Blogs and RSS: Hands-on and How-to

1. Blogs and RSS: Hands-on and How-to Stephanie Gerding sgerding@mindspring.com

2. Learning Objectives Participants will be able to: • Explain Blogs and RSS • Identify reasons for using blogs and RSS • Analyze existing blogs and select favorites • Create a blog • Subscribe to a Reader and add feeds

3. Talkin’ Bout a Revolution Time's Person of the Year: You • Community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. • “It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.” • “The new Web is…a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.” • “Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment.” • More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites.

4. Why should libraries care about social software? • People are doing library things online. For fun! • Make the library web site a personal experience • We're nothing without our communities--we are user centered; we can serve in new ways • Technocultural isolation • We can go where our users are (or will be) and strengthen community ties with social software. • It’s FREE!

5. What’s So Great About a Blog? • Fast & easy to set up • Free • Anyone can be a publisher • You can constantly add, edit and delete • Brings communities of people together • Creates a lasting archive

6. Blogs • Tame the Web http://www.tametheweb.com • Library Director http://wpldirector.blogspot.com • Ann Arbor Library http://www.aadl.org • Stephen’s Lighthouse http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com • LISNews http://www.lisnews.com • Beyond the Jobhttp://librarycareers.blogspot.com • Library Grantshttp://librarygrants.blogspot.com

7. Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com

8. Other free tools for your blog • Flickr for photo sharing • Youtube for online videos • Podcasts for audio files • del.icio.us for bookmarking • WebJunction for articles and forums • Amazon.com for reviews

9. Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com

10. 126 million blogs How can I keep up!

11. FEED FEED FEED FEED FEED FEED Feed Readers: 1 website for all your news

12. RSS(really simple syndication) • Websites publish updates—called "feeds"—that indicate when new content has been posted. • Syndication — like a newspaper column • Lets you create content in one place but make it available in many places • Readers/Aggregators let you subscribe to your favorite blogs and websites and read them in one customized online page • Automatically updates • And it keeps track of what you’ve read!

13. Bloglineshttp://www.bloglines.com

14. Add a Feed • AZ Central and AZ Republic http://www.azcentral.com/help/articles/info-rss.html

15. Keeping up is hard to do… or is it?? • WebJunction • Conferences • Blogs • Journals • Webcasts • State Library workshops • Create an Emerging Tech Committee or Lunch chat • It’s all about sharing information, just using new tools. Instead of pencils, card catalogs or even databases, it’s blogs, wikis, and del.icio.us.

16. You Can Help Patrons Keep Up • Libraries as a: • Community institution • Trusted resource • Universal access • Repository • The Third Place in the community • Information House • Point of practical information technology innovation • Adapted from Michael Porter, libraryman

17. Create Your Own Blog