Blogs

Camille Andrews & Aaron SuggsJanuary 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

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

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

Blog titlePost date (in reverse chrono-logical order) and title

Links, Previous posts, or Blogroll

ArchivesPost and links to other sites/blogs

Comments

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

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)

What kinds of blogs are there? For libraries

Librarian blogs Personal and professional development Issue and resource tracking

The Shifted Librarian-http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/

Librarian.net-http://www.librarian.net/

ResourceShelf-http://www.resourceshelf.com/

ResearchBuzz-http://www.researchbuzz.org/

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/

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

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)

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/

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

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!

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. . . .

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

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

Why blog?

For individuals Professional Development

Current awareness and personal information management

Self-marketing Reflection Conversation and community-join the

biblioblogosphere or “blog people”

A few caveats on publishing blogs Private vs. public or there’s no such thing as

total anonymity Blogging ethics Organizational policy

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

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

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

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/

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.

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

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

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!