Library Success Wiki

A Knowledgebase for the Profession

Wikimania 2006

Meredith Gorran Farkas
Norwich University
mfarkas at norwich dot edu

http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wikimania/
August 5 , 2006

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• Librarians are not great at sharing their success stories
• Where does a new librarian go to get ideas and learn from other people's successes?
• Current methods for sharing success stories and good ideas
• Word of mouth
• Professional literature
• Conferences
• E-mail lists
• Blogs

[image source]

Spam protection

• Started with a blacklist
• Got hammered by spam
• Bad behavior plugin

Organizational schemes and seeding the wiki

• People don't know what to add to a blank slate
• Gives people an idea what sort of content they should put there, even if there is no "should."
• Wikis can get really messy
• Categories and hierarchies

 

1. Very little marketing was done

2. Via my blog

3. Approaching people with Web-based collections that are out-of-date

4. Encouraging people to create their own topics

 

 

Like a garden, wikis don't maintain themselves

Two ways to manage a wiki: community management model or wiki gardener model.

• Planting the seeds
• Keeping the garden rows orderly (keeping the wiki organized)
• Killing weeds (spam)
• Many hands make light work (find helpers!!!)

 

Great! Front page had 109,099 views as of July 26, 2006.

Many very well developed pages.

• Web Browser Extensions
• Gaming
• Recommending Books
• Librarians who IM

People adding collections

• Services for Teens
• PLA TechNotes
• Web4Lib Manager's Reference Center (coming soon!)

People adding stuff bit by bit as they discover interesting things or have ideas.

• Start the wiki as a group or find some dedicated helpers
• Have documentation for wiki novices
• Be prepared for lots of questions
• Get spam protection (you may need to update it regularly)
• Stay on people's radar
• Have patience!
• Keep track

 

[image source]

Meredith Gorran Farkas
Distance Learning Librarian
Norwich University
mfarkas at norwich dot edu
AIM: librarianmer
Information Wants To Be Free

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slides | printable