# 11 (Week 5) Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content.

Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. With the benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding. Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
  
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
  
• Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
  
• And users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are pathfinder or subject guide wikis, book review wikis, conference wikis and even library best practices wikis.

Discovery Exercise (#11):

1. Look at these resources to learn more about wikis:

• What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation


• Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.

2. Have a look at a Youtube video demonstrating wikis, by Commoncraft videos.

3. Take a look at some library wikis - here’s a few examples to get you started:

• SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system
• Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library
• Library Success: A best practices wiki
• Other library wiki examples

4. Create a blog post about your findings - What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

5. Use your gmail account to email northshorelibraries@gmail.com with a link to your blog. Please put Exercise #11 in the Subject Heading.