Welcome to LibraryWikis!

LibraryWikis is a wiki about wikis used in libraries.  It is a place for learning about and sharing examples of wikis in libraries.  The wiki is a companion to a forthcoming research article to be published within the September 2007 issue of Information Technology and Libraries.  The author of the wiki is Matthew Bejune, Assistant Professor of Library Science, Purdue University Libraries, and Doctoral student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He can be reached at mbejune@purdue.edu.

You are invited to contribute to this wiki by editing or creating new pages.  To do, click Edit Page or Create a New Page.  You will be asked for a password which is: LWcontrib.

About the Article

Citation: Bejune, Matthew M. (2007). Wikis in Libraries. Information Technology and Libraries, 26(3), 27-39.

Wikis have recently been adopted to support a variety of collaborative activities within libraries. The article and the companion wiki, LibraryWikis (), seeks to document the phenomenon of wikis in libraries. This subject is considered within the framework of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The author identified thirty-three library wikis and developed a classification schema with four categories:

1. Collaboration between Libraries (45.7 percent);

2. Collaboration between Library staff (31.4 percent);

3. Collaboration between Library Staff and Patrons (14.3 percent);

4. Collaboration between Patrons (8.6 percent).

Examples of library wikis are presented within the article, as is a discussion for why wikis are primarily utilized within categories I and II and not within categories III and IV. It is clear that wikis have great utility within libraries, and the author urges further application of wikis in libraries.

Categorization of Wikis

Wikis are categorized in four groupings.  Examples of each category can be found by following the four links.  If you know of another example of a library wiki, add it to one of the categories.  To do, click Edit Page.  You will be asked for a password which is: LWcontrib.

1. Collaboration between Libraries
2. Collaboration between Library Staff
3. Collaboration between Library Staff and Patrons
4. Collaboration between Patrons

Presentation at 2007 ALA Annual, Washington D.C.

I made a presentation about Wikis in Libraries at the RUSA MARS President's program, 2007 ALA Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.  Here are my slides:

bejune_2007_ALA_Annual.ppt

Wiki Links

A list of articles and links to resources about wikis can be found here: Wiki Links