Wiki / Social Bookmarking Proposal

Implementing Wiki and Social Bookmarking Software

to Recommend Subject-specific Websites

- Pilot Proposal - 

Introduction

Dalhousie University Libraries recently unveiled its new website containing a new format for its subject guide pages.  In this current format, these subject pages allow for only five listed websites, with no immediate opportunity for users to contribute their suggestions.  This proposal will outline how either a wiki or social bookmarking software integrated within our website can provide fuller lists of subject-specific recommended websites, to which librarians, faculty and students may contribute.  It is suggested that the libraries pilot one of these tools in each of the subject guides for Sociology (a wiki) and Social Anthropology (a social bookmarking tag cloud).

Descriptions 

Wiki software allows a group of people to easily and collaboratively create a website with little or no knowledge of HTML.  These websites may be easily edited and contributed to by a community of users.

Social bookmarking tools allow users to “tag” (assign user-defined terms) items found on the internet and add these items an account that is accessible from any computer (unlike Favorites in Explorer, for example).  These items may be shared amongst users by “pushing” them to other’s accounts, or by searching tags.  RSS feeds of tag searches or of accounts may be created and embedded in webpages in the form of linkable tag lists or tag clouds (tag clouds visually emphasize which tags have been applied the most often). 

Benefits 

While librarians are constantly scanning for material useful to our patrons, most of us are not actively conducting research in our subject areas.  Students - particularly grad students - and faculty are immersed in their topics and can be invited to easily share their online resources through either a wiki or social bookmarking.  Unlike lengthy lists of the past that were maintained solely by the librarian and inevitably contained numerous dead links, these tools can be self-maintaining as users are capable of deleting or repairing links.  Discussions surrounding the recommended sites may take place on the discussion tabs within a wiki; patron notes may be added to social bookmarks.  These tools may also serve to create a network of researchers as some visibility to contributors is provided.

Evidence 

There is an abundance of literature to support the usefulness of wikis and social bookmarking tools to share online material.  Some examples are:

Amanda Etches-Johnson "The Brave New World of Social Bookmarking: Everything You Always to Know but Were Too Afraid to Ask" Feliciter

Explains social bookmarking, folksonomies, their value, and indicates the utilization of these tools to create website bibliographies.

Farkas, Meredith. "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities" Webjunction

Describes wikis and suggests library uses, including wikis as subject guides.

Rethlefsen, Melissa L. “Product Pipeline” Library Journal

Provides a more in-depth look at del.icio.us, what it can do, and what libraries are using it for, including creating web bibliographies and “push”-ing them to library patrons.

Here are some examples of libraries implementing these tools in their websites:

Ohio University Libraries Biz Wiki

This is an example of an entire subject guide residing on a wiki platform.

Penn Tags

The Library at the University of Pennsylvania have created their own tagging system.  Patrons may search the tags, contribute, or even network within a community of researchers.

Thunder Bay Public Library Internet Links Tag Cloud

A public library example of a del.icio.us account tag cloud feed embedded in their website.

Possible Issues and Solutions 

Our new website is still undergoing implementation and the full Web 2.0 capability of our new CMS, Joomla, has yet to be demonstrated.  Some assistance from the Systems department will be required to implement this pilot project and it is understood the department’s schedule is currently full.  This pilot can wait until there is available time or a minimal amount of scheduled assistance from Systems may be arranged through Administration.

Acceptance of new social software tools - It is unknown how likely students, faculty and staff will participate in the use of these “new” tools.  Using a wiki or a tag cloud to find information is very simple, but participating (i.e., adding content) requires some knowledge of the utility.  This may be ameliorated by providing a link to brief instructions or an introduction to the software.  A brief presentation to faculty may also be arranged.  Finally, if participation is low, this should not be interpreted as an indication that the tool is unsuccessful, as long as it “used” by patrons.

Spam – Spam is always an issue for participatory content.  Inappropriate content may be added to the wiki and tags may be applied inappropriately in the social bookmarking site.  Spam should be picked up through librarian- and user- maintenance (i.e., the librarian will have an RSS feed of any changes to the wiki and any new bookmarks added to the bookmark account).  The wiki may be backed-up on a regular basis and can be reverted to previous versions should spam occur.  Finally, critical evaluation of material should be fostered in our users; this is done through online tutorials and guides to evaluating websites and should be linked to these tools.  In both the wiki and the social bookmarking software, items “approved” or tagged by the librarian and faculty members may be highlighted.

Suggested Software 

MediaWiki software has already been incorporated into our CMS; therefore, it is recommended this platform be used for the wiki.  It is an excellent wiki platform as it can be modified to appear much like the rest of the libraries’ website and contains many features including discussion tabs and archived versions.  Users are also most familiar with it as it is the software upon which Wikipedia is built.

 While there are several choices of social bookmarking sites that would satisfy our requirements, it is recommended that we use del.icio.us as it is currently the most popular bookmarking site (more students will be familiar with it), content created within the account may be transferred to a new utility should we decide to switch, and it is currently under consideration to be incorporated into our OPAC. 

Policy 

The subject guide page should contain a link to a very brief policy indicating that submissions are for educational purposes only and may be edited by others, and non-related material will be deleted.

Schedule 

It is recommended that this pilot project run until the end of the Fall 2007 term, at which time feedback (in the form of an embedded poll), usage (as identified by web page statistics), and participation (as evidenced by patron contributions) should be evaluated in order to determine which social software, if either, provided excellent service.  Ongoing maintenance during this period will be in the form of librarian-monitoring through the use of RSS feeds from both utilities, as well as through continued additions. 

 Footnote: A version of Recommended Sociology Websites has already been created in PBWiki and will be converted to MediaWiki.