By University Archivist, Steve Bookman
While Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) is offering limited appointments for the ODU community only, we are still open virtually to answer any reference questions you may have about our collections! One of the ways you can find out information from our archives remotely is through our Special Collections and University Archives Wiki page. Here you can find frequently asked questions and quick facts about ODU’s history. You can browse by popular topics such as athletics, buildings and grounds, events, and student life, or you can use the search bar at the top of the page. Although not a complete history of ODU, entries are added on an ongoing basis, so please check back periodically as new information is added.
In the past, archival repositories have answered reference questions, and once they have been answered, unless it is written down, the information is lost. To reduce the need to answer the same questions repeatedly, we created the Special Collections and University Archives wiki as a knowledge base to store answers to those questions. As a result, more information is shared with researchers and our archivists do not spend as much time on reference questions as in the past.
The wiki was produced using a WordPress theme called WikiWP as well as the Posts in Page and Table of Contents Plus plugins. These plugins and them make the WordPress page look and feel more like a Wikipedia page. With these helpful tools, anyone can create a similar wiki website to store useful and helpful information.