Assignment

Example wiki from libraries -- please include the name of the wiki and a link to the resource along with your name or initials. If the wiki is private please mention that in your annotation.

• Questions to consider
  • Describe the wiki
  • How is it being used in library work?
  • (If it's your wiki) Describe some benefits & challenges encountered
  • (If it's not your wiki) What do you like/dislike about this wiki?
  • Would you use this in your library? Why or why not?
• Please try to avoid duplication. If someone has already added a review, make sure your annotation adds value to what was already said.
• Please try to put your entry in proper alphabetical order.

 

Example Entry

http://cchslib.wetpaint.com

Description: The CCHS Library Wiki serves as the primary library website for 8 regional hospitals.  It is one site for librarians to edit and maintain, it is linked to on the hospitals' Intranet pages and it is available from home.  This has given these libraries the flexibility of providing access to library resources both on and off campus with minimal work. 

Use: One site is officially promoting it to users and we will soon roll it out to the other 7 sites.  It will be the web page that all employees can access anywhere.

Benefits:  One site to maintain! We don't have to maintain an Intranet page and an Internet page.  We don't have to conform exactly the hospital's rigid coding styles that are pretty but not functional for a library site.

Challenges: IT acceptance.  Getting it accessible while on campus, and firewall issues.  Getting it as a link within the Intranet pages.  Librarian acceptance. Not all librarians were accepting of this method, many were unfamiliar with wikis and weren't sure how to use them.  We had to create help guides to walk the librarians through editing a wiki.  Would have preferred to send them a link to several great videos but those were on YouTube and that is blocked at the institution. --Michelle Kraft

 

Place Your Entry Below! 

 

Alden Library Staff Wiki, Ohio University

http://staff.library.ohiou.edu/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Created to manage human resources by Eileen Theodore-Shusta, this private Wiki, composed of 2,497 pages for the usage of Alden Library staff at Ohio University, is powered by Media Wiki.  During staff orientation, staff are introduced to the main points of interest, followed at a later time with a training session.  The main navigation bar is extensive, starting with a link to the Home, Recent Changes, and Help Page.  Important links include Alert Manual, Snow Roster, Forms, Incident Report, Signs, Staff Roster, and Workforce.  The main categories section links to Departments, Library information, Campus Information, Community Info, Class Resources, Technology, and Trouble Shooting.  The organization of this wiki is simple and uncluttered.  I use the staff wiki most to access forms and Library Council Minutes.  Also, the Home page offers the latest in Library News, and is a great place to access monthly scheduling.  Although this wiki is very informative, it is extremely large.  One has to explore daily in order to gain familiarity with its content.  Alden Library excels in promoting second generation web technology.  Please be sure to read about a more publicly accessible OU wiki, Chad Boeninger's Biz Wiki, in Clayton Crenshaw's review! ~Sandy Gekosky

 

Biz Wiki, Ohio University

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page | last accessed March 9, 2009

The work of Business Librarian Chad Boeninger, this library wiki was highlighted in Meredith Farkas article, "Subject Guide 2.0" in the May 2007 issue of American Libraries.  It is being used to deliver subject guide information to the library's patrons, giving them the ability to navigate via links or to search across all the pages.  This is an important feature, because the content is extensive.  I like the fact that it is well-organized and offers multiple ways to navigate, including an A-Z list.  Chad also gets  points for putting an instructional video for the wiki right up front -- you can't miss it!  There are so many Web 2.0 features on the front page, though, it could be a bit overwhelming to some users.  While I probably would not have a use for this wiki in my health science library, I might borrow the concept and use a wiki to deliver subject guides.  - Clayton Crenshaw

 

 

Collom-Davis Library, Bradley University

http://library.bradley.edu/guides/wiki/shtml

This is a listing of subject research guides put together by the librarians.  Each subject has an area at the top with categories for each subject such as print resources, indexes and databases etc.  Each subject's categories seem to be slightly different yet cover the main research areas.  They also have a library wiki directory.  Although most of the subjects are Arts & Humanities, they do have a nursing subject guide.  It's Content list includes Books for an Overview on Nursing; Indexes and Databases; Internet Resources; Library Research Tutorial; Men's Health; Nursing Care Plans and Nursing Theory.

- Susan Steelman

                                                                                                             

 

HAM-TMC Library Wiki

http://isdepartment.wetpaint.com/

Description: This is a private wiki that I created after taking the Web 2.0 class offered by MLA.  The purpose of the wiki is to facilitate internal communication among reference librarians on changes that occur in the library on a regular basis such as: locating a specific resource for a user, latest journal cancellations or tips to retrieve electronic journals.

