FOLIO project

This page contains the details of a technical writing project accepted for Google Season of Docs.

Project summary

Open source organization:

FOLIO

Technical writer:

gallinita

Project name:

Expansion of End User Documentation of FOLIO Apps

Project length:

Long running (5 months)

Project description

For this project, I plan to work on creating and updating FOLIO documentation targeted at the end user. Since FOLIO is a library management system, the end user is library staff. Currently, the FOLIO wiki (https://wiki.folio.org/) contains some documentation, but it is minimal and not in a digestible format created with library staff in mind. The new documentation created out of this project will be hosted on a specific documentation knowledge base, which will be accessible from FOLIO’s apps, and contain workflows relevant to the system and its library users. An initial set of documentation will be published on the site, starting with the circulation and course reserves functionality. I would like to contribute as much as I can to the documentation over the course of this “long running” project.

In looking into the FOLIO documentation project, I spoke with Marcia Borensztajn about FOLIO’s needs and current documentation situation. As mentioned above, the FOLIO documentation needs to be updated, expanded, and reworked in order to successfully help its users. Documentation needs to be created to mirror standard library processes and, because FOLIO consists of different “apps” that work together, the system needs to be explained as a whole. Since I am a librarian, I am very familiar with the types of scenarios and workflows that FOLIO’s users will likely be going through and need help with. Marcia is working on creating the new documentation knowledge base using markdown, Git, and Hugo. From this project, new documentation on FOLIO will be created and serve as a framework for the future.