I like one of the comments from Meredith Farkas when she says that 'the key is to use a wiki to fill a need, not to find a need for a wiki because you want to use a wiki'. There seems to be numerous occasions and reasons to use this collaboratitve tool in the library world. Angela Kile's discussion of knowledge management and libraries seem to reinforce the idea that staff and employees have much more to contribute than they have been able to previously and that everyone can gain by tapping into this knowledge that they before now did not have an acceptable outlet or platform to be exhibited. Wikis can be used internally in libraries and improve the efficiency, accuracy and consistency of information, work is carried out more effectively and with a rapid transfer of knowledge between all levels within the organisation and libraries can remain competitive and current with the constant changes in the field.
For wikis in the workplace to be successful, they need an environment where there is a high level of trust in the users and a certain amount of control when it is first set up in terms of the goal and objectives, the frequency of communication, the best technology to use, how many users will be able to edit the wiki, whether there will be a log in required and how much training staff will need to understand the use of the wiki.
Angela Kile talks about using wikis in library reference work to share knowledge about best practices in library processes and information sources. Using a wiki for frequently asked questions and as resource guides for subject librarians as well as for instruction. The Oregon Library has such an instruction wiki which appears to be new as there has been little input so far. The Biz Wiki was developed by the Ohio University Library as a specific subject resource guide.
Wikis have been described as 'conversational technology' by supporting the natural process of conversation and recording the result and updating as frequently as anyone edits a page. By their very nature wikis capture the here and now of the topic or situation in question. They are never static, ever moving and represent the latest and most current thoughts and ideas from a defined audience. To summarise this blog I like another comment from Meredith Farkas when she says that the wiki administrator needs to be a gardener
" They need to keep their rows of flowers (pages) nice and neat and organized. They need to keep constant watch on their garden to keep the weeds (spam) at bay. The more they make their garden a good environment for growth (of ideas), the more growth they will see. If you do a good job as a wiki gardener, you will eventually see the fruits of your labours'
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2 comments:
Hi Jane,
I also like Meredith Farkas comment of "fill-a-need" vs. "find-a-need". Although I agree that in some way, wikis can improve the efficiency of internal communication,I'm conservative on the internal use of wiki in libraries.The value I see of a wiki is that the more people contribute to the content editing, the more collective knowledge the wiki will gather and the more valuable the wiki will be. So I appreciate more the external use of wikis. For internal communication, a blog would be good enough.
Hi Jane,
I agree with your statement that wikis can only survive if there is trust in the community. Setting up a wiki is similar to that of a blog, we have much to consider; needs, training, cost, etc. Also, we also need to think about privacy and if we, as librarians, would erase something if it harmed another group. What would you do?
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