Use: The wiki contains useful tips to the information services department. All members have rights to edit and create new pages.

Benefits: Includes links to other pages, searching tips to our newly created multisearch engine SEARCH10, remote access information and tips on searching for articles on local TMC faculty.

Challenges:Some department members do not use the wiki at all; either they do not how to use it or they feel intimidated by it. Once I learn more about wikis, I would like to increase its use among my colleagues and develop a subject area wiki. Beatriz Varman

 

 

Indian Koha Interest Group's Wiki Page

http://wiki.koha.org/doku.php?id=indiakig

User Interest group of KOHA (the open source Library Management System) in India.

 

 

 

INFLIBNET Centre-UGC, Wiki

 

http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

 

Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET)Centre is an Autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of University Grants Commission (UGC) involved in creating infrastructure for sharing of library and information resources and services among Academic and Research Institutions in India. INFLIBNET works collaboratively with Indian university libraries to shape the future of the academic libraries in the evolving information environment. This wiki is about its activities and discussions about professional topics in LIS.

 

LibGig

http://www.libgig.com/

 

Description:  This site is a place for librarians looking for jobs and/or looking for assistance with updating your resume.

Benefits:  Library jobs from around the country are posted on this site. It is a place that you can look for a new job or just look around to increase your awareness of the variety of work that librarians are doing. - Marie Janz

 

 

Library Instruction Wikis

http://bhcclibraryandlearningcommons.wikispaces.com/Library+Instruction+Wikis

This wiki features content used to support in-library workshop sessions conducted at BHCC Library & Learning Commons. This wiki is helpful to librarians who are engaged in library instruction. The site features instruction sessions that have been constructed using a template based upon the American College & Research Libraries (ACRL) competency standards, indicators, and outcomes. - Shannon Jones

 

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

www.libsuccess.org/index.php

 

Description:  Initially developed by Meredith Farakas, this wiki allows librarians to post success stories in a variety of different subject areas, from public or technical services to leadership.  I've found a few ideas here that have been useful.  I really liked the publishing and speaking piece, for example. 

 

Use:  In order to add entries to this wiki, one must first set up an account.  This is good for accountability.

 

Benifits:  How often do we clamour to see another librarian's good ideas?  Here they can be shared with all.  If you don't see a topic you are interested in, like perhaps librarian competencies, then go ahead and add it. 

 

Challenges/Would I use this wiki:  I would suspect this wiki could be a lot stronger/deeper if more librarians knew about it, and if more librarians were convinced that their "hairbrained" idea was really a good one.  So often we have great ideas in the course of our work, but just go on to the next one without documenting our success so others can benefit from it.  And after all, isn't that what sharing knowledge is all about?  - Terrie Wheeler 

 

Benefits:  I link out to helpful Web sites from my library and hope that all libraries will begin doing this. users truly appreciate it. The collections of links within this wiki are organized into categories such as associations, suggested sites, journals, and books/atlases/databases. I did find broken links so this site is helpful but does need to be updated.

 

Challenges/Would I use this wiki:  I found a helpful histology link within this wiki and had been looking for a helpful comprehensive histoloy Web site for awhile. However, I provide descriptions with my links to point out what is useful in the content and think that all collections of links should do this. Providing a user a description can save them time exploring the site.  I try to avoid linking out to textual Web sites since that's what textbooks are for. - Terrie Wheeler 

 

 

LibraryWikis / FrontPage http://librarywikis.pbwiki.com/

LibraryWikis  is a place for learning about and sharing examples of library wikis. The wiki is a companion to a research article published  within the September 2007 issue of Information Technology and Libraries. The author of the wiki is Matthew Bejune, Assistant Professor of Library Science, Purdue University Libraries, and Doctoral student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He can be reached at mbejune@purdue.edu.

