Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Wiki as a Research Guide

Chad F. Boeniger

Wiki as a Research Guide

  • Previously had 3 research guides
    • Business Research Guide
    • International Business Research Guide
    • Marketing Research Guide
  • Redundancy of resources
  • No interlinking
  • Multiple edits of the same content

Why a Wiki

  • Incredibly easy to add content from anywhere
  • More room for content and “nuggets”
  • Organize by categories
  • Searchable
  • Huge potential for building community

Reference Content

  • Key reference resources
  • Guides to common questions
  • Definition of Terms

Instruction Content

  • Wikis make excellent teaching tools
  • Replace class handouts
    • Easy to update
    • Always available to the student

Wiki Challenges

  • Getting others to contribute
  • More content = more maintenance
  • Maintaining organization and structure with growth of content
  • Difficult to see new content
  • Spam, Spam, and more Spam

Wiki Strengths

  • Extend the reach of the librarian
  • Make the job of the librarian easier
  • Make information and knowledge more accessible
  • Potential for contributing to the academic learning community

Lessons Learned

  • Wikis take time
  • Wikis save time
  • A Wiki can make you a better/more effective librarian

More Lessons Learned

  • Don’t be surprised if usage is different than you expected
  • Don’t expect to be “cool” because you have a wiki
  • Patrons/Community will appreciate your work

Other Wiki Experiences

  • Reference Wiki replacing our Reference Blog
  • Wiki as a campus collaboration tool for Ohio University Second Life Learning Community
  • Two librarians collaborate on a Communications subject wiki

See: The Biz Wiki

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