MCLC Library Tech Talk

History of blogging

* Technology existed since 1999
* “Blog” became of most searched word of the year for Merriam Webster Online in 2004
* LITA listed blogs as one of the Technology Trends at 2005 ALA Winter
* When 2005 I first subscribed to RSS feeds, 50 of the Bloglines’ top 200 most-subscribed blogs were library or librarian blogs.
* Ann Arbor Public Library’s entire website is made out of blogs
* 2006 Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration winner Casey Bisson earned his award by creating WPopac, a Word Press blog-based catalog protoype.

Library Blogs in Arizona

* Library Tech Talk Blog
* Scottsdale Public Library staff blog
* Phoenix Public Library Teen Blog
* ASU Libraries News

Blogging 101

by Rich Glady
Here is Rick’s powerpoint presentation “Blogging 101″ — http://mclctechtalk.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/blogging-101mc.ppt

Resources:

Understanding Blog Speak (revised) outdated (April 2005) but a good list for beginners.

Douglass, Robert T. et. al. Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress. Berkley, CA: Apress, 2006.

Blog software comparison chart (Last updated May 2006) — already somewhat outdated.

On choosing blogging software: Blog Software Smackdown (posted on November 11, 2005)– the information is outdated but the principles still apply.

Top Ten Blogging Tips and Insights from a Novice Blogger – I have read many top-ten lists of blogging tips, however, this one has remained to be my favorite.

Stephens, Michael. “Web 2.0 & Libraries: best practices for social software.” Library Technology Reports 42:4 (July/August 2006), pp. 15-35.

“Mattering in the Blogosphere: cybrarians speak frankly about their online lives.” American Libraries (March 2007), pp.40-44.

Michael P. Sauers. Blogging and RSS: a Librarian’s Guide. Medford, NJ: Information Today., 2006.

EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers Rebecca Blood’s Weblog Ethics

Charlene Li’s Blog: blogging policy examples

Feedster for searching for blog posts

Technorati another blog search engine

Implementing Library Blogs

by Michael Stephens

• Gather a strong blog team — some of the best library blogs are comprised with multiple voices
• Choose the software and host — blog hosting sites vs locally hosted
• Create and customize the look and feel of your blog, which means to know some basic html and CSS; by all means, allow comments
• Train your staff — have the blogging guidelines and the style sheet, train staff with with some basic html elements
• Launch with a soft opening, so you can work out bugs or kinks

Best Practices for Library Blogs

by Michael Stephens

• Read and evaluate as many blogs as you can (Roseline’s note: also analyze and understand your blog stats.)
• Learn about the ethics of posting to a blog and publish posts
• Find your voice and develop a mission
• Create staff buy-in
• Focus on content
• Share authorship
• Post often and succinctly
• Tag your posts
• Develop a style guide
• Take the time to train staff members about posting to a blog
• Integrate blogs into your site
• Create a sense of transparency
• Be human (first person) and give good voice
• Roseline adds: allow comments (monitor, instead of worry about and ban comments); make your blog searchable; allow trackback; monitor blogs about your library (use Technorati or Feedster); syndicate your blog; tell your audience, with relevant information, about who you are.