Four categories were developed from the 33 wikis the author researched: Collaboration between Libraries, Collaboration between Library Staff, Collaboration between Library & Staff and Patrons and Collaboration between Patrons. A page was created for each of the categories provides. A description, location (links) and types of wiki software are provided for each wiki making it easy to compare all in one place as well a link to the wiki. Stacy Wein

 

Liswiki.org http://liswiki.org

Liswiki has interesting information, a miscellany page that includes one of the Dead Sea Scrolls being named Phylactery and over 1,300 articles about various aspaects of library science. It has information on Melvil Dui (Dewey), Bill Katz, and Cutter and the kind of neat information that makes you forget how long you have been online. Dog-eared is their only doggy info, but they do have an interesting librarians in media entry, including an entry for the movie Desk Set. I like its simplicity and diversity and I would use it at work with my with budding library science students who would be curious about wikis. MMG

 

McGill Library Global Health Resource Guide

http://wikisites.mcgill.ca/GlobalHealthGuide/index.php/Main_Page

 

This wiki was created by the McGill Library in Canada. This is a very useful tool because it has a lot of information in one place. It includes resources within the library and also  other resources that are very useful. Another cool thing about this wiki is that it includes maps and tools that are useful for the Global Health user. The news section keeps you updated with what is going on with Global health in general. This is a great source for those people interested in Global Health on a large scale. Brenda Linares

 

 

Medical Matters Wiki

http://usabiomedmatters.wikidot.com/ - Last accessed March 10, 2009

 

Description:  This wiki from the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library allows users to add links to Web sites that are helpful for medical, nursing, and allied health specialties.

 

Use:  This wiki does not allow via application or password. The site is being used to collect helpful links to associations, suggested sites, books/atlases/databases, and journals for medical, nursing, and allied health specialties.

 

Benefits:  I link out to helpful Web sites like this wiki does and have found that users really appreciate the links once they see that I am linking out to animations, interactive tutorials, videos, and such. Unless it's recommended by a faculty member and/or is highly regarded by users and/or I can't find something interactive, I avoid linking out to textual Web sites since users can simply use their textbooks instead; I try to only link out to sites that use the true power of the Internet to engage users. This wiki did lead me to a helpful comprehensive tutorial for histology, and I've been in need of a site like that. Libraries can sell links like these to earn increased traffic to the library Web site, receive praise from library users, and develop lasting relationships with users. My faculty, staff, and students suggest links, provide notes to add to descriptions, ask for me to look for links on particular topics, use the Web sites during lectures, and promote the existing links to others. I think that more libraries need to do what this wiki and my Web site do. Feel free to steal my links - descriptions and all - and post them to your library Web site. To see my collections of links, see the Program Resources section of my Web site at library.lmunet.edu/medlib.

 

Challenges/Would I use this wiki: This wiki has broken links. It links out to textual sites that may not hold a user's attention. I think that descriptions to links are needed to save the user time in navigating the linked Web site. I may use the wiki occasionally to see if there are any links to add to my program resources. -- Lisa Travis

 

Michigan State University Libraries Training Wiki

http://msulibtrain.lib.msu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

The MSU Libraries Training Wiki was designed and created to assist with the training of new librarians and staff. The wiki pulls together important information from library websites, intranet pages, orientation/training manuals, and more. The wiki is incredibly useful for those who are new to the MSU Libraries - I spent a lot of time reading this wiki when I came to the MSU Libraries in May of 2007. The training wiki is also a great place for more seasoned librarians to go if they need quick refresher of something they learned during their training/orientation. The wiki contains tons of information and is divided into 8 main sections: Human Resources, General Library Information, Reference Links, Instruction, Technology, Collection Development, Technical Services, and Professional Development. Because it's so large, it can be a bit challenging to quickly find information on a topic that maybe fits into more than one of the 8 categories, although I've always found what I'm looking for eventually. The wiki is really easy to update and change, which is great since the MSU Libraries and librarian training is constantly evolving.  -- Heidi Schroeder

 

NIH Library wiki (private)

This wiki, using MediaWiki, is used by library staff as an intranet. Each library team has a set of pages where they can post their member roster, objectives, minutes, schedules, policies & procedures, etc. We also post drafts of documents (directly on the wiki page) so team members can review and edit.

 

While some find it super-easy to use, others find it totally unfathomable. Thus not all teams and members have used it, probably exacerbated by the fact that the former intranet is still available. To attach a document you have to not just upload it but link to it in the correct way. Most editing is easy with the toolbar, but some things that people take for granted in their word processor require special coding in the wiki. Plus, after all this, we’re moving to SharePoint (which includes a wiki) so our MediaWiki will probably be going away.

--Rex Robison

 

 

North Star Library Consortium Wiki

Description- The wiki is designed to make information available to staff of the member schools in working with their software provider, Follett.  This information includes member information, statistics, info on joining the consortium, costs involved in joining, training information, and links to sites of interst.

 

Used in library work- This wiki is being used more for the administrative aspect of librarianship and a little for PR.

  

Like- Simple, easy to navigate, not cluttered.

 

Dislike- Layout is a little boring, wish it would provide information about the history on one of the wiki pages instead of just in a Word document, formatting could flow a little better, wish there were images.

