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Blogs

Blogs. Camille Andrews & Aaron Suggs January 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

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Blogs

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  1. Blogs Camille Andrews & Aaron SuggsJanuary 2006

  2. Overview • What are Blogs? • Examples • How to Find Blogs • How to Blog • Blogger • Wordpress

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Blog title Post date (in reverse chrono-logical order) and title Links, Previous posts, or Blogroll Post and links to other sites/blogs Comments Archives

  6. 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

  7. 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)

  8. What kinds of blogs are there? • For libraries • Librarian blogs • Personal and professional development • Issue and resource trackingThe Shifted Librarian-http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/Librarian.net-http://www.librarian.net/ ResourceShelf-http://www.resourceshelf.com/ResearchBuzz-http://www.researchbuzz.org/

  9. 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/

  10. 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

  11. 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)

  12. 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/

  13. 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

  14. 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!

  15. 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. . . .

  16. 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

  17. 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

  18. Why blog? • For individuals • Professional Development • Current awareness and personal information management • Self-marketing • Reflection • Conversation and community-join the biblioblogosphere or “blog people”

  19. A few caveats on publishing blogs • Private vs. public or there’s no such thing as total anonymity • Blogging ethics • Organizational policy

  20. A few caveats on publishing blogs • Analogous to email • Can be a frivolous distraction • And a powerful communications tool

  21. 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

  22. 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

  23. 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 (ams337@cornell.edu) • Movable Type (free and paid versions)-http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/

  24. 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.

  25. 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

  26. 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

  27. 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!

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