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The Blogging Librarian: Avoiding Institutional InertiaA Framework For Blog Deployment

Brian Kelly

UKOLN

University of Bath

Bath, UK

B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/ili-2007/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/ili-2007/

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Resources bookmarked using ‘ili2007' tag Resources bookmarked using ‘ili2007' tag

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Contents

• Best Practices For The Library Blog:• Purpose• Resources• Architecture

• Barriers:• IT Services Librarians• Organisational culture

Fundamentalists• Addressing The Barriers:

• Encourage enthusiasts• Risk Assessment• “Let’s Do It!

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Blog Policies

For your blog there’s a need to define:

• Its purpose • Its scope• Its target

audience

You will also need procedures which will ensure these policies are being addressed

Note the policies may evolve

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http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/blog-policies/http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/blog-policies/

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Resourcing Your Blog

How much effort is needed to deploy & sustain a blog:• Technical expertise: can be minimal if externally-

hosted solution used.• Writing blog posts: effort is dependent on scope

of blog, target audience, expertise in writing, … And will posts be checked prior to publication?

• User engagement: will you allow comments? If so, effort will be needed in deleting spam, responding to comments, …

• Monitoring your blog: how well-used is your blog; what are people saying about it; …

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Architecture For Your Blog

Various options for hosting your blog:• Externally-hosted blog (e.g. Wordpress,

Blogger, Vox, …):• In-house blogging software (e.g.

Wordpress, …)• Other in-house solution (e.g. VLE such

as Blackboard)• Alternative approaches such as use of

social networks

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I chose the externally-hosted Wordpress solution for my UKWebFocus.wordpress.com blog as this was very easy to deploy and meant no waiting for an in-house solution

I chose the externally-hosted Wordpress solution for my UKWebFocus.wordpress.com blog as this was very easy to deploy and meant no waiting for an in-house solution

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The IT Services Barrier

Do you experience problems in getting IT Services to deploy software for you:

• It doesn’t fit in with our corporate IT policy• Allow users to comment? That’s a legal

nightmare!• You’ve got a CMS – you should use that• We’ve looked at blogs and decided that they are

full of junk• You’ll get viruses if you use a blog• …

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Do you have any similar stories of ways in which IT Services seek to stifle innovation?

Do you have any similar stories of ways in which IT Services seek to stifle innovation?

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The Library Barrier

Can the culture within the library be a barrier to blog deployment:

• Blogs are vanity-publishing

• Everything must be peer-reviewed

• We might be sued• Our LMS doesn’t support

blogs• Let’s way and see – it

might just be a fad• …

Bar

rier

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Web 2.0: Addressing the Barriers to Implementation in a Library Context, QA Focus briefing document no. 103

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The Fundamentalists

The Accessibility Fundamentalist:• I’ve checked the blog with Bobby and it fails• It uses AJAX – and AJAX is evil

The Standards Fundamentalist:• It doesn’t comply with HTML / CSS standards• It uses JavaScript – and this is banned by the

council

The Ownership Fundamentalist:• We need to own the technologies we make use of

Bar

rier

s

Do you have such fundamentalists in your organisation?Do you have such fundamentalists in your organisation?

Note that WCAG 2.0 (draft) guidelines remove much of the dated aspects of WCAG 1.0 and acknowledges potential benefits of Web 2.0

Note that WCAG 2.0 (draft) guidelines remove much of the dated aspects of WCAG 1.0 and acknowledges potential benefits of Web 2.0

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Public Sector Conservatism

Questions:• Is conservatism in public sector organisations a

barrier to innovation?• Is the UK/Europe more conservative than the US?

Thoughts:• Web 2.0 companies need to develop & deploy

applications and build large audiences quickly • Public sector bodies don’t have such pressures –

but do need to address issues such as sustainability and accountability

• Nobody gets sacked for pointing out possible problems in innovative services

Bar

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We need to be aware of the limitations of our sector, and seek ways of exploiting innovation whilst managing possible risks.

We need to be aware of the limitations of our sector, and seek ways of exploiting innovation whilst managing possible risks.

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Encourage Enthusiasts

One approach to blogging is to support the enthusiasts:

• “Seek forgiveness, not permission” – quote for ILI 2006

• Use on small-scale activity (possibly to support an event, with no need to support on an ongoing basis)

• Social blogging might help in developing skills – do you have an unknown blogger in your organisation?

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Note that blogging (like public speaking) is not for everyone – so requiring all staff to blog may be counter-productive

Note that blogging (like public speaking) is not for everyone – so requiring all staff to blog may be counter-productive

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Risk Assessment

Need to assess risks of use of blogging services:

• External service becomes unavailable or changes terms & conditions

• Performance and security issues

• Data protection & other legal issues

Note that you should:• Apply similar critique to in-

house services• Address the risks of doing

nothing

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Risk Assessment For Use Of Third Party Web 2.0 Services, QA Focus briefing document no. 98

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Demonstrating Value

Demonstrate the value of your blog service by using various tools and techniques:

• Monitoring your blog statistics• Monitoring what people are saying

(and remember to respond)

Many tools are available to help you

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Note: beware of blog spam

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Building A Community

Strengths of the library sector:

• User-focus• Culture of

sharing

We can exploit the strengths by using social networks to share experiences, resources, …

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http://library20.ning.com/group/usingblogeffectivelyhttp://library20.ning.com/group/usingblogeffectively

Ideas:• Use of services such as Ning,

Facebook, etc. for discussing ideas• Creative Commons (CC) licences for

our training resources, blog posts, etc.

Ideas:• Use of services such as Ning,

Facebook, etc. for discussing ideas• Creative Commons (CC) licences for

our training resources, blog posts, etc.

Note CC licence for blog masterclass workshop materials

Note CC licence for blog masterclass workshop materials

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Conclusions

At Umbrella 2007 conference Lynne Brindley, CEO of British Library said, wrt Web 2.0, we should “just do it”So ‘let’s do it’, but let’s also address the:

• User requirements• Risks• Sustainability

And let’s do this as a community, sharing our successes – and our failures!

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Questions

Any questions., comments?