 

Would you use this in your library- Might make use of some of the topic areas or PBwiki but would definitely jazz it up a bit.

-Brooke Billman

 

 

PALINET Leadership Network

http://pln.palinet.org/wiki/index.php/PLN_Home

Description: This wiki contains articles for library leaders (defined broadly). The purpose is "to help library leaders (and those who will become leaders) communicate, coordinate, find resources and share information." It is produced by PALINET, a library consortium, and Walt Crawford is the Editorial Director. Many articles are reprinted from other sources. Anyone can register for an account to edit. Pseudonymous submissions can be sent to the editor for posting.

Benefits: It's well organized with a good category scheme and useful "what's new" and "what's hot" lists.

Challenges: However, the bare bones look of a WikiMedia powered site may scare off some users. -Gary Kaplan 

 

Science Information Literacy - ACRL Wiki

http://wikis.ala.org/acrl/index.php/Science_Information_Literacy

This site is hosted by the chapter wiki of the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. The format is similar to Wikipedia. Navigation is easy to follow and only registered users can make changes.

The purpose of the wiki is to respond to the increasing demand for discipline-related information literacy instruction in colleges. Some of the pages include information literacy standards, teaching ideas. assessment, literature reviews and subject guides. The page I found most valuable was the "Information Literacy tutorials", which included medical, pharmacy and nursing tutorials used by librarians to teach information literacy. I would use this wiki to get ideas for designing new Information Literacy classes. - Elaine Goldman

 

SUNY Library Instruction Committee

http://suny-lic.pbwiki.com/

       This is a wiki for SUNYLA's Working Group for Information Literacy (WGIL).  Its purpose is to promote library user instruction and information literacy at SUNY libraries and to exchange information about library instruction.  It also supports the development, coordination, and assessment of information literacy programs.  It inlcudes links to information literacy and library instruction blogs.

 

Benefits:  includes links to subject specific instruction web pages; includes professional development opportunities. --Virginia Bender

 

UCLA South Asian Studies

http://wiki.library.ucla.edu/South_Asian_Studies

 

No special permission is required to use the Public Wiki. Library staff members may want to discuss the idea of creating a wiki page with their supervisor or unit head beforehand, depending on the scope of page’s contents. Individuals should also consider beforehand how the wiki page fits into the Library’s strategic plan and the unit’s and individual’s work plan.

Although the Public wiki is designed to foster the collaboration between the Library staff and its users, all UCLA users are welcome to use this space for other oh. Sign in with your BOL ID and start contributing!

Users who are not affiliated with UCLA may also contribute by discussion.  

 

University of British Columbia

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/UBC_HealthLib-Wiki_-_A_Knowledge-Base_for_Health_Librarians

Description: knowledge base for Health librarians. I found this to be a useful  wikipedia-type resource  for Health Science Librarians - a community portal to share our expertise on various WEb 2.0 tools and skills.   -Patty Williams 

 

 I had discovered this Wiki last year and was amazed by how much content was available.  The UBC Wiki is formatted in MediaWiki, which is my favorite Wiki formate to use.  Although some of content is for Canadian librarians, most of the content is relevant to any health sciences librarian.  The Wiki covers topics such as collection development, expert searching, information literacy, and MeSH. This wiki covers a lot of aspects of librarianship but I wish it did a better job distinguishing between which topics have entries vs. which are just fillers. I wish I would have known about this wiki when I was in library school or when I was first starting out as a librarian.  Rebecca Raszewski

 

University of Minnesota Libraries Staff Website 

https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/Staff/HomePage

Description: This Wiki is from the University of Minnesota Library. It can be edited and updated by the library staff. It is very easy to navigate around the site. The wiki has a great deal of infomration about the entire college.

Use: The Cite is easy for students and staff to use. It goes into detail about many different aspects of the college, not just the library.

Benefits: It is all in one cite for many of the college library operations. Rather than do a myriad of searches for different departments, one can stay on this page and have access to all of them.-- HNauss

Challenges/ would I use this wiki:I think this wiki is really good. It took a while for me to navigate around but over all it was pretty easy and contained a great deal of info.

 

University of British Columbia

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/UBC_HealthLib-Wiki_-_A_Knowledge-Base_for_Health_Librarians

Description:    knowledge base for Health librarians.   I found this to be a useful  wikipedia-type resource  for Health Science Librarians - a community portal to share our expertise on various WEb 2.0 tools and skills.   -Patty Williams, Foundation for Blood Research