What's this Wiki?

Like most of the world, I'm familiar with wikis through what I would argue is the most famous wiki of all time--Wikipedia. That's not to say that I think Wikipedia is the best or most useful wiki, but it is the most famous.

Wikipedia is a wonderful tool for keeping an instantaneous archive of accessible information. It's not always the best, most current or most correct information, and it's easily manipulated, but it is a good jumping-off point and many of our students use it that way.

Wiki's for libraries are more problematic. I think most library questions, functional, factual questions are more easily answered through a webpage or FAQ. Still, I can see one way that a wiki would truly benefit our students and their university experience. It's no secret that the OU webpage is not only a monster, it's monstrously difficult to search and return *any* relevant hits. If there was a wiki that functioned as an OU FAQ--something that could easily tell students when and where to retake their Math Placement test, how to remove a hold from their account or how to access their oak storage--I think that would be fabulously useful.

Most of the questions I field here at the library are actually questions about the university, asked by students who are frustrated at the layout and inflexibility of the OU website and their inability to find the information they need. Even as someone trained to answer their questions, I have to www.google.com/ohiou to get most of their answer--because you cannot easily find them at the website without the help of a more effective and advanced searching mechanism.

Most of the library wiki is about doing things like this--making information that library staff need but don't always access available to them in a fast, easy way. It makes sense to offer that same accessibility to our students for information they need to handle their university obligations and experience.