The document discusses blogs and their use in libraries. It provides an overview of what blogs are, different types of blogs, and considerations for creating blogs. It also discusses using blogs to engage patrons and allow more staff participation. Guidelines are provided for authoring blogs, including writing regularly, using tags/keywords, and linking to other blogs. Legal issues and concerns around moderating comments are also addressed.

1. Kent State University SLIS, February 12-13, 2010 Using Web 2.0 Principles to Become Librarian and Educator 2.0 BLOGS

2. Instructor: Brian C. Gray Head of Reference Librarian: Engineering, Mathematics, & Statistics Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University Work email: bcg8@case.edu Work phone: 216-368-8685 IM: AIM - kslbcg8 ICQ - 499284601 Google Chat - kslbcg8@gmail.com MSN - bcg8@case.edu Yahoo - kslbcg8

3. Getting to Know Blogs What is a blog? Types of blogs Blog software Creating blogs Personal vs organizational Locating blogs Lets play

4. What is a blog? (Common Traits) Website Dated entries Archives RSS feed offered Entries with links to other items Often may require little or no web programming experience Application driven Categories, tagging, or keywords

5. BLOGS Today’s “publishing platform” Allows patron ownership in their web experience with the organization Continue conversations after events Allows more staff to participate in the external voice of the library Share more, build participation

6. Blog Considerations Purpose – Announcements and/or discussion? Open or no commenting? Moderation? Tracking/pinging Spam prevention Single or multiple authors How often are entries added? Legal considerations (non-profit status, advertising, organizational policies, etc.)

7. Workplace E-Mail, Instant Messaging, & Blogs 8% of organizations have business blogs 55% of business blogs are public Less than 2% of organizations assign a lawyer or other responsible party to review employees’ entries Nearly 2% have fired workers for offensive blog content - including posts on employees’ personal blogs American Management Association – 2006 Survey

8. http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

9. http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

10. Spam Blogs (Splogs) Technorati has been tracking between 3,000 - 7,000 new splogs created each day Significant spike in splog creation during early December, when 11,000 splogs created each day http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

11. http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

12. http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

13. http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

14. http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

15. ALA Library 2.0 Bootcamp Helene Blowers Linda S. Bostrom Brian C. Gray Lorraine H. Olley (June 2006)

16. My Blog Authoring Tips Offer a RSS feed Write on a regular pattern so people do not feel the blog has died Use spell checker Tagging/Keywords/Categories Cite information If you allow comments, participate in the discussions Linking and discussing on other’s blog can drive traffic to your own

17. More Blog Tips & Comments Be original and write it your own style Length of posts can vary Provide some information for your readers, such as an “about me” page or other context Simple layouts can be powerful Look at other’s blogs for examples Extras occasionally break up the text – pictures, lists, etc. Give your readers a challenge or question to consider

18. Library Blogs in Action See examples at: http://www.squidoo.com/library2point0/

19. EXTRA SLIDES Following slides exist in case the internet connection is not working during class.

20. http://blogs.ala.org

21. ALA LAMA’s New Blog

30. Blog Based OPAC Casey Bisson WPopac: An OPAC 2.0 Testbed WordPress based, so already have access to more programmers than the ILS vendors combined

33. Patrons Blogging About Libraries

36. Blogger is FREE