Multi Institutional Medical Library Wiki:

Barriers and Solutions

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

IT Department Barriers

Linking– Old Intranet library sites need to be removed– Links to wiki needed to be added on institutional Intranet

Location/hierarchy of link within Intranet was important Security

– Inconsistent security policies across the Institution Some hospitals and libraries could access the wiki, some could not. Some librarians could edit, some could not Links to resources listed on the wiki worked at some hospitals and not at others.

– If users typed in the resource link directly they could get to the resource, yet they couldn’t get to the resource through the wiki

Personnel– Finding the proper IT person with the authority to fix or make changes was

time consuming and difficult in large institution

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Solutions to IT Barriers

Linking– Timing was critical and mostly likely one key to success

Institution had decided to do a complete Intranet redesign. So deleting old pages not a problem.

Intranet design committee very open to linking to the wiki and to the location of the link within the Intranet

Security– Each hospital had different computer security procedures and settings

The wiki had to be added as a “trusted site within the institutional firewall settings in order to be viewed or refer users to other resources.

Personnel– It required many emails and phone calls over the course of several months

to find or be referred to the proper people for each issue that arose.

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Library Staff Barriers

Unfamiliarity – Many of the library staff were unfamiliar with wikis or their

possible uses.– Many of the library staff were unfamiliar with editing pages

online where changes are live. Wary of hosting with outside company

– Concerns about “who is” Wetpaint were asked Security, back ups, reliability

Extra work– Library staff worried about how much time the wiki would

take Create, update, maintain

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Solutions to Library Staff Barriers

Unfamiliarity – Conducted a brief show and tell demonstrating various wikis and their uses.– Created a wiki editing help guide for library staff

Could not find a short online document or PDFs on how to create or edit a wiki page. Many great online video tutorials but those are blocked

Wary of hosting with outside company– Found background information on the company

Addressed concerns and issues about company and addressed concerns should “go away.” Extra work

– Created the original library page template and added information from previous Intranet pages

– Created the wiki help guide– Offered “walk” people through the editing process– Agreed to edit and update pages for some librarians

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Patron Barriers

Unfamiliarity– Most patrons were unfamiliar with wikis

Location– Many patrons couldn’t find the wiki from on or off

campus Off campus access

– Because the wiki was available off campus, patrons assumed all linked resources were available off campus too

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Solutions to Patron Barriers

Unfamiliarity– Stopped calling it a wiki, instead called it the library website

Location– Worked with IT on the placement of the access links within the

Intranet.– Created flyers with the URL to distribute to staff as off campus

reminders Off campus access

– Added library specific information regarding off and on campus access to resources.

Certain hospitals have off campus access using a proxy server or Athens while other libraries distributed resource specific passwords.

Communicating access policies is key.

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Wetpaint Software Barriers

Advertisements– Free Wetpaint accounts have lots of advertisements

Limited Customization– Unable edit HTML

Certain features like adding the catalog’s search box to the page was impossible

Could not do much to change the overall design of the site

– Unable to turn off unwanted or unused features The discussion thread could not be turned off. To-Dos tab could not be removed

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Solutions to Wetpaint Software Barriers

Advertisements– Contacted Wetpaint to get the advertisement free

version for education

Limited Customization– Designed simpler pages to work on the site.

Provided links to the online catalog and the A-Z.

– Explained to patrons certain features like the discussion thread were not actively maintained

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Overall Thoughts

Would like a wiki software that provides a little more customization, not everybody is an editor and some of Wetpaint’s tabs and options can confuse visitors.

The design and adding data to the library pages took the least amount of work.

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library

Overall Thoughts

Working with IT and library staff took the most amount of work and required lots of communication.

Would like to standardize off campus access to resources across the system to make the wiki a true library Internet site.

2009 Michelle Kraft MLS, AHIPCleveland Clinic Alumni Library