Choosing Wiki Software

A wiki is a type of website that allows users to add and alter the content of it. The best and most famous example of a wiki is Wikipedia. Over the past couple of days I have been researching wiki software in order to find a good fit for my library. My library serves a middle level research university with around 32,000 students. There are 250 degree programs offered in eight colleges. We have students working towards bachelor’s, master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees. With this varied group of students, a library wiki can be shared meeting ground for communication and help with research.

Wikis are meant for collaborations. They can have a number of uses. Wikipedia gathers and spreads knowledge. Other wikis serve as a forum to brainstorm ideas. Currently, my library has an internal wiki that is used for collaborating on projects, papers, and committee work. The new wiki that I am proposing will be for the students at my university. It will contain library guides and other resources added by the subject librarians. For a better idea of what I'm proposing look at what Ohio University Libraries are doing with their business wiki. I would like to do something similar except for more subject areas.

Courtesy of Mediawiki.org

I chose MediaWiki. This software is both free and open source. It is also a popular choice for wiki software amongst libraries. MediaWiki has a number of basic features including support for unicode and 140 interface languages, a rss feed for recent changes, theme and skin changes, section editing, editing preview, a way to avoid editing conflicts, and it is printer friendly. Users can be notified of content changes by email which is a useful feature for letting students know information has been added to library guides.

MediaWiki also allows for embedded flash and video along with graphics and sound. Videos showing students how to navigate the website for specific resources can be added to the wiki by subject librarians. Each article has a talk page that students can use to discuss issues, ask questions or make comments. A chat box can be added to the wiki so students can ask for help directly. Forums can also be added. MediaWiki allows you to add a calendar that can contain library hours, reference desk hours, or the hours a specific subject librarian is available to chat.

You can check out the list of features for MediaWiki at WikiMatrix or visit their site to read more about it: MediaWiki.org.