Questions?

This blog will remain on the SEMLS web site, so feel free to check back if you need a refresher. The URL is www.semls.org/kathy/semlskeepsblogging.html. Feel free to post comments if you have any more observations or questions. I have enabled e-mail notification of comments, so I will see your message and will respond.

As always, you can contact me via e-mail at klussier@semls.org, via phone at 508-923-3531, or via IM at semlskathy (AOL, Yahoo) or at klussier@semls.org(MSN) if you have any questions.

Thanks for participating in this session. I look forward to seeing your blogs!

Make the most out of RSS

RSS is not only important for publicizing your blog. You can also use it to keep up on the news as well as professional information. To start, you need to use a RSS reader. Two web-based readers are My Yahoo and Bloglines. You can also download a reader to your local computer. Some popular readers are Pluck, SharpReader, and Newzcrawler.

The idea behind RSS is getting the news you want the way you want when you want. If you don't like the way your RSS reader displays information, keep looking around until you find one you like.

To start, think of a web page you visit on a regular basis to get your news (boston.com, nytimes.com). Now look at the page and try to find an RSS link or an orange XML button. Add this feed to your feed reader. Go to your reader on a regular basis instead of the web page. Now, add a couple more feeds to the reader. When you go to this reader, you will get news from a number of sites instead of the one that you usually get news from. Here are some good feeds to try:

LISNews - http://www.lisnews.com/rss.shtml - a number of feeds to keep you up to date on the library profession.

American Libraries Online - http://www.ala.org/cfapps/xml/alonline.xml - Feed for articles in American Libraries.

The SLJ Blog - http://www.ala.org/cfapps/xml/alonline.xml - Get the buzz about libraries, learning and technology.

Will Richardson's weblogg-ed - http://www.weblogg-ed.com/xml/rss.xml - a great blog about using blogs in the classroom.

Massachusetts Performers & Programs Directory - http://feeds.feedburner.com/massperform - Find out when new performers are added to the directory.

MBLC Job vacancies - http://mblc.state.ma.us/cgi-bin/mpv/rss.pl - Be notified of new job openings across the state.

Library Elf - www.libraryelf.com - Notifies you when your books are due and when your holds are available.

Non-library feeds
New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html

Boston.com - http://www.boston.com/tools/rss/?p1=Foot_RSS-B

Topix - www.topix.net - Get your local news, based on a zip code, from various online news sources.

Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts - Notifies me when a new web page or news stories with my search terms are posted to the Web.

Technorati Watch List - http://www.technorati.com/watchlist/ - Find out when your search term appears in a blog or a photo.
Massachusetts Performers & Programs Directory - http://feeds.feedburner.com/massperform - Find out when new performers are added to the directory.

Feedburner

You can use your blog's feed as it is without any problem. However, you could also do more with your feed if you use a tool called Feedburner. With Feedburner, you can view statistics for your feed. However, don't be disappointed if your only subscriber is you and one other person.

You can also use Feedburner to easily republish your feed on another web page. Why would you want to do this? Let's say you're using your blog to highlight new stuff in your library, and you want this stuff to appear on your web site's home page as well to get maximum attention. You could pull the feed from your blog to create headlines on the front page. When somebody clicks on the headline, they are taken to your blog posting.

RSS

Now let's talk about RSS - Really Simple Syndication. RSS is often talked