Blogs Camille Andrews & Aaron Suggs January 2006.
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Transcript of Blogs Camille Andrews & Aaron Suggs January 2006.
Blogs
Camille Andrews & Aaron SuggsJanuary 2006
Overview
What are Blogs? Examples How to Find Blogs
How to Blog Blogger Wordpress
Who’s blogging or reading blogs?*
Approx. 8 million American adults say they have created blogs
Blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users
12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs
62% of internet users do not know what a blog is You will be part of the 38%
* Rainie, Lee. ”The State of Blogging.” (2005) Pew Internet and American Life http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp
What are Blogs?
"Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what's new page, or links to other web sites."
Scott, Peter. (2001) “Blogging: Creating Instant Content for the Web.” Internet Librarian 2001, Pasadena, CA http://library.usask.ca/%7Escottp/il2001/definitions.html
Blog titlePost date (in reverse chrono-logical order) and title
Links, Previous posts, or Blogroll
ArchivesPost and links to other sites/blogs
Comments
What kinds of blogs are there? Pundit, news, and political blogs (“citizen
journalists”)
Personal journals and diaries For fun For personal and professional development
Business/corporate blogs
What kinds of blogs are there? Organizational and project blogs (including blogs for
communities of interest and practice)
For professional development For organizational knowledge management
Not all text-based: Picture, audio (podcasting), and video (screen or vodcasting)
What kinds of blogs are there? For libraries
Librarian blogs Personal and professional development Issue and resource tracking
The Shifted Librarian-http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/
Librarian.net-http://www.librarian.net/
ResourceShelf-http://www.resourceshelf.com/
ResearchBuzz-http://www.researchbuzz.org/
What kinds of blogs are there? For libraries
Library blogs For external community (news, marketing, resources) For internal community (intranet, committee, project)
Georgia State University-http://www.library.gsu.edu/news/
UThink at UMinn-http://blog.lib.umn.edu/
Thomas Ford Memorial Library Staff Exchange-http://www.fordlibrary.org/TFMLstaff/
Conference and association blogs
ACRLog-http://acrlblog.org/
ALA TechSource-http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/
LITA blog-http://litablog.org/
Examples from Cornell
Janus Conference http://janusconference.library.cornell.edu/
DRC Meeting Noteshttp://drcminutes.library.cornell.edu/
Committee on Professional Development http://cpd.library.cornell.edu/
LibraryLaw (Peter Hirtle contributes)http://blog.librarylaw.com/
Confluence (wiki/blog tool for Mann; log in required except for sandbox & demo space)http://gould2.mannlib.cornell.edu:8080/confluence/homepage.action
How to Find Them?
Blogging indexes and search engines Feedster-http://www.feedster.com/ Technorati-http://www.technorati.com/ Daypop--any regularly updated current events
http://www.daypop.com/ Blogdex-http://blogdex.net/ Google or Open Directory Project Your news aggregator (e.g. Bloglines)
How to Find Them?
Blogrolls and Blog Recommendation Pages Blogrolls-Lists of links to other
blogs the author is reading found in the sidebars
Links to other blogs within posts
Blog recommendation pages e.g. Blogging about
Incredible Blogs http://www.incredibleblogs.com/
Factuality and Authority
Blogs should be vetted like other media: books, newspapers, etc.
Blogs trade editorial oversight for timeliness More onus on the reader for critical analysis
Six reasons to read blogs
Current awareness and personal information management
Conversations taking place and subjects being discussed here that aren't elsewhere
Faster updates Easy to explore other fields For fun!
Six reasons to read blogs
Biggest Reason?
You can get regularly updated content without having to check the sites often. How? Through the magic of RSS. . . .
Why blog?
Easy method of web publication Not necessary to know HTML Content is easily reusable and distributed via RSS; can
add updated content to websites Management of information for personal or
organizational use
Why blog?
For organizations Marketing and external communication
Reach your users Give the library a more personal face Another channel for feedback
Internal communication Keep groups updated—can be easier to search and
archive than listservs and e-mail Project tools
Why blog?
For individuals Professional Development
Current awareness and personal information management
Self-marketing Reflection Conversation and community-join the
biblioblogosphere or “blog people”
A few caveats on publishing blogs Private vs. public or there’s no such thing as
total anonymity Blogging ethics Organizational policy
A few caveats on publishing blogs Analogous to email Can be a frivolous distraction And a powerful communications tool
How do you publish a blog?
Numerous weblogging tools Client or server-based (they host or you host) Client--they host (free and paid)
Livejournal (free)http://www.livejournal.com/
TypePad (paid) http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/
WordPress.com (free)http://wordpress.com/
Bloglines even lets you create a quick and dirty blog
Getting Started with Blogger
Blogger-http://www.blogger.com/ Quick and easy blogging tool with very basic
functionality They can host (Blogspot) or you can host on your
own server Free! Now owned by Google
Other blogging programs
If you want more functionality, use a server-based program (you’ll need your own space on a server with ability to install software) WordPress (free and open source)-http://
wordpress.org/ AVAILBLE HERE AT CORNELL for work projects!
Contact Aaron Suggs ([email protected]) Movable Type (free and paid versions)-
http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/
Other blogging programs
Services can range from the very simple to full content management systems multiple blogs with multiple authors security/authorship levels; password protection categories for posts trackbacks so you can see who’s linked to your
post; pingbacks so you can let authors know you linked to them, etc.
More information on blogs
The Internet Courses: Weblogs-Dr. L. Anne Clyde, Professor, Faculty of Social Science, The University of Iceland--http://www.hi.is/~anne/weblogs.html
Weblogs Compendium—Peter Scotthttp://www.lights.com/weblogs/
“Blogging 101”-Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian), http://www.sls.lib.il.us/infotech/presentations/2005/ola-blogging.pdf
More information on blogs 2
Weblogs in a nutshell--Elisabeth Ribahttp://www.osmond-riba.org/lis/nutshell.htm
The Communications of the ACM's December 2004 issue (47: 12, 30-59) on the blogosphere
Summary
Blogs are a simple way to keep up with current information and to publish your own information easily
Use programs like Blogger and WordPress to get started
Happy Blogging!