#15 What exactly is a wiki….

Wiki! Wiki! Wiki! A fun simple word that is fun to say fast and over and over again.

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring toll that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open encyclopedia that anyone can update, is the largest and perhaps most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. With the benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools are expanding.

Some of the benefits include:

• Anyone can add, edit or delete content. (Users can be registered, unregistered, unrestricted and restricted. Many layers to ensure the right people are editing the wiki.)
• Tracking tools within wikis allow users to easily keep up on what has been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page are archived, and can be restored if needed.
• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. A simple syntax structure is used, (and very easy to learn!)

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country 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 best practice wikis.

Discovery Resources:
Use these resources to learn more about wikis.

• Wikis’: A beginner’s look - an excellent short slide presentation that offers a short introduction and examples
• 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

Discovery Exercise:

1. For this discover exercise, you are asked to take a look at some library wikis and blog about your findings and thoughts. Here’s a handful of wikis 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
   • 2008 Midwinter ALA Meeting Wiki
   • Library Success Wiki
   • The Bull Run Library wiki
   • Other library wiki examples
2. Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

So, what’s in a wiki? Find out by exploring and discovering this knowledge management tool!!