Antioch University New England

Antioch University New England

The Antioch University New England Library Staff Training and Support Wiki was clearly designed by a librarian or a library student (many librarians love wikis). It has a table of contents in alphabetical order and comprehensively covers the information that new library staff would need to know (including how to change the vacuum bags!). This is an excellent example of a wiki facilitating staff collaboration. Wikis are an excellent way of keeping many little details organized (O’Reilly), and this wiki does just that.

I did not find a direct link between the Antioch University New England Library homepage and the the Staff Training and Support wiki, but this is not a surprise as this wiki is intended for the use of library staff, not the general public.

It was made using seedwiki, and is reasonably up to date (last updated January 2008). While this wiki does not directly fit with the library home page, since it is not intended for the public that isn’t necessary. Although well designed, the library homepage does not particularly embrace Web 2.0.

This wiki is so great it could easily serve as the model for other staff training wikis. However, it lacks the elegant design found in others, for example, The University of Minnesota Library Staff Website. However, this is merely an aesthetic, not one of functionality.

I would absolutely use this tool if I were a newly hired library staff member and even if I were not newly hired as it contains valuable reference information. Library work is very complicated, detailed, and ever-changing, and therefore a wiki is an excellent tool for keeping track of dynamic tasks, which allows multiple staff members to contribute and collaborate.

Note about seedwiki: seedwiki uses an interesting application of a wiki cloud on their homepage. They have a cloud of the wikis made using seedwiki (presumably only those who agreed) and the larger the name, the more recently it was updated!