Union County Public Library System Wiki

When developing this wiki for the Union County Public Library system, I wanted to consider the following factors: the characteristics of the library system, what the library wiki would require and what the library ultimately wanted the wiki to do for them (inform patrons, collaborate with other libraries or be an internal portal for staff information).  Here is what I came up with:

Characteristics:

The Union County Public Library (UCPL) system serves the residents of Union County, North Carolina.  This is a largely suburban area with a population of about 213,000 residents (“State & County QickFacts,” 2014).  UCPL has four branch libraries located in Monroe, Waxhaw, Marshville and Indian Trail.  A nine member Library Board of Trustees, which server for two years, are responsible for library policies (“Our Libraries,” n.d.).

All four branches are equipped with wireless internet access and have desktop computers to offer internet access to their patrons.  Each branch also offers a robust program schedule including story time, homework help, Paws for Reading (kids read to therapy dogs), book clubs and computer classes.  

The UCPL collection comprises books, periodicals, newspapers, audio/visual material and electronic resources including databases and e-books available for download.  Genealogical research is also a significant portion of UCPL’s resources.  There are physical and digital resources and databases for patrons to access as well as classes on how to conduct genealogical resources.

Goal for Wiki:

This wiki will act as a portal or intranet for UCPL staff members to upload important job related information in order to facilitate easy access by other UCPL employees.  I would like to include a contact page with the name, branch library and extension or office number of each employee.  Other pages will include pertinent information on any current programs such as the name and number of the coordinating staff member and whether or not patrons need to register for that particular program.  I would also like an events calendar and pages dedicated to statistics (all staff members currently receive monthly statistics via email, it would be easier if there a central location that staff members could go to access this information if they needed it).  This wiki would also have page dedicated to policies and important forms and paperwork.  For example, employees could print out the weekly desk shift sign in sheets from here, eliminating the need for a few staff members to have these documents on their hard drives.   
          

Required for Library Wiki:

Yes	No
·         WYSIWYG editing capability	·         Page history
·         Hosted by someone else	·         Commercial support
·         Library’s own domain	·         Language localization
	·         Corporate branding

Selected Wiki:

After running all of my requirements through Wikiwizard, I had 19 wikis to choose from (BrainKeeper, CentralDesktop, Confluence, EditMe, Incentive, Intodit, Luminotes, MindTouch, Netcipia, Papyrs, PBwiki, SamePage, Socialtext, Wagn, Wetpaint, Wikia, Wikispaces, WordonWiki and Zoho Wiki).  I narrowed these choices even further by choosing a wiki that is free, has a calendar plug-in and is printer friendly. This left me with three choices:  Netcipia, Wetpaint and Wikispaces.

Netcipia and Wetpaint are both discontinued and Wikispaces is geared for teachers to collaborate with students.  I decided to compromise on the calendar plug-in and chose Wikia for its visual appeal and wide range of uses.

References

Union County Public Library. (n.d.).  Our libraries.  Retrieved from http://www.union.lib.nc.us/our_libraries.asp
 
United States Census Bureau. (2014). State & county quickfacts.  Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37179.html