Direct link to the Patron (Getting Started With Web 2.0)

Presented at GLA/COMO, 2006: Links checked 2007; Presentation online at: http://robinfay.net/web2.0/getting_started/ A introduction to blogging, including comparisons of blogging, overview of RSS, and other web based tools. This presentation will automatically advance or you may use the buttons. How can libraries use web based tools to market their services, educate their patrons, and provide value added services?

All links are available via a resource list at the end and at http://del.icio.us/ webtechnologiespresentation / Next up, a quick overview and table of contents. Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

Blogging:

What is a blog?

Who is blogging in the library world?

Blog choices/comparisons (Wordpress, Blogger, Movable Type)

How does it work?

Getting started

RSS Feeds (Intro & Overview)

How a blog feed can work

So, what is RSS?

Other Web Tools

Web forms in the Libraries Catalog (GIL)

Web Presences for internal & external customers

Table of Contents Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

What is a blog ?

Briefly, a blog (short for weblog) is a web based publication which is updated in a periodic manner. The goal of blogging is to provide an easy means to put content on the web. Most modern blogging software functions very similar to word processor software. When you see this icon (think of satellite transmission beams), you know you are seeing a live site which is updating via a feed.

Briefly about blogs Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

… and why would a library want one?

Libraries use blogs to promote events & services, provide access to up-to-date information about building issues (special hours, etc.), highlight new databases, and communicate a variety of information from readings to exhibits to new features in the catalog! Users can subscribe to ‘feeds’ via their phones, pdas, special web based reader services, as well as internet browsers and e-mail programs such as Firefox and Thunderbird to get the latest up to date information.

Briefly about blogs Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Are libraries really blogging? You bet! Let’s take a look at some numbers.

Briefly about blogs Chart permission of blogswithoutalibrary.net How did we get started blogging? Good question!

UGA Libraries WAG (Web Advisory Group) which works with the Web Editor in oversight and maintenance of the UGA Libraries webpage, charged a subcommittee to investigate blog software as means of keeping our users up to date on Libraries news & events. Not only did we want to add some dynamic content to our website, but we needed another means to push information to our users.

Beginnings of The Libraries “Blog” Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We formed a small group and started investigating potential blog options.

This subcommittee investigated many different blog softwares including

Blogger (Free, Commercial, with ads)

Expression Engine/PMachine (Paid, Commercial)

Movable Type (Paid, Commercial)

WordPress (Free, Open Source)

Beginnings of The “Blog” Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Let’s look at the wish list first.

Desired features

Yes

Inexpensive

Easy to use

Categories

Multiple users with levels

Easily configured, support for CSS

Nos

Contracts/subscriptions

Preferably ad free

Coding experience or considerable training needed for contributors

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net First, we tested blogger, which is now owned by google.

Blogger

Pros

Free

No installation

Easy to use, one push publishing

Cons

Ad oriented

No categories

No control over URL address

Limited ability to customize display

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We found some libraries using blogger. We’ve included screenshots and links. Let’s take a look.

Blogger examples (just a few)

Google Blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/finding-wealth-in-your-library-and.html

Georgia Perimeter College at Decatur

http://gpcdecaturlrc.blogspot.com/

Marion County Free Library

http://www.marincountyfreelibrary.blogspot.com/

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We’ll take a peak at Google and GPC. Remember all links are also included at the del.icio.us site!

Blogger example Blogger

Blogger Let’s get a peak behind the scenes.

Blogger User interface The next product we tested was expression engine/pmachine. Blogger

Expression Engine/PMachine

Pros

Very professional

Good Tech support

Categories & subcategories

Support multiple users with varying degrees of authority

Easily supports a blog within a blog

Cons

Expensive

Contract based

PHP database installation needed, Server

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We found a few libraries using pmachine/expression engine.

