DIY Session 2

Friday 10:45 AM
Do-It-Yourself: Blogging for Libraries
Panel: Karen Mellor, Jennifer Varney, Maryanne

Blogging for Libraries - Karen Mellor

A blog is.... a content management system, it can be syndicated (RSS), searchable, web-based (virtually) no tech skills required, interactive, free!

Why blog? Empower your staff by allowing them to publish in real time (without webmaster/support). The power of RSS feeds, they can be aggregated. It is a marketing and public relations tool (community and funding sources can see what is happening at your library). Virtual library (24/7). You can also use one to document a project or to share/store information.

Who is blogging? Visit Blogging Libraries Wiki or LISNews 10 Library Blogs to Read in 2009. Canton Public Library, Michigan using a blog as a website. Darien Public Library is using blogs to open a dialogue with the community. Iowa City PL is using a blog for Teens (fun with media). The Librarian's Brain: Fun with WordPress.

Blog hosting services...Blogger is very, very, easy to use. WordPress offers many useful tools like categories, statistics of use, etc...

Karen demonstrated how easy and flexible it is to use Wordpress to blog. She created a blog in 2 minutes with a blog title and a first posting. Next she added a new page (useful if you are using it as a website) with information about the library's hours/information. Then she created a link for the new page of library hours/information and gave it a category (About The Library). The link to the new page appeared on the right hand side of the front page of the blog. Themes can be used to change the appearance of the blog.

There are lots of useful plug-ins, and Karen recommends using the Kismet plug-in for eliminating spam sent to your blog. She demonstrated how she is using her Delicious links to feed them directly to a blog's sidebar.

Developing Your Blog...have a purpose, content and writing guidelines, comment guidelines - Free Range Librarian, brand your blog with a catchy name, frequency of posts, transparency - authorship, institutional connection, contact information, disclaimer (Rhodarian), editorial process (group blogs), blogging etiquette (give credit where credit is due).

Writing Tips...Keep posts brief, make writing accessible, develop a personality and be consistent, check your facts (spelling and cite sources), don't delete your posts correct them, read other blogs for inspiration.

Market Your Blog...publicize within the library/community, add links to website, feature in your newsletter, add to bookmarks-flyers-signature files, use the web!

The next speaker on the panel, Jennifer Varney, introduced us to RSS...

Newsreaders will bring the stuff on the web to you. Examples include Bloglines, Google Reader, My Yahoo, and Newsgator Online.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication", site provide a feed from their page and you can tell your newsreader to gather these feeds from the site's you want to keep up with.

RSS feeds contain site content (text, audio, video), metadata, xml.

How to use RSS: Easy!

Step1 - choose a reader (Google Reader)

Step 2 - subscribe to your favorites via Google Reader (Click on Add a Subscription: Add the URL of the feed, search for the feed, or search for topics that interest you) or find a site and subscribe via a site (Click on Add to Google Reader or copy and paste the url of the xml page into Google Reader). Be careful when subscribing to "bundles" the number of feeds can be overwhelming, you may want to subscribe to just a couple of feeds within the bundle.

Step 3 - browse and read all in one place (Google Reader)

Step 4 - organize your feeds (rename, put into folders, create folders, unsubscribe, very similar to E-mail)

Why do this? Professional development, alerting service (monitor topics of patron interest), collection development.

Tips for using RSS - review your feeds daily, file and flag for follow-up, weed, limit and organize your feeds. Offer RSS feeds on your blogs, website, catalogs, etc...

Maryanne showed how to create a Facebook page for your Library...

Have to create a profile on Facebook (but it does not have to be public to have a Facebook page).
From the Facebook homepage click on the link to creating a page for businesses. The web form is easy to fill out and once you have completed it you must either create your profile or login to your already existing profile.

Now that you have a page...upload a picture, add your basic information (year that you were founded) and detailed information (website, overview, mission statement, products you offer) you can fill in as much as you want, get the word out (suggest to friends feature, put your Facebook info. on website and blog, publicity).

Examples of how it is being used well...Belmont (NH) High - librarian is interacting with students (giving them tips, etc...), Assabet Valley HS, Northfield-Mount Hermon (private school), Beamon Memorial Public Library, West Boylston - to communicate about events, share photos, advocating for the library, WPI - Gordon Library - advertising services, meet the staff videos, etc..., Regional Library Systems - communication with librarians, job postings, etc...

Send updates to your fans...use this feature to notify your fans.

Update your Facebook and Website at the same time to keep information synchronized/current!

Facebook Phenomenon--Susan. Herzog & Brian Lashley

A social networking space, Facebook is used by students for many things such as making friends, joining groups, advertising parties, private messaging and much, much more. Students should know that they can keep their spaces "private." (According to Susan, there was a case of a student expelled for posting certain material on his facebook page).

Their research (they conducted a survey) showed that most students log on daily and/or weekly. Now nonstudents (folks without .edu emails) can use Facebook.

There are security issues...students should know that their pages may be seen by potential employers, teachers, potential grad school admissions officers, to name a few.

Why should students care about what they post on their spaces? Susan showed us some revealing photos of a few students. Stalking can be an issue if a student shares too much information in Facebook. A student's image can be tarnished by a revealing Facebook profile (Susan showed some very interesting photos students had posted of themselves).

Brian showed us percentages of information that students post publicly. Students may be exposing themselves to risk by posting birthdates, AIM addresses, dorm addresses, class schedules, etc. They seem to be willing to take this risk or don't realize that there even is any kind of risk.

Susan and Brian talked about how the majority of students really like using Facebook. It's a major tool for how they communicate with each other. Several audience members expressed concern regarding the lack of privacy when using Facebook and the potential for very personal information to be accessed by others. There were also questions about the potential for Facebook to make their information available to outside vendors.

But, one member reminded us that there are positive aspects to using these social networking tools. Susan says that there must be a balance in order to use a tool with such potential for good use.

Interestingly, only one person in the audience admitted to having a Facebook page (that was me)! Please take the time to open an account and discover for yourself the many aspects of Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/