Background
Smyrna Public Library, a suburban Atlanta public library, serves a diverse community of 52,000 people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). The library's annual budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year is $646,188, a slight increase from the previous year's figure (Howard & Klosterboer, 2012). The staff, which includes eight full-time and five part-time employees (Howard & Klosterboer, 2012), could use a free or low-cost public wiki. This site would allow staffers and patrons to share helpful resources, reading lists, subject guides, and details about library services.
Requirements
I considered the following criteria from WikiMatrix (2013):
- Page history: Library employees would want to see what changes have been made over time.
- WYSIWYG: The interface should be intuitive so patrons and staffers with little technical knowledge can easily update pages.
- Commercial support: While this isn't a necessity, I wanted to keep the option open.
- Remote hosting: There's no need for the library to host the wiki on its own server.
- Domain: A custom domain name isn't necessary, as long as the site is linked from the library's webpage. A subdomain on the wiki provider's domain would work just as well.
- Branding: Branding is the key to maintaining a professional appearance. This is especially important if the wiki doesn't share the same domain name as the library's main site. With proper branding and design, users may not even notice that the wiki is off-site.
The verdict
The wizard returned 12 results, from which I chose Wikispaces. Although a basic wiki is free, the library probably would benefit from upgrading to the $5-a-month plan that allows unlimited members, up to 2 gigabytes of storage and custom themes (Wikispaces, 2013).
Have you used a Wikispaces wiki before? What did you think about the company's services?
References
Howard, T. J., & Klosterboer, K. A. (2012). City of Smyrna, Georgia: Annual financial plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.smyrnacity.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2798
U.S. Census Bureau. (2011). Smyrna (city), Georgia [Data]. State & County QuickFacts. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/1371492.html
WikiMatrix. (2013). Wiki choice wizard. Retrieved from http://www.wikimatrix.org/wizard.php
Wikispaces. (2013). Pricing. Retrieved from http://www.wikispaces.com/content/pricing
I have used wikispaces before, but only as a professional development tool. It was easy to use and update. I currently use pbworks at the library I currently work at; I prefer pbworks. There storage capacity is larger and the layout is easier to understand and use. But for a library as small as Smyrna I would imagine wikispaces would work just as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! I haven't worked much with wikis, although my husband and I did make a silly one about Mafia games using Wikia. I'll have to play around with some different platforms when I get a chance!
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