From forgotten intranet to successful wiki

Communication within an academic library can be challenging. The collective nature of wikis and their ability to allow multiple people to edit them have made wikis an ideal technology to help address communication issues within organizations. A successful wiki implementation can help to improve communication issues, but only if staff adopt the new technology. University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) libraries implemented an internal staff wiki in 2007 to replace the staff intranet. Information routinely stored on the wiki includes meeting minutes and committee work, policies and procedures and training materials. This paper illustrates the implementation process by providing an overview of the transition with a focus on what went right and what pitfalls were encountered. Best practices will be presented to illustrate how to successfully implement a wiki that library staff willingly reference and edit, concluding with recommendations for maintaining the wiki after implementation.