus. - Patty Williams