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January 19, 2008
Wikis for Library Subject Guides
There's a wide variety of ways to use wikis in libraries. In general, while wikis are handy any time you want to get some web pages up quicky, they're especially efficient when you have more than one person collarborating on content.
In her blog, Information Wants To Be Free, Meredith Farkas describes how she used MediaWiki to resurrect, and re-tool the library's subject guides.
Meredith point out the value of the subject guide's task-based emphasis:
Probably my favorite part of the subject guides is the focus on how-to’s. More general subject guides are great, but usually students are trying to accomplish something more specific. They’re not doing “architecture research” — they’re looking for information on a specific building or architect or design style. They’re not doing “English research” — they’re looking for literary criticisms, book reviews, etc. That’s why I think a task-based orientation works so much better than a subject-oriented one. The majority of the questions we get at the desk are from students trying to do the same few things and now we have guides that address those specific things that students are trying to accomplish.
If you're doing hard copy pathfinders and research guides, consider a wiki as an alternate format. People always know where to find them, you kill fewer trees, they're more interactive, and they're easy to update and maintain. You might also want to create short bibliographies or "handouts" as a way to support your training sessions and provide information on a as-needed basis. How about using wikis to house and organize FAQ's? Or to collect information when you're collaborating with others on a research project?
MediaWiki, best known as the platform for Wikipedia, is Meredith's tool of choice. I've used MediaWiki, and wasn't wild about it because the lack of WYSIWYG editing made it cumbersome to use, and cumbersome is the exact the opposite of what you're going for in a wiki. Rumor has it that WYSIWYG is under development.
If you can't install wiki software locally, you can use one of many hosted wiki services, such as PBWiki. Just make sure not to store confidential information there. They can be password protected, but I still doubt your tech people would consider that adequate. See the WikiMatrix for help in choosing the right tool for your environment.
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