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