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The aim of this case study is to provide valuable insight into the selection, implementation and upkeep of a library staff wiki for libraries considering how to better manage information and improve communication, especially at libraries with multiple desks, shifts and locations.

Spartanburg Community College (SCC) evaluated the library’s needs and selected Wikispaces in this case study. A wiki manager was designated, who completed the initial set up, trained staff, wrote policies and procedures and delegated maintenance activities. Library staffs were surveyed about how they used the wiki and what its impact has been on their experience.

The library staffs report that they refer to the wiki quiet often in their time at the desk and that it has had an extremely positive impact on their service. The designation of a wiki manager was a key in keeping the wiki up-to-date and viable. The careful consideration of policies and procedures, including structure, format and naming conventions, has also contributed to the continued viability of the wiki as it has grown. The wiki has improved communication among staff and allowed for more consistent service to patrons.

This case study outlines best practices that were important in creating SCC’s library staff wiki, which has proved an invaluable tool to the library staff at both service desks and at all library branches.

This chapter provides researchers and practitioners with guidelines for employing wikis to foster collaboration and active learning within and between student teams in higher educational settings. The core function of a wiki is to facilitate learner interaction with content. Such engagement is critical whether the course's instructional delivery environment is primarily face-to-face or web-based. Instructors encourage shared understanding through a spirit of investigation that embraces greater collaboration in the process. Collaboratively building knowledge about one content area by dialoguing with peers and negotiating importance in order to present the information in a meaningful way to the public is the strongest aspect of a wiki. To illustrate this, five case studies are detailed ranging from individual wikis to group consensus wikis in undergraduate and graduate-level courses, delivered in blended (i.e., hybrid combinations of face-to-face and online) and online asynchronous environments. As a whole, these studies support that wikis are not the single answer to all problems associated with collaboration and shared-knowledge in any learning situation, but they are a powerful lens for greater clarity in issues of student engagement and may lead to improved performance for diverse learners. Various experts add their views to those of the authors of this chapter; that to be effective, instructors must design purposeful engagement that embraces communication, cooperation and collaboration, active learning, feedback, and respect for differences. Likewise, students must be informed of the value of such engagement and have positive wiki models presented early in their online experiences.

This literature review explores the academic material comprising applications, cases, courses, and classroom-based research in higher education where wiki tools appeared as an instructional technology. The authors define and describe the wiki concept, outlining a framework for wikis deployed as instructional technology tools. Additionally, analyses and syntheses of the findings are described from an interdisciplinary research literature search across many fields, along with a number of illustrative, exemplary cases demonstrating the application of this tool to teaching and learning. The authors also identify research evidence that outlines the benefits and strengths offered by new wiki technologies, while highlighting challenges, weaknesses, and issues encompassing their application in courses. The authors also outline numerous theories of learning that can be associated with wiki work; new forms of wiki-based learning; patterns of wiki technology use; characteristics of learners using wikis; and the changing role of teaching and teachers who instruct with wikis. Finally, we conclude with a summary of the findings and suggested future directions for studying wikis in higher education (HE). Although no broad, definitive prognosis yet exists that can point to a cause–effect relationship between the application of wikis and increases in learning, a significant body of evidence has emerged that suggests that wikis positively stimulate the learning environment and increase the collaborative capabilities of learners when applied to course work.

Teachers have recently started to introduce wikis into their courses. However, comparatively few studies have looked at the actual experiences of students who are engaged in building a wiki community for a particular course. To address this limitation, this exploratory self-report study examined student experiences with using a wiki in an upper-level undergraduate course on media effects, their reflections on functioning as a member of this wiki community, and their overall satisfaction with taking this kind of a “hybrid” or “blended” course. Results show that students enjoyed learning about media effects by collaboratively building their wiki community, but were critical about the structure of the hybrid course.

Purpose — The purpose of this study is to describe the development of contents, visibility and use of two Library 2.0 services, Häme-Wiki and the Virtual Path map service, launched by Hämeenlinna City Library and based on crowdsourcing, service convergence and the application on Web 2.0 technology.

Design/methodology/approach — The development of the contents of the services were analysed by observing the increase in articles and other items published in them. The interest in these sites and their use were studied by the number of their contributors, users and downloads and by link analysis concerning inbound links. To gather users’ experiences, a Web survey was directed to the registered users by e-mail. A questionnaire for all users was linked to the front page of both services. Qualitative theme interviews were conducted with the staff of Hämeenlinna City Library to elicit their experiences concerning the use of the services and their impact on the work community.

Findings — The reception of the services was evidenced by the daily increasing number of published articles and maps, also indicating crowdsourcing. Their use was clearly described by the increasing download figures and inbound links. Both services offered users information not available elsewhere.