PMachine/Expression Engine

Who is using it (a brief sampling)

Lannom Public Library

http://www.lannom.org/

Douglas County Libraries

http://www.douglascountylibraries.org/blogs/

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Let’s get a sneak peak behind the scenes at the user interface. Expression Engine

Expression Engine User interface Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Looks easy to use but a little more robust than blogger. The third product we investigated was movable type. Let’s see how that one looks. Expression Engine

Movable Type/Typepad

Pros

Very professional

Good Tech support

Categories & subcategories

Support multiple blogs

Cons

Expensive

Contract based

PHP database installation needed, Server

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We found a few libraries using movable type, too. Let’s take a look.

Movable Type/Typepad

Who is using it (a brief sampling)

University of Colorado, Bookends

http://library.coloradocollege.edu/bookends/

Washington University in St. Louis

http://wulibraries.typepad.com/

University of Minnesota (U Think)

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Let’s see what they’ve done with MT! Remember links are available at the del.icio.us site at the end of the presentation!

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Movable Type

Movable Type/Typepad Movable Type Example Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Well, those all look interesting, but are budget is limited YET we want control over the design and address. Wordpress, anyone? Movable Type

WordPress

Pros

Categories & subcategories including separate pages (mini blog eseque)

CSS based and easy to customize

Open Source & “free”

Cons

Tech support mostly nonexistent but relies heavily on user forums

Multiple blogs are available as separate installations although pages can provide some customization and organization

PHP database installation, Server

Open Source & “free”

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Sounds good!

WordPress

Who is using it

ACRL

http://www.acrlblog.org /

Auburn University Library

http://www.lib.auburn.edu/whatsnew/

University of Alberta Libraries

http://blogs.library.ualberta.ca/libnews/

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We found some libraries using Wordpress.

Movable Type/Typepad Movable Type Example Movable Type Example Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Wordpress.org

Just to recap. Desired features

Yes

Inexpensive

Easy to use

Categories

Multiple users with levels

Easily configured, support for CSS

Nos

Contracts/subscriptions

Preferably ad free

Coding experience or considerable training needed for contributors

WordPress fit our most basic criteria, and in July 2005, the UGA Libraries went live with our first blog.

25 Blog Reporters

including a representative from every department

a collective average of a post a day

Design

Keep the look of the main site through coding CSS

Initially, no comments; only a link to a web editor mailbox. Of the 3000+ comments the Libraries received in first 6 months, 99% of them were spam (1 legitimate comment). Comments were later turned on after installing the Askimet spam plugin.

And the winner is WordPress! Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

And the winner is WordPress! Go Live Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Let’s get a look behind the scenes. Wordpress.org

Behind the scenes with the user interface: welcome screen Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Wordpress.org Schedule news to post… Write here News from wordpress, especially UPGRADES!

The title corresponds to the headline on the main page and is also what displays in rss readers. Note: We also have preselected categories for our writers to chose. So, let’s check it out! Behind the scenes…. Writing a post. Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Wordpress.org

The title corresponds to the headline on the main page and is also what displays in rss readers. Note we also have preselected categories for our writers to chose. and more stuff…. Which all ends up in the blog. Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Why blog? Let’s take a look at the homepage. Wordpress.org

And the winner is WordPress! Title Categories Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

Our RSS Feed from the blog is captured here. Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net What is RSS?

So what is a feed ?

RSS stands for (depending on who you ask)

R eally S imple S yndication

R ich S ite S ummary

Basically, websites collect their stories and ‘send’ them out to various readers

A reader is a software that allows a user to view (and sometimes hear or see) headlines, summaries, complete stories, etc.

Examples of ‘readers’ include Firefox (live bookmarks), bloglines, newsgator, pluck, etc.

Think of RSS as the newspaper or the morning news you listen to. Each day is fresh, and the content is available to you. All you have to do is open the gateway (a newspaper, the tv, computer, radio, etc.)

RSS feeds Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net ..but how does it work?

Go Live In firefox, the rss feed will display as an orange icon in the address bar. To pick up a feed, click on the little orange icon. Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

RSS feeds By subscribing, you will receive the latest headlines linked from your bookmark. Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net That is nifty, but how do you subscribe if you don’t use firefox?

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Thunderbird, a free email client, also has a built in RSS reader RSS feeds: how to read http://www.newsgator.com/home.aspx Bloglines is a website to login to read news; Newsgator integrates with outlook; Thunderbird has built in capability

Next steps? Thunderbird Email & News Reader

So, you’ve got your blog all set up… now what?

