Wiki for library policies project

I’ve been working on a customized implementation of MediaWiki to use for library policies and procedures in technical services. It will be part of our public website, so it needed to fit into its design, incorporate WYSIWYG editing, and only be editable by staff with user accounts. It isn’t live yet, so here are a few screenshots from the test site.

Sample public page

Sample page when logged in

Edit screen

Mediawiki user management

I’ve been working on customizing an installation of Mediawiki for library policies. We wanted to restrict editing and upload capabilities to only a certain group of users. Here is the code I added to the LocalSettings.php file to achieve what we needed.

# Prevent new user registrations except by sysops
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;

# Only sysop users can edit pages
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['edit'] = true;

# Only sysop users can upload files
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['upload'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['upload'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['upload'] = true;

# Only sysop users can reupload (replace) files
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['reupload'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['reupload'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['reupload'] = true;

Here are a few webpages I found useful when researching how to configure the settings:

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:User_rights
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Preventing_access
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Configuring_file_uploads

Wiki at Work: Implementing a Wiki in Reference Services poster

Here is a pdf of the poster I presented at the ALA conference last weekend. I’ve included a little bit of the text from the poster here as background on the project.

Reference Showcase
Last year, the Reference and Information Services department at the Perry Castaneda Library piloted a new forum for sharing knowledge across all branches of the University of Texas Libraries called the Reference Showcase. This forum was created for public service staff to share information in a timely fashion about assignment-related resources, new databases, research tips, and more. The Reference Showcase forums were intended to be informal, in-person gatherings with brief presentations.

Problem
Because it is not possible for all public service providers to come together on a regular basis for the Reference Showcase due to scheduling conflicts and other obligations, an online solution was needed to provide staff members with long-term access to the knowledge shared at these meetings.

Project Objective
This wiki was created as a repository for the knowledge and information shared at Reference Showcase forums to provide public service staff members with long-term access to time-saving approaches and other valuable information. In addition, I created this wiki to fulfill my capstone project requirement with UT’s School of Information. My field supervisor for the project was Jenifer Flaxbart and my faculty advisor was Dr. Loriene Roy.

Development Process (January – May 2006)

1. Software selection
   • Open source software or hosted solution?
   • Chose PmWiki, open source software, to be installed on a UT Libraries’ server
2. Open forum to get initial input from future users
   • Introduced the project, its purpose and scope, and solicited feedback
3. Created website structure, wrote help pages, created indexes, and implemented additional functionality (extensions)
   • Incorporated feedback from open forum
4. Test group – five future users
   • Demonstrated wiki at an in-person meeting and solicited feedback then and over the next few weeks
5. Made changes based on test group feedback and added twenty sample entries
   • Content received from librarians and reference listservs
6. Instruction session
   • Open to all public service providers at the UT Libraries
   • Brief presentation of the project, wiki demonstration, hands-on training, and Q&A
7. Training for wiki administrator

Conclusions
The UT Reference Wiki content will change dramatically over the next few months. An existing internal resource called the “Assistance Guide” will be added to the wiki. The Assistance Guide contains more factual answers to frequently asked questions at the reference desk. Public service providers at UT want a one-stop, searchable resource, so the two resources will be integrated.

Wiki at Work poster

UT Reference Wiki

At last – my capstone project is complete! (well, almost) I presented my project to the iSchool last Tuesday and had an instruction session on the wiki for the UT Libraries a couple weeks ago. Here it is: wiki.lib.utexas.edu

What is the UT Reference Wiki? It's a collaborative resource for public service providers at the UT Libraries. That includes librarians, staff, GRAs, and interns across all branches. The wiki is going to be used as a repository for starting points for research, best resources for certain types of common questions, assignment related resources, general research tips and techniques, updates on new and existing resources in the collection, and more.

WebJunction wiki

WebJunction recently set up a wiki. There’s not much there yet, but it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

WikiMatrix – wiki feature comparison tool

I recently checked out the new WikiMatrix site. It’s a nifty tool that lets you select different wiki software and compare their features. Apparently it originated with the comparison table that was located on the DokuWiki site. The feature comparison interface is clean and easy to read, although it might be nice to see features that rate the ease of installation, maintenance, etc. The WikiMatrix site also includes a discussion forum for people to talk about wiki engines.