The St. Mary’s University
College Library wiki is for the use of faculty
and administrative staff. On this wiki you will
find information about the STMU Library Committee
and a variety of library services provided
to faculty:
To access the Library Wiki:
- click on any of the links above and log in
to go directly to the section concerned; or
- go to the tab "Log into the WIki Now!" an click on the login button in the top left corner of the page.
If you have problems logging into the Library Wiki then please consult the tab "How to log in".
What's a wiki?
A wiki is a type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites. Essentially a wiki is a type of content management system (CMS). The content managed includes computer files, image media, audio files, electronic documents and web content.
How did wikis develop?
Wiki is derived form the Hawaiian word for fast. The first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, was started by Ward Cunningham in 1994. The is some claim that its early development was inspired in part by Apple's HyperCard. This is a system that allows users to create virtual "card stacks" with supporting links between cards. Today some companies use wikis as their primary collaborative software or as a replacement for static intranets. And wikis can also be used behind firewalls and implemented with security features that are linked to an institution's or corporation's primary authentication/login protocols.
The STMU Library wiki was implemented using the open sources software package called Mediawiki. MediaWiki is a web-based wiki software application used by all projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. It was originally developed to serve the needs of development and management of the free content Wikipedia encyclopedia and other Mediawiki projects. It has also been used by corporations as an internal knowledge management solution or content management system by such companies as Novell and Intel Corporation's Intelpedia. To find out more you can consult this extensive list of examples of mediawiki in action or read about other corporate uses of wikis.
Why a wiki?
Mediawiki software is free and open source and there is a large community of programmers involved in it's development. With the pervasive use of Wikipedia, which also uses the Mediawiki platform, it's likely that this tool will be around for along time. As a CMS, the implementation of the Library Wiki functions to make various information, forms, and other documents available, inter-office and over the web, to Faculty and Administrative Staff.
The Library Wiki acts as a one stop service shop for the delivery of information & forms for Faculty and Administration. Because it is merely another website and because users are generally familiar with websites the training time required by users to access this site will be minimal. The Library wiki:
- is remotely accessible and reasonably secure;
- allows users to login and access needed information from on-campus or remotely from home, or while at an academic conference;
- bypasses the need to use a more technically demanding File Transfer Protocol to access information and documents on the STMU servers.
The Library Wiki decentralizes delivery and management of Library services and information for Library Staff. All designated staff can make updates to the site from on-campus or remotely from another location. And it reduces the need to invest in costly software support. That is, managing this site doesn't require Dreamweaver or any other WYSIWIG "html" editor.
The Library Wiki also has these following features:
- It is self-archiving and searchable. Since Mediawiki comes with a built in search engine, any documents, pages, or other uploaded files can be easily found.
- Because uploading files and documents is relatively simple, the Library Wiki acts as an archive for things like agendas and minutes for meetings. The wiki can be used to both archive and disseminate information in a timely fashion.
- It keeps track of changes and who makes them, effectively creating an ongoing log and archive of previous versions of each wiki page. This allows for open transparency in developing collaborative content.
All STMU Faculty & Administrative Staff have access to the Library Wiki.
To login to the Faculty Services Wiki:
- Use your STMU Username & Password that you use to access your STMU webmail account.
- The very first time you login make sure that the first letter of the Username is capitalized. For example in the login interface:
| type "Vladimir.popovich" NOT "vladimir.popovich" |
|
If you have trouble logging in please contact the Director of Library Services and provide your Username (but not your Password) along with a quick description of the problem you encountered. If the Director of Library Services is not available then please contact the IT Support Coordinator @ 254-3765.
