Baruch College, Newman Library, Room 135

November 4, 2005, 2 pm-4 pm

Members in Attendance:

Alexandra de Luise, Queens
Robert Farrell, Borough of Manhattan CC
Erleen Harris, Medgar Evers
Charles Keyes, LaGuardia CC
Sandra Marcus, Queensborough CC
Keith Muchowski, City Tech
Susan Voge, Lehman

Charles and Robert led in the discussion and demonstration of wikis in room 135.
Charles created a wiki site expressly for this meeting, at: lacunyinstruction.seedwiki.com. For the majority of members present, this was their first introduction to wikis.

A wiki is software that functions as a web editor to create web content. It is very easy to use and edit, add to- and remove information since anyone who can access it on the Web can change the information. Unlike a BlackBoard site, a wiki is an open site where anyone with the url address can come in and see/edit the site. And while most blogs are written to express one person's thoughts or opinions, a wiki is open to the community to express their ideas and can be used as a tool for encouraging collaborative work and knowledge building. LaGuardia uses wikis at the reference desk. One can go in and start threads of discussions on various topics or report a missing book, etc.

Charles uses a wiki for his credit course. He demonstrated how he created a personal space on his wiki for each of his students to write something about a bibliographic assignment he assigned. This exercise allows students to read each others comments and thus hopefully stimulate them in the research process.

A wiki can generate "discussion momentum" and it is the hope of the chairs of this committee that the wiki will be used to discuss topics of member interest, elaborate opinions/issues brought up at meetings, create areas of fucus for future meetings, and create a knowledge base that could be of assistance to all CUNY Librarians.

Members were also interested to learn about RSS Feeders. An RSS Feed scans a particular web site of interest and feeds updates from that site to the users Web space or Blackboard area. RSS can track anything of interest, such as a news topic, and flash the latest headlines on that topic to one's homepage. Charles showed how he uses it in his credit course and how it can be useful to demonstrate what quality websites look like.

Members also discussed the viability of credit bearing info. lit. courses and the benefits that occur when such courses are integrated into the curriculum rather than stand-alone. At LAGCC, the one-credit IL course is being piloted in the Allied Health First Year Experience Academy program which clusters a specific cohort of students academically and socially. It was felt that the students really needed access to the information literacy content that the course provides.

An assignment for committee members is to continue with the wiki and to write their opinions about one shot classes versus credit courses (also the topic of discussion on a recent ILI-L listserv that Charles distributed via email).

The next meeting will take place on Dec. 9 at Hunter College Library, room 609 at 12 noon.

Submitted by:

Alexandra de Luise & Charles Keyes
Co-Chairs