First, it starts with the participants aka writers.

You need at least one person who is willing to write regularly.

You may or may not need ground rules and writing/style guides (we did!).

You may or may not need to do training sessions (we did).

An editor of sorts is also necessary.

Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Who writes for your blog? We use a group of volunteer contributors.

Bringing in Contributors:

Make them stakeholders. Emphasize that almost every department is doing something interesting or has something important to say to your patrons. They don’t want to be left out!

And once one department starts posting frequently, the fun really begins … they can’t help but be competitive.

Contributors Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Who will teach them how to use the software? You will!

Give them hands-on training and back it up with accessible training materials. We did a handout and put the same contents of the handout online. ( www.libs.uga.edu/blogetc/ )

Also be sure to give them a human they can contact with questions/problems.

Training Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net We still haven’t really addressed the question of WHY libraries should blog. A few ideas…

“ Look what we’ve got”

Events/programs/exhibits – events can have home page exposure and can also be archived, when they rotate off the home page

Collections – Again, highly visible announcement of acquisitions and addition to the archive

Electronic Resources – Avoid new databases getting buried in GALILEO. Highlight digital collections.

Marketing Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net This sounds easy and fun! Not so fast…

What should the blog look like? Does it need to maintain the look of other pages already on the site, or should it be distinctive? How much real estate on the main page? And where will it be? We have the happy problem now of so many posts that people want to see more headlines on the front page! Making sure your blog doesn’t die – needs continuous care and feeding. Additional Challenges Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

Most pressing, is to identify a better means of collecting statistics. There are plug-ins for WordPress statistics, which we are currently testing and evaluating. Out of the box, WordPress has very poor statistics collection. The Libraries website statistical information, while does not seem to be as good at tracking in-depth blog statistics.

Testing pages to provide a more unique blog experience for special collections.

A better workflow for doing upgrades. As WordPress is Open Source there is no one official tech support and no notice of new upgrades. However, there is a mailing list for notification.

Next steps and challenges Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Perhaps, you are not ready for a blog. There are other simple webtools out there to provide a little interactivity. We’ll touch briefly on a few.

Possibly not as exciting as blogging, but a ‘classic’ in terms of communication via the web

HTML web forms (such as contact forms) are used in a variety of places including

within the Libraries catalog, GIL

on departmental and service related webpages

Examples include Ask a Question via email, Report an Error (in the catalog), suggest a purchase, request a classroom session, request software training, and collecting internal statistics

Moving on to other tools Forms are simple enough that anyone can use.

Other examples of web based forms linked to the Libraries’ catalog

Request a book from the Repository: While in the Libraries’ catalog, GIL, if you want a book which is located at the offsite storage facility (Repository), you can request it from a form in the catalog.

Rush Catalog: Request a newly acquired material which is still in the queue

Other uses of web tools Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

The basic web form

Has been incorporated into the libraries catalog so that it integrates seamlessly with the user experience providing them a means to request newly received material be rush processed, report errors or other discrepancies/questions, and request materials from the Repository, an off campus storage

The Libraries’ Report an Error Form was used as the model for the Universal Catalog Report an Error Form. Javascript builds the links at the bottom of the GIL Catalog page and php wraps around the html form to capture information about the record the patron is viewing.

Other uses of web tools Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net ..and it’s sometimes possible to embed them into the catalog, too!

Yes, people use the online forms!

In 2005, 321 errors/questions were reported by Libraries staff & faculty, UGA faculty & students, and visitors.

Not only has the form provided an easy way for Library staff to communicate with each other (much of the information is captured automatically from the screen) but it provides a quick means of identifying problems in the catalog…

among them….

