Wikis and LibrariesStaff and User Opportunities

Darlene Fichter

University of Saskatchewan Library

February 1, 2007

Darlene Fichter

Photo by davezilla was taken

Photo by Ross Mayfield

Photo by soundfromwayout

Questions

What is your primary role at your organization?

• Reference/Instructional Librarian • Collections/Digital Project• Library ITS (web developer, systems librarian)• Library manager• Other

Questions

Do you contribute to a wiki?

Questions

Are you interested in using wiki for:

• Business processes• Personal web publishing• Community building• Intranet• Don’t know

Committees and Teams How many groups do you belong to?

None 1 – 2 3 – 5 5 – 10 > 10 How many groups do you belong to?

– Mailing list archives– Email folders– Everyone’s desktop and file cabinet– Shared file server– Web board– IM (saved)

What are some of the limitations?

What if you …

From pòchò

What is a “Wiki”?

Tool that allows a group of people to

quickly create and edit a web site together

Characteristics

Intended to be simple so you can focus on the writing

Wikis: Collections of Pages

Main Page Contact Us Electronic Virtual

edit edit editedit

Anyone with a web browser can read a wiki site

Wiki Pages

Anyone with a web browser can edit the wiki

Anyone can undo any change at any time

Anyone You Allow

– Everyone

– Just your staff

– Just your workgroup

Click, Write, and Save

edit editsave

...OLA 2007…OLA 2007

Creating New Pages

…OLA 2007

… NewName? …

editedit

NewName

Use CamelCase, aka WikiName

Wiki Design Principles

Openness and trust – if a page is incomplete or inaccurate anyone can edit it

Wiki Design Principleshttp://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples

Wikipedia: Viewing History

Wikipedia: Talk Page

Wiki Design Principles

Openness and trust – if a page is incomplete or inaccurate anyone can edit it

Incremental – pages can cite other pages, even those not yet written

Wiki Design Principleshttp://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples

Red Links Mark Future Pages

Wiki Design Principles

Openness and trust – if a page is incomplete or inaccurate anyone can edit it

Incremental – pages can cite other pages, even those not yet written

Observable– you can see the changes being made

Wiki Design Principleshttp://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples

Wikipedia: Recent Changes

Wiki Design Principles Openness and trust

– if a page is incomplete or inaccurate anyone can edit it Incremental

– pages can cite other pages, even those not yet written Observable

– you can see the changes being made Organic

– site structure is up to everyone, and it will evolve and change

Wiki Design Principleshttp://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples

Time Lapse – London Bombing

thelastminute.typepad.com/blog/2005/07/the_day_citizen.html

Wiki Gardeners

On a library wiki, you might want to assign this role.

Photo by Ross Mayfield

External Library Wikis

Subject guides Events Community Content

– Encyclopedia– Book Reviews– Course

External Library Wiki

http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page

Talkpage

Edits

Crafts

Talk About Crafts

Talkpage

Event Planning and Support

http://coppul.jotspot.com (Password protected)

Stevens County Encyclopedia

http://www.scrldwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

Princeton Public Library

http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library

Course Wiki

Web Site

Internal Library Wikis

Staff Intranet IT Documentation Special Projects/Committees/Events Helpdesk & Knowledgebase

Staff Web Site

http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/

Library Intranet

http://wiki.lib.uconn.edu/wiki/Main_Page

Data Library

6 people One works off site

Case Study: Event Planning

www.jotspot.com

WYSIWYG Editor

What Pages Have Changed?

See What Changed

Single Page or Side by Side

Features

Attach a File

Attachments

Import Word

Emails

Send an Email

Make a comment

Inviteusers

Changesvia RSS

Search

Wiki Reactions

Well, I wasn't sure about that wiki (sounded like something from Star Wars), but I decided to try it out. It is fabulous! Every conference should have one.

Gail Curry, UNBC

Photo by soundfromwayout

Champion

Photo by azamrashdi'

Culture Shock

Photo by Childish David

Structure

Photo by mirando

More Tips

Have a purpose Choose the right features Starts slow (snowball) Train and coach others

Lowered Barrier to Cooperation

Photo from Corey Doctorow’s Craphound

Unthinkable possible

Wiki Exercise

Identify 2 or 3 areas where a wiki web would help with collaboration and communication.

Identify some “barriers” and brainstorm how you might overcome them in your work environment.

Wiki Summary

Wikis help support collaboration Tools are simple, quick and inexpensive They belong in our collaboration toolbox Our workplaces are diverse

– Diverse users– Diverse needs– Diverse software choices

More Resources

Wiki Resources– http://library.usask.ca/~fichter/wiki/

Tools to Help You Choose

Wiki Matrix– http://www.wikimatrix.org/

Emma Tonkin’s charts in – Making the Case for a Wiki. Ariadne, January

2005http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/

Questions

darlene.fichter@usask.ca

Weblogs and Wikis Face Off

Photo Credit: Pascal Vuylsteker http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvk/

CC Attribution 2.5

Wikis Weblogs

Group voice

Unstructured, organic

Anyone edits

Fluid medium: change any time

Better management: versions, rollback and change log, syndicate changes

Less familiar

Individual voice

Default is by date, reverse chronological

Anyone comments

Post medium like email (comment, reply, comment, …)

Edits aren’t tracked usually, new items are syndicated

More familiar