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

1. Answered reference email question
2. Similar question via IM
3. Used content of previous question to create wiki
   article
4. Answer is out of email and on the web
5. 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??