Wikis in Action: A Wiki as a Research Guide

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Wikis in ActionA Wiki as a Research Guide

• Chad F. Boeninger
• Computers in Libraries
• March 22, 2006

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What is a Wiki?

• A website in which content can be created and
  edited by a community of users
• Best example is Wikipedia
• Strength of the resource is often dependent on
  the strength of the community

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Traditional Research Guides

• Research guide subject guide pathfinder
• Popular method of disseminating library
  information
• Previously had 3 research guides
• Business Research Guide
• International Business Research Guide
• Marketing Research Guide

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Traditional Research Guides

• Redundancy of resources
• No interlinking
• Multiple edits of the same content
• Not searchable
• No way to measure use
• Timely updates are difficult

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The Wiki Process

• Installed MediaWiki on our server
• Added most useful content from old research
  guides
• Wiki organization evolved while adding content

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The Biz Wiki
http//www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/

• Organized by area of research need
• Browse by category or alphabet
• Searchable by keyword
• Users can edit/add content
• Interlinked articles allow for increased access
  to information

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Reference Content

• Key reference resources
• Guides to common questions
• Definitions of terms
• Examples
• Demographics USA
• Doing Business in Another Country
• Company Annual Reports

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What About the Catalog?

• Library catalog entry for Exporters
  Encyclopaedia
• Biz Wiki article for Exporters Encyclopaedia

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Instruction Content

• Wikis make excellent teaching tools
• Replace class handouts
• Broader scope than class specific handouts
• Example Industry Research Basics

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On the Fly Content
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On the Fly Content

• Answered reference email question
• Similar question via IM
• Used content of previous question to create wiki
  article
• Answer is out of email and on the web
• Easier future access to information

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Popular Pages Feature

• Popular Pages
• See what is being used
• Useful for collection development
• See what you need to create more of
• Automobile Industry Guide

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Creating Content

• Create an article
• Link to the article from another article
• Assign a category for the article

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Measuring Use
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Biz Wiki Usage

• 1 24576 Academic Search Premier
• 2 6875 Lexis-Nexis Academic
• 3 3770 ERIC
• 4 3712 Business Source Premier (BSP)
• 5 3378 PsycINFO
• 6 2327 BIOSIS Previews
• 7 2325 Business and Industry
• 8 2063 Education Abstracts
• 9 1970 JSTOR
• 10 1757 Science Citation Index Expanded

• 11 1704 Factiva
• 12 1659 Medline (1966 to the present)
• 13 1364 General Science Full Text
• 14 1356WorldCat
• 15 1313 Biz Wiki
• 16 1294 RefWorks
• 17 1271 Hoover's Online
• 18 1229 Communication Mass Media Complete
• 19 1210 Oxford English Dictionary
• 20 1195 AnyWho Directory
• January 1-March 2, 2006

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Feedback on the Wiki

• You werent around, so I showed them the Biz
  Wiki Guide to Doing Business in Another Country,
  and they were satisfied.--Reference Librarian
• I had no idea how to find a swot analysis, so I
  just searched for swot in the Biz Wiki, and low
  and behold, you had an article on finding a SWOT
  analysis. ---Reference Librarian

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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
• MySQL stop words (SIC)

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Wiki Strengths

• Extend the reach of the librarian
• Promote sources
• Teach research skills
• Make the job of the librarian easier
• Easy to add and edit content

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More Wiki Strengths

• Make information and knowledge more accessible
• Content is more timely
• Potential for contributing to the academic
  learning community

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Future of Wikis

• Wiki/Blog/RSS workshops
• Promote feedback mechanisms of the wiki
• Gather input from users (librarians, students,
  faculty)
• Record usage of library resources

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More Wiki Ideas

• Student Research Wikis
• First-year experience wiki
• Campus collaboration
• Multi-disciplinary subjects (Latin American
  Studies/Womens Studies/Film)

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Other Great Wikis

• SJCPL Subject Guides
• Butler Reference Wiki

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Special Thanks

• Alden Library Reference Staff
• Alden Library Systems Staff
• Numerous Library Bloggers
• Ohio University Business researchers

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Questions??