Creating Content for Blogs, LibGuides, and Other Websites

Julie D. SheddWeb Services Specialist

Emerging Technologies Series

In this presentation…

Writing for blogs Microblogging Using other people’s content legally Linking out, linking in Using pictures, video, etc. instead of

writing Applying all this to LibGuides and

other services Tips for success

What is content?

Content is pretty much anything on the Web—writing, pictures, video, sounds

The goal is not just content—it’s ROBUST content

You’re already doing it anyway, if you write research guides or update Facebook

Where do I get content?

Read the news Read your professional journals Read blogs & RSS feeds Voice your opinion Discuss library happenings Discuss your department’s

happenings Ask your department to contribute

Blogs Short for weblogs An easy way to keep up with

developments in whatever field Great for distributing news Not yet routinely consulted by

students as a scholarly information source

But I don’t even know how to create a website…

So? You don’t need to. There are free services out there for you…

https://www.blogger.com http://wordpress.com/ And many more…

Plus, you can more-or-less blog on Facebook, through notes and posted items.

Good Blogs Jason Phillips’ blog “Government Documents

for You” http://govdocsreflib.blogspot.com/

Good Blogs Binghamton University’s Science Library Blog

http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/mt/science/

Good Blogs Temple University Library’s blog

http://blog.library.temple.edu/liblog/

Where can I find more library blogs? Library Weblogs:

http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html Librarian Blogs and Sites:

http://librariansindex.blogspot.com/

Sharing blogged material Put your RSS feed into Facebook to

retrieve your blog posts as notes

Click on “Import” and enter your RSS feed…

Your imported items will show up in your feed, and your friends will be notified that you’ve posted a new note.

Sharing blogged material Put RSS feeds into your LibGuide to

share the most current information with your users

1. Add a new box – type: RSS Feed

2. Title the box and click Create Box

3. In the new box, click Add RSS Feed

4. Paste the RSS URL into the box, decide how many items you want to display and how the descriptions should display, and click Update

5. Items will automatically populate to your RSS Feed box!

Microblogging It’s like blogging, but…smaller? You can microblog text, images, music,

video

How do I microblog?• Most people use Twitter http://twitter.com or Tumblr http://www.tumblr.com/ ...

…but you could also use Plurk, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Pownce, Yammer, Posterous, Publr, Soup, or Streem!

• Facebook / MySpace status updates are basically microblogging• You can do it via the web, or through email or phone• The downside: These things are always crashing

•You can manage more than one Twitter account at MATT: Multiple Account Twitter Tweeting http://www.themattinator.com/

Farming out your microblog Many free blogging platforms have

widgets to display your Twitter tweets You can add a Twitter badge in your

LibGuides profile Facebook & MySpace status updates

show up immediately to all your friends

http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps has MAAAAANY more mashups that make Twitter easily shareable

Who’s Tweeting? Ada Community Library, Boise, ID http://twitter.com/adalib Yale Science Library http://twitter.com/yalescilib Undergraduate Library, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

http://twitter.com/askundergrad Missouri River Regional Library has their feed embedded on

the front page http://www.mrrl.org/ University of Alabama at Huntsville Library

http://twitter.com/uahlibrary Casa Grande Library has imported their RSS feeds to

Twitter…now when there’s a new RSS item, Twitter automatically updates http://library20.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=515108%3ABlogPost%3A17285

Nebraska Library Commission http://twitter.com/NLC_Reference and the Maryland State Dept of Education http://twitter.com/askusnow do virtual reference through Twitter

Several people in this library are tweeting…. Me (http://twitter.com/julieshedd) DeeDee Baldwin (http://twitter.com/edeainfj) Amanda Powers (http://twitter.com/AmandaClay)

Photoblogging Posting photos with a little explanatory text and

maybe a link or two Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket can host photos, but

may cost money if you do a lot of photoblogging Best bet: Get a piece of the library server space,

store your photos there at lower resolution Your photostream may or may not eeeeexactly

be a photoblog… http://www.photoblog.com/,

http://photoblog.net/, http://www.flickr.com, http://www.tumblr.com are popular photoblog platforms, but any blog can become a photoblog

Some (possible) library photobloggers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress

/ http://library.ucsc.edu/info/exposures/index.html http://flickr.com/photos/homerlibrary/

Vlogging Requires a camera and a lack of shyness YouTube http://www.youtube.com, Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com/ , Google Video http://video.google.com/, FreeVlog http://www.freevlog.org/

Some library/librarian vloggers:•http://www.youtube.com/user/matthewslibrary

•http://www.youtube.com/user/denverlibrary

•http://www.youtube.com/user/LibVlog•http://www.youtube.com/user/kentonlib •http://www.youtube.com/user/slcountylibrary

•http://www.youtube.com/user/circulating

•http://www.youtube.com/user/travelinlibrarian

•http://www.youtube.com/user/vonjobi

•http://www.youtube.com/user/llordllama

•http://www.youtube.com/user/nnnicck

•http://www.youtube.com/user/nancydowd

•http://www.youtube.com/user/minidaffodil

•http://www.youtube.com/user/daweedrex•http://www.youtube.com/user/brianbrarian

Sharing your photoblog and vlog

Add the RSS feed to LibGuides Create a Video box and share your

latest vlog post on LibGuides Post pictures on LibGuides

One more example Eris Reads (my book journal)

http://www.sappari-zenzen.net/erisreads/

Content is pulled in from GoodReads, LibraryThing, TwitterLit, Delicious…these widgets make the site much more interesting and even pretty

Blog is based on WordPress, with a free theme

Minimal work and minimal cost and an interest in a topic

Yours should of course be more professional and you should not use quite as many badwords.

Tips for success Be FRESH, be NEW, be RELEVANT, and ADD

NEW STUFF OFTEN Link a LOT.

Your links out create links in—via trackbacks/pingbacks and good old neighborly reciprocity

Find EVERYTHING related to what you’re writing about and link to it

Link to posts on popular blogs…if they display trackbacks, all their readers will see your link

Spell things correctly, for the love of all that’s holy…Use proper grammar as well.

No splogging No hotlinking without the originator’s express

consent Be professional—read like you know what you’re

talking about, and people will believe it

• Darlene Fichter, “Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library’s Services”, http://www.infotoday.com/mls/nov03/fichter.shtml

• http://www.photoblogs.org/ - find photoblogs on topics you’re interested in

• http://www.vlogblog.com/ - learn how to vlog effectively, improve video quality, etc.

•http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/05/09/twittering-libraries/ - David Lee King’s list of Twittering libraries (likely very incomplete)

• http://instructionwiki.org – Lots of help with blogging, tweeting, RSS, and creating content

•http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2005/11/08/behind-splogging-why-sploggers-splog/ - Why Sploggers Splog