Tuesday, November 13, 2007

#4 Wikis

#4 Wikis: Major undertaking is the same as for any of these technologies, it is not the technology that is the issue but the effort and drive to create the content and use the information assembled.

As noted by most papers it relies on the community, rather than technology, to manage the data, Though wikis have the advantage that save copies of successive versions exist and changes are readily detected and work can be recovered.

Most of the format is pretty bland and requires planning to establish a workable structure, though there is a heavy search emphasis.

Uses include:
Subject guides
Annotating the catalog
Community wiki
Wikis for Librarians: Reference manuals, Training guides, work space for team projects

I Liked Blake's recommendations
"wiki is a simply-structured online database which stands or falls by the quality of its community. Wikis require careful planning and management in order to remain effective. In a wiki, expertise is not by default provided
Don't use a wiki :
  • Just because they are fashionable
  • For static information
  • Where delays are okay

Wikis need

Community
Planning and management
Expertise (the Wiki does not of itself create it)
Wikis suit information which
needs continual/irregular updates and can be done by many users
doesn't need to be arranged in a strict order
requires community or consensus of opinion


Positive sites
SLVTraining Wiki
Good use of the technology, encourages staff use on desk where g: drive, etc not available

http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page
Did their planning and created a sound way of delivering "resource guides" building in new books, information on databases and tips for searching plus external sites and how to search the library for information and keeping the "ask a librarian" link well to the fore - though pages tend to be a bit static and not encouraging any public participation - comments allowed, though most looks to be spam

http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
sound site to demonstrate how reference manuals can be maintained in this technology & hopefully what we can achieve with the new intranet software, which gave some excellent examples

Readings I enjoyed

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