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