The study is limited by the low number of responses in the Web surveys.

Practical implications — Practical implications originate from the concrete examples of content sharing, crowdsourcing and service convergence which have not been much studied in library context.

Originality/value — The practical implications of the work also contribute to the value of the paper for developers of Web 2.0 services and service convergence.

Wikis have emerged as an important Web 2.0 technology for facilitating collaboration in organizations. Although researchers have begun to analyze their use in organizations and develop metrics to study their usage, there has been limited statistical analysis of use data. In addition, much of the empirical analysis of wikis is based on Wikipedia. This paper mitigates those limitations in the literature by examining data generated from a large consulting organization, Accenture, to statistically analyze the relationships between different use variables.

This study aims to examine users’ experiences and perceptions associated with the use of two wiki variants in the context of collaborative learning and knowledge management in higher education.

Participants included two groups of postgraduate students from a university in Hong Kong who used MediaWiki (n=21) and TWiki (n=16) in completing course requirements. Using a multiple case study approach and a mixed methods research design, data logs on the wiki platforms were downloaded and the contents were analysed. Students’ perceptions were examined through a survey.

The findings indicate that both wikis were regarded as suitable tools for group projects, and that they improved group collaboration and work quality. Both wikis were also viewed as enabling tools for knowledge construction and sharing.

This study provides insights that may inform the decisions of educators who are considering the use of wikis in their courses as a platform to enhance collaborative learning and knowledge management.

Previous research has shown that wikis can be effectively used in education. However there are a number of wiki variants and it may be difficult to identify which variant would be the best choice. There is a dearth of research comparing the effectiveness of different types of wikis. This study compares two wiki variants on a number of outcomes which may provide some insights to teachers who are in the process of selecting an appropriate wiki for teaching and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Wiki and its influence on the anxiety produced during cross-cultural web-based collaborative learning sessions.

In total, 49 high school students participated in transnational collaborative learning and engaged in a one-month Google Wiki activity. A transnational collaborative learning anxiety inventory was used to measure the anxiety of the participants, which included the dimensions of social anxiety, foreign language anxiety, and computer anxiety. In addition, platform usage records were compiled using Google Wiki user records and participation process checklists. Relative data derived from these two items were compared with the questionnaire data.

The results indicated that participants who had experience with Wiki transnational collaborative learning exhibited significantly reduced SA and FLA. Participation process and user records revealed that embedding videos; responding to content created by others; proofreading and editing the content of others; updating layouts; underlining text, changing the font, and color coding; and increasing the number of edits reduced FLA. The number of times edits and responses were produced was correlated with decreases in SA.

The causes and effects of transnational collaborative learning have concurrently received attention. However, studies on Wiks and their impact on the anxiety produced during cross-cultural Web-based collaborative learning are limited. Therefore, Google Wiki was used in this study as the medium through which the effects of Wiki participation on anxiety resulting from transnational collaborative learning were explored.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the benefits and challenges of using a wiki as an intranet/content management system in a company.

Combined with elements of action research, a longitudinal case study of implementing a wiki in a department of a Slovenian company was conducted. Interviews, surveys and a log analysis were used for the data collection. The Delone and McLean information systems success model was the underlying theoretical approach to explore the information, systems and service quality.

While a wiki may bring important benefits and change to a company's information/knowledge management, the main challenges remain the same as with earlier technological solutions. Additional problems arise due to cultural issues, the lack of control over quality and the fact that service quality largely depends on the users.

A single case study within one company was conducted.

The findings are important for any manager or developer intending to implement a wiki as an intranet solution as they identify and classify potential challenges.

As one of the first longitudinal case studies of implementing a wiki, several new challenges of Web 2.0 applications and of creating online environments for knowledge sharing are identified, while well‐studied problems concerning other projects seeking to develop information systems also apply. A novel extension to the Delone and McLean model is proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of local studies collections and contributions from local studies librarians to a Norwegian local history wiki.

The paper focuses on access to metadata in the form of bibliographies, databases and catalogues, in addition to general articles on local history. The methodological approach is qualitative and comparative based on semi‐structured interviews with librarians in charge of local studies collections and with the administrators of the wiki. The study includes an analysis of a selection of local studies collections and criteria for inclusion into the local history wiki. A short comparison with history wikis in other countries is added.

Local studies collections contain valuable and unique material for the wiki, especially metadata resources. The expertise of librarians could increase the value of the wiki. Generally, librarians are not active contributors. Strategies for involvement are needed.

The paper may encourage and inspire local studies librarians to contribute actively to the wiki and incorporate relevant parts of their collections.