TMI: How Creating a Library Wiki Saved Our Lives, Our Sanity, and Helped Us Manage Information

1. TMI: How Creating a Library Wiki Saved Our Lives, Our Sanity, and Helped Us Manage Information Patricia Jordan, Director Katherine Stiwinter, Public Services Librarian Spartanburg Community College

2. Then…..

3. And Now…..

5. We Needed…….Something!

8. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Naval Historical Center

9. What we wanted…a link from our brains to the computer

10. Our Needs

12. It had to be searchable and organized

15. It’s fast and easy to use.

17. Our Choice

18. Wikispaces Homepage

20. *Public Basic Wikis are also unlimited – only Private Basic Wikis are limited to 5 members.

21. = 3% 4 years + 241 pages & files

22. Implementation

23. Assign a Wiki Manager

24. Wiki Manager helps sign people up, set up notifications, and do staff training. • Account Creation • Notifications • Staff Training

25. Customize & Choose Settings

26. Public vs. Private • Choose whether to make your wiki public, private, or protected. • -we chose protected because we didn’t staff to have to log in every time they wanted to view the wiki and we figured people wont’ go looking for it. Also… • Choose whether to allow search engines to index your site (we choose no, because it’s just or us) • On paid plans - You can also create special permissions for certain pages.

27. Public vs. Private • Choose whether to make your wiki public, private, or protected. • -we chose protected because we didn’t staff to have to log in every time they wanted to view the wiki and we figured people wont’ go looking for it. Also… • Choose whether to allow search engines to index your site (we choose no, because it’s just or us) • On paid plans - You can also create special permissions for certain pages. **Not available on free plan

28. Public vs. Private • Choose whether to make your wiki public, private, or protected. • -we chose protected because we didn’t staff to have to log in every time they wanted to view the wiki and we figured people wont’ go looking for it. Also… • Choose whether to allow search engines to index your site (we choose no, because it’s just or us) • On paid plans - You can also create special permissions for certain pages.

29. Choose what license you want to have…

30. Choose your domain name.

31. Add your logo for branding.

32. Customize the Look • Choose your theme and customize the color palette to match your school (we choose the blue and gray) • Custom style sheets are available only on paid plans. **Custom Themes & Stylesheets not available on free plan

33. Customize your Color palette

34. Create content templates or customize some other screens…

35. Our Custom Content Template

36. Basic statistics provided.

37. Other than the overview, you can see pages used and members edits. Google analytics available only with the paid accounts **Google Analytics not available on free plan

38. Decide who to invite and whether they are a member or an organizer. Members do not have access to the settings page of the wiki, nor can they delete content or invite people (I believe). We went ahead and made all our full time people Organizers, but you could have just one person that could change settings, etc. You Decide Member Permissions

39. Back-Up Your Wiki / Export a Copy Create a schedule to back it up (how often) – once a semester You can also print it out as a PDF (as a sort of manual for new employees)

40. Create Policies &Procedures

41. Establish policies / rules for wiki. • What to Add • Who Adds What • Naming Conventions • Structure • Formatting • What Not to Add

42. What to Add 4 Categories

43. 4 Types of Pages #1: College Info Example: what students do with the 1098-T tax form they receive every year, or how to use SCOIS - S.C. Occupational Information System, or Kuder, where to findsylllabi, walkingtrailsaround campus, etc. Link To Wiki

44. #2: Library Info Examples: our user account names for LMS, opening & closing procedures for the library, journals that have stopped publishing in print, the discus link to databases for when library website is down. Link To Wiki

45. #3: Assignment Info Assignment Tips/Hints/Resources. It’s mostly research, but other unusual things to – also just to communicate what assignment is (because students often don’t tell us all the details). Link To Wiki

46. #4: Computer/Technology Info Example – how to add a printer, or how to delete sign in information when a student has saved it, or how to add a Youtube video to a powerpoint, D2L, email, Microsoft Office, MyMathLab, Sam, PsychSim, etc.). Link To Wiki

47. Who Adds What?

48. Wiki Member Statistics If you look at our member statistics, you’ll see that our three librarians and our computer specialist are responsible for adding the majority of the content (esp. the wiki manager). Paraprofessional staff use the wiki but do not tend to add to it – though they certainly could if they wanted to. Tech Services Librarian Computer Specialist Director / Librarian Wiki Manager / PS Librarian

49. Wiki Member Statistics It varies, from month to month, but these are the 4 that consistently contribute. This month, there were a lot more computer entries, and more entries over all. Tech Services Librarian Computer Specialist Director / Librarian Wiki Manager / PS Librarian

50. If you are creating a page about a specific assignment, please label the page with the class name, then a dash and a brief title for the assignment. Ex.- AHS 102 - Journal Summary, or ENG 101 - Human Rights Abuse.If your page is associated with a specific professor (say, that you know a professor always does such-and-such assignment), then please tag the page with the professor's name with first name and then last name. Ex.- Jenny Williams, or Cindy Alexander. (this helps when we're searching) Naming Conventions • Eng 102 – Human Rights • AHS 102 – Journal Summary • Computer Troubleshooting • Internet Browser Troubleshooting • Word – Microsoft • Excel– Microsoft