Help:Contents
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What's this Wiki for?
The purpose of the SLLC Wiki is to bring together the OU SLLC members in a collaborative space. This wiki is intended to facilitate the sharing of information. The information below will give an overview of how to use and contribute to this wiki. Should you need any help, please contact Chad Boeninger (boeninge@ohio.edu) with questions or comments.
What does it do?
This wiki will contain the same information found in the research guides mentioned above. In addition to the listings of books, databases, and websites, this wiki will contain how-to information. For example, I hope to have articles on how to business data, or how to find another desk assistants telephone number or schedule.
Understanding the SLLC Wiki's Organization
Because the SLLC Wiki uses the Media Wiki software, this wiki has to be organized in certain ways. Some of the organizational terminology cannot be changed, so definitions are provided below to make the wiki easier to use.
What is a category?
Categories are used to organize wiki articles by common characteristics. Categories may have subcategories, which will be more specific than the parent category in which they reside. For example, a broad category is Community Information. The link to an article's category will be at the bottom of the article, and clicking the category link will find similar wiki articles.
What is an article?
In wiki terms, "article" refers to any page that is added by a user. Articles are organized by category to make them easier to find, and to make it easier to find similar articles.
How do I find stuff in the wiki?
Browsing
There area a couple of different ways to read the SLLC Wiki. You can start by browsing the categories on the Main Page. The main categories will link to a number of subcategories. You will find articles and resources about your topic in each of the subcategories.
Searching
So what is the deal with searching the SLLC Wiki? It's got two buttons to click, so which one does what?
The "Go" Button
The "Go" Button is the default search method. If you type in a search topic and then hit the Enter key on your keyboard, the wiki will do a "Go" search. This search will search the titles of articles first, and will find any listings with the search terms in the title. For example, if you search for OhioLINK and click "Go" (or hit the enter key), the wiki entry for OhioLINK will be displayed immediately.
The "Search Button"
The "Search" button works a little differently than the "Go" button. The "search" button will search the entire full text of the SLLC Wiki. For example, by typing in OhioLINK in the search box and then clicking "Search", the database will mulitiple results. This is because it finds every mention of the word "OhioLINK" in the wiki.
Using the right search terms
The SLLC Wiki uses a fairly simple database structure, so the search interface may not be as powerful as you are used to. You do not need to add the word "and" between terms when combining terms. Also, there is not a way to only perform phrase searches in the SLLC Wiki. Also, commonly used words (and, for, of, the, and quite a few others) will be ignored by the search feature. A larger list of common stop words, or words which cannot be searched, can be found at the Meta Wiki Help page.
Adding and Editing Content
The cool thing about a wiki is that anyone can edit or add content. Such is the premise of sites like the Wikipedia, which are collaborative efforts of the community at large. It's a resource that is meant to be used, shared, and edited by all. For example, if when you are using the SLLC Wiki and find somthing that is out of date, feel free to edit it. Should you find a dead link,please correct the problem. If you find another resource on the web that you think ought to be included in this wiki, by all means, please feel free to add it.
If you are uncomfortable editing or creating content, check out the SLLC Wiki Sandbox which is a place where you can play and experiment with the wiki.
Create an account
If you would like to edit a page, you first need to Create an Account. For consistency within the community, and so we can track changes in the wiki, please user your realworld last name as you username.
Edit a page
Once you have created an account, simply click the "Edit" tab on a page that you would like to edit. This will open up the "Editing" window. Then, basically you will need to type your changes in the article. Once you have finished making your changes, click on the "Save page" button to submit your changes. Recent changes to the wiki can be tracked by clicking on the Recent Changes link on the left side of the page. For a tutorial on how to edit an existing page, please see the Tutorial on Editing Existing Pages.
Creating a new page
There are several ways to create a new page within the wiki. Below are two different scenarios. First, search the wiki to make sure that a page about your topic does not already exist. Once you are satisfied that a page covering your topic does not exist, then proceed.
Put title of page in the URL
Let's say you want to make an article in the SLLC Wiki called "Bubba Goes to Hollywood." One way to do this is simply to type the title in the address bar of your browser. If you are looking at the Main Page (the front page)of the SLLC Wiki, the URL should read "http://www.library.ohiou.edu/sllc/index.php/Main_Page." If you want to make your article called "Bubba Goes to Hollywood," simply remove the "Main_Page" from the URL and type "Bubba Goes to Hollywood" (don't use quotes) after the URL and then hit "Enter on your keyboard". The wiki software will automatically put in the underscores (_) between the words. If this is a new article, the wiki will tell you "There is currently no text in this page, you can search for this page title in other pages or edit this page.". If you click on "edit this page," you can add content and then click "Save Page" to finish creating the new page. Also, don't forget to add a category to each article. If this is clear as mud, or if you are a more visual learner, take a look at How to Create A New Wiki Page: Part 1.
Link to a new page in an existing page
If you are editing an existing page in the wiki, you may come across a term that may need it's own page. For example, if a page mentions "Bubba Jones" as a contact person, and you want to create a page for Bubba Jones, you simply need to highlight Bubba's name in the Edit window, and then click on the "Ab" link in the Editing window. This will put double brackets around Bubba. When you click "Save this page", you will be taken to your edited page. You should then notice that Bubba Jones is hotlinked in red. Clicking on the link will take you to a page that will tell you once again: "There is currently no text in this page, you can search for this page title in other pages or edit this page. You can then edit the page and add content.
Adding a Category to a Page
It is a good idea for all pages to be assigned a category. This makes the content easier to organize and find in the wiki. To add an existing category to an article, first visit the Categories Page to find an appropriate category. Once you find the category that best matches your article, simply type [[Category:the name of your category]] at the end of your newly created article. The category name is case sensisitive.
Linking to An Existing Page
If you want to link to the another page, you basically have to put the name of the page between the double brackets again. As an example the code for linking to the article about Meetings looks like this: [[Meetings]]. The name of the article is case sensitive, so if you are linking to an article with multiple words, make sure all words are spelled correctly and in the proper case.
SLLC Wiki Tutorials
Here are some tutorials that will show you how to use the SLLC Wiki. More tutorials will be created as time permits or as the need arises. Please note that while the tutorials show how to edit another wiki, the wiki in the tutorials uses the same software.
Editing Existing Pages
This guide will show you how to edit page that aleady exists in the wiki.
How to Creat A New Wiki Page: Part 1
This tutorial will show you how to use your browser's address bar to create a new wiki page.
How to Creat A New Wiki Page: Part 2
This tutorial will show you how to create a new wiki page by linking to it from an existing page.
Basic Formatting of the Wiki
This tutorial has yet to be created, but it will cover basic formatting in the wiki.
Using Categories
This tutorial has yet to be created, but it will cover how to add categories in the wiki.
