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Using a wikifor reference services: principles, technologies, and challenges
Peter Blake & John Eliot – McAuley, Brisbane
Presented by Kate Bunker – Signadou, Canberra
Outline
What are wikis and how do they work?Advantages and disadvantagesHow can librarians best use wikis?ACU’s wiki – Brisbane campus librarySetting up your own wiki
What is a wiki?
“The simplest online database that could possibly work” (Ward Cunningham, in Leuf & Cunningham, 2002)
Collaborative information managementOne-click editing of (almost) any pageCommunity-based to provide “safety in
numbers”
Notable wikis: Wikipedia
Notable wikis: Hurricane Katrina help
How does a wiki work?
Powered by a set of scripts (the “engine”) which serve pages and manage access
A page is marked with a “broken” linkA “stub” is createdThe stub is expanded into a full pageThe pages are edited, revised and divided
as required
Advantages of a wiki
Low-costCurrencyCollaborationConsensus?
Disadvantages of a wiki
VandalismEdit warsLack of confidence in materialAnarchy / anti-intellectualismAnother syntax to learn
Where do wikis “fit”?
Abstracting away from HTML and static pages
A rough and ready technologyAnother tool for the toolboxCommunity bases of programmers mean
rapid development and feature addition
How can we best use wikis?
For ourselves Collaborative writing Knowledge base Discussion aiming for consensus
With our users Giving advice Receiving suggestions Users helping users
Librarians using wikis: LISWiki
Librarians using wikis: Library Success
ACU’s wiki: RefDeskEManual
Conversion of existing print manualInitially for one campus only (Brisbane)
and for library staff onlyUses DominoWiki running on a Lotus
Notes server
Demonstration of ACU Brisbane wiki
http://mcan1.acu.edu.au/wikitest.nsf/pages/RefDeskeManual
Benefits and challenges
Benefits Less unwieldy Improved currency Lower entrance
barrier Easier to use Less post-it notes?
Challenges Too much structure Too little structure Linking vs.
reproducing material
Next steps at ACU
Training and “load testing” phaseAdaptation and extension to other
campusesIntegration with Learning Edge LCMS
Setting up a wiki
Define your goal and your community (not audience)
Know your limits server hardware supported languages budget
Decide on content and scopeSelect the features required for your wiki
Wiki engine features
Images and attachmentsTablesSyntaxSubpagesPermissions and page lockingVersioningRSS feeds
Setting up a wiki, continued
Choose your engineInstall and configure the engineBuild a minimal structure that reflects both
your subject and scopeInvite your community to participateContinue to contribute and edit
Summary
Wikis:are simply-structured online databasesare good for rapidly changing informationcan be set up easily and cheaplycannot function without a community
Final thoughts
Experiment with, and contribute to, a wikiConsider how wikis can work for you
The Wiki Prayer: “Please, grant me the serenity to accept the pages I cannot edit, the courage to edit the pages I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” (quoted in Lamb, 2004)
Bibliography
Clyde, L. A. (2005). Wikis. Teacher Librarian, 32(4), 54-56.
Colgan, C. (2005). My wiki, wiki ways. National Journal, 37(27), 2141.
Corcoran, E. (2005). The answer man. Forbes, 176(4), 122.
Delio, M. (2005). The enterprise blogosphere. InfoWorld, 27(13), 43-47.
Edit war. (2005, August 16). Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia Retrieved September 8, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edit_war
Bibliography, continued
Farkas, M. (2005, July 5). ALA Wiki: what I learned and what I'm doing with it. Retrieved September 6, 2005, from http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/?p=254
Frumkin, J. (2005). The Wiki and the digital library. OCLC Systems & Services, 21(1), 18-22.
Goldsborough, R. (2005). An encyclopedia of the people, by the people and for the people. Community College Week, 17(23), 30.
Gorman, G. E. (2005). Is the wiki concept really so wonderful? Online Information Review, 29(3), 225-226.
Jones, P. (2005). Strategies and technologies of sharing in contributor-run archives. Library Trends, 53(4), 651-662.
Bibliography, continued
Lamb, B. (2004). Wide open spaces: wikis, ready or not. EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5), 36-48.
Leuf, B., & Cunningham, W. (2001). The Wiki way: collaboration and sharing on the Internet. Boston, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Professional.
Leuf, B., & Cunningham, W. (2002, June 27). What is Wiki. Retrieved September 7, 2005, from http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki
Lipczynska, S. (2005). Power to the people: the case for Wikipedia. Reference Reviews, 19(2), 6-7.
McHenry, R. (2004, November 15). The faith-based encyclopedia. Retrieved September 8, 2005, from http://www.techcentralstation.com/111504A.html
Bibliography, continued
Pomerantz, J. (2005, April 13). The death of authority? Retrieved September 8, 2005, from http://www.ibiblio.org/pomerantz/blog/?p=171
Tonkin, E. (2005). Making the case for a wiki [Electronic Version]. Ariadne. Retrieved September 7, 2005 from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/
Wiki engines. (2005, August 30). WikiWikiWeb Retrieved September 9, 2005, from http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines
Wikipedia. (2006, February 20). Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia Retrieved February 20, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
Wiki pages shown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page http://www.liswiki.com/wiki/Main_Page