Other uses of web tools

Some errors/questions reported

No error. I just want to know what “discharged” means. Is the book on the shelf or not? – a patron

There is a typo in one of the subject heading dates – should not be 1957. – a patron

Do we really have 2 copies of this and is one still in the In process collection? Or do we really only 1 copy and the Inprocess one should be merged? Or do we have 2 copies and the In Process once should be made copy 2? – library staff

Other uses of web tools Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net Other ideas include…

Other examples of web tools include

Coldfusion: Database software which drives the Libraries’ Staff Directory, EndNote instructional materials, Reference instructional materials, and others in progress

Instant Messaging: Used by Reference

Other uses of web tools Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net ..and even a website!

Departmental pages

In addition to our external customers, we all serve internal customers. Each department in the Libraries’ maintains a web presence with information such as

Hours, phone numbers, and/or staff directories

Information about the services provided and what the department does

Links to resources and services, both for internal and external customers such as

Large fullscale portals such as the Digital Library of Georgia

Reference Guide, Ask a Question and BI Forms

Online Resources for Catalogers

Policies and Procedures online (Acquisitions, Cataloging)

Other uses of web tools Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

This presentation:

All links + extras!

http://del.icio.us/webtechnologiespresentation/

Intro to Web 2.0 Minipresentation:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dkcxvp2_7d7ms9d

Content divergent: Blogging on Web 2.0

About/Contact

Amy:

Amy is a Reference & Instructor Librarian, the Assistant Web Editor for the Libraries, just to name a few. http://www.libs.uga.edu/staffpages/watts.html

Robin:

Robin is a Database Librarian, member of the Libraries’ Web Advisory Group, freelance web designer & metadata consultant. http:// www.robinfay.net

Resources & Citations Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

Blogger (Blog software/service)

http://www.blogger.com

Bloglines (RSS reader)

www.bloglines.com/

Firefox (Web browser & RSS reader)

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Movable Type & Typepad (Blog software/service)

http://www.movabletype.org/

Newsgator (RSS reader)

http://www.newsgator.com/home.aspx

PMachine/Expression Engine (Blog software/service)

http://www.pmachine.com/

Thunderbird (Email &RSS reader)

http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

WordPress (Blog software)

http://wordpress.org/

Software Cited Robin Fay, Amy Watts 2006 GLA/COMO presentation: http://www.robinfay.net

ACRL (Wordpress)

http://www.acrlblog.org /

Auburn University Library (Wordpress)

http://www.lib.auburn.edu/whatsnew/

Douglas County Libraries (Pmachine)

http://www.douglascountylibraries.org/blogs/

Georgia Perimeter College at Decatur (Blogger)

http://gpcdecaturlrc.blogspot.com/

Google Blog (Blogger)

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/finding-wealth-in-your-library-and.html

Lannom Public Library (Pmachine)

http://www.lannom.org/

Libraries News & Events (Wordpress)

http://www.libs.uga.edu/blog/

Websites Cited

Libraries Cataloging Department Procedures Manual

http://www.libs.uga.edu/catalog/

Libraries SLC & Reference Wiki

http://lotus.libs.uga.edu:3455/4/Home

Marion County Free Library (Blogger)

http://www.marincountyfreelibrary.blogspot.com/

University of Alberta Libraries (Movable Type)

http://blogs.library.ualberta.ca/libnews/

University of Colorado, Bookends (Movable Type)

http://library.coloradocollege.edu/bookends/

University of Minnesota (U Think) (Movable Type)

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/

Washington University in St. Louis

http://wulibraries.typepad.com/ (Movable Type/Typepad)

Websites Cited

11 reasons why Library 2.0 exist and matter, blyberg.net, http://www.blyberg.net/2006/01/09/11-reasons-why-library-20-exists-and-matters/

Blog training for UGA Libraries, Amy Watts, www.libs.uga.edu/blogetc/

Blog overview for UGA Libraries, Robin Fay, (Appendix A), http://fay.uga.edu/projects/blogoverview.pdf

Blogging Libraries Wiki http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=Welcome_to_the_Blogging_Libraries_Wiki

Market your library with a blog, James LaMee, http://associates.ucr.edu/705flam.htm

Why and how to use blogs to promote your libraries services, Darlene Fitcher, http://www.infotoday.com/MLS/nov03/fichter.shtml

Articles

Direct link to the Patron (Getting Started With Web 2.0)

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