Not just a policies and procedures manual anymore: the University of Houston Music Library manual wiki.

The University of Houston (UH) Music Library is a branch of the UH Libraries and is located in the Moores School of Music. Similar to other music libraries located within music schools or departments, it enjoys a close relationship with music faculty and students. Collections and space are heavily used, especially in the area of reserves and public computing. A single service point in the branch library addresses nearly all patron needs from circulation to research help. Daytime staffing consists of two full-time librarians and two full-time-equivalent staff members. Several student assistants staff the Music Library during evenings and weekends. This makes for a fast-paced environment where all employees need to have quick access to information to provide good customer service to patrons. When considering the UH Music Library's policies, procedures, training, and communication methods, getting all staff and student assistants to find or share needed information was often difficult.

The UH Music Library's policies and procedures manual had appeared in two different manifestations in recent years. The first was in printed form, and it became unwieldy to update and keep organized. UH Music Library staff created an online version of the branch's procedures manual, which was based on a similar tool at the University of Houston's main library in order to partially remedy this. (1) This tool consisted of a frequently updated Web index of commonly-asked questions, policies, and procedures. It outlived its purpose when it became an unwieldy and unmanageable list of links. The Music Library's version experienced a similar trajectory. It worked well as an index page which initially linked to documents on the UH Libraries' intranet. Unfortunately, this version also became too long, tedious, and difficult to maintain manually. The UH Music Library also suffered from scattered communication such as e-mail list postings and notes left at the service desk. Given the UH Music Library's busy environment, a more versatile and facilitative tool was clearly needed for recording and maintaining policies and procedures.

There are many procedures and tasks that can be considered specific to music libraries: binding scores, physically processing sound and video recordings, and managing circulation details with scores and parts. Acquisitions and cataloging work flows are also a concern in some music libraries. Recent articles, presentations, and other discussions give examples and descriptions of how wikis can improve productivity and communication of policies and procedures in general library settings. These discussions also imply that wikis might be a useful way to communicate information on day-to-day operations that are particular to music libraries. With this in mind, using wikis seemed to be a logical choice for our situation at the UH Music Library.

In July 2006, the UH Music Library implemented an internal wiki to accomplish several goals: improve our policies and procedures manual; create a central location for training materials; log discussions and problems encountered within daily operations; and create a place to record data such as gate-count statistics. The main trend that emerged after observing the wiki's usage anecdotally and statistically over the course of one year (July 2006-July 2007) was that wiki pages were viewed more often than they were edited, implying that the wiki served mainly as a tool for consultation. Essentially, this article will address four things: (1) a brief literature review of wiki use in libraries; (2) how the UH Music Library used wikis as a policies and procedures manual; (3) how it branched into other uses such as student-assistant supervision; and (4) the success of the wiki over the course of the study according to a sample of usage statistics and experiences. This author hopes that considering these details will give readers a better understanding of wikis and how they may specifically benefit music libraries.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Five themes were identified in articles about using wikis in libraries: (1) common features of wikis; (2) their benefits; (3) challenges; (4) best practices; and (5) case studies similar to this present paper. This essay will briefly address these themes using a sampling of articles in order to enhance readers' understanding of wikis.

Common Features of Wikis