Final Project - Proposal

Proposal for Implementing an Internal Staff Wiki at Northwest Vista College

Technology to be implemented: Wiki

A wiki is an easy way to create a web page with very little technical knowledge. One need not know HTML or any other markup language. Wikis are a collaborative tool in that anyone can add or edit content on the page.

In this case I am proposing that we establish an internal staff wiki for our library. Only the staff and work-study students would have access to it and its main goal would be to improve communication between everyone in the library. All staff would benefit from this, especially the part-time staff and faculty as it would keep them updated on a daily basis of what has gone on while they may not have been there. The wiki would provide a documented record of important events within the library to keep everyone informed equally. A wiki would create a searchable, collaborative knowledge base for our library that would help us all keep up with what is going on rather than depending on word of mouth or emails.

Services to be provided by our wiki:

• Staff alerts - there would be sections for both Reference and Circulation. These alerts may include IT issues, Reference questions that are being asked repeatedly for any given week or day, meeting announcements, etc.
• Calendar - an online alternative to the printed calendar we are currently using to schedule library instruction sessions.
• Interesting Readings - section that would contain links to articles of interest and web pages.
• Collaboration - section where librarians could work together on conference presentations or publications.

Evidence supporting the implementation of a wiki in our library:

• http://liswiki.org/wiki/Wikis - a wiki which defines and gives benefits of wikis. Contains an extensive list of library wikis from the United States and all over the world.
• http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/ - Making the Case for a Wiki, an article by Emma Tonkin. This article talks about "killer applications" - software that has changed the world forever - a category which wikis most definitely fall into. The article describes uses of wikis as well as how to choose a wiki and discusses the larger issues of how wikis might fare in the future.
• http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6646 - What is a Wiki (and How to Use One for your Projects) an article by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb. This piece goes over all that is actually involved in working collaboratively on a project using a wiki to organize and write. Advantages, disadvantages and tips on how to use a wiki to work together online are given.
• https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/Staff/HomePage - University of Minnesota Libraries Staff Website - a very detailed, multi-faceted staff wiki powered by PmWiki. This wiki shows very well how much can be done using wikis for staff communication and collaboration.
• http://wiki.lib.uconn.edu/wiki/Main_Page - University of Connecticut Libraries' Staff Wiki - another example of a well-designed staff wiki that facilitates easy documentation and dissemination of important announcements. The site is powered by MediaWiki, making it have a similar format to Wikipedia.

Possible difficulties in implementing a wiki in our library:

• Staff reluctance to accept a new technology.
• Upkeep - could be difficult to establish a routine, daily entering of information.

How we could overcome these difficulties:

• Choose a wiki software that is easy to use and requires a minimum amount of training. This would help encourage staff to contribute to and use the wiki.
• By choosing a user-friendly software daily upkeep and establishment of a routine would be very easy.
• Make sure when setting up the wiki we "seed" it with information to encourage contribution.

I suggest that we use PbWiki (http://pbwiki.com/) as the software we use for our wiki. It is very easy to use and fast to set up and would allow us to provide all the services listed above. Additionally, a couple of librarians here have already started experimenting with PbWiki, which will expedite acceptance of this new technology. Also, PbWiki is hosted on the web which makes it much easier to implement - if we were to use a locally hosted software we would need to get the permission of the IT department, which would slow down significantly the immediate ability to use wikis here in the library.

In terms of how we plan to handle ongoing maintenance and future use of our wiki, I would hope that all the staff would share the responsibility of maintaining the site. Perhaps we could make maintenance of the wiki part of the daily Reference desk duties. We would also have to establish a back-up storage method for our information in case the web site goes down -fortunately PbWiki has established methods for backing up data.

There are many future uses of the wiki which we could implement once we are more familiar with the technology.We hope someday to do such things as creating a publicly viewable library wiki, using a wiki as an alternative to class handouts, using the wiki as a training tool for new hires, and posting policies and emergency procedures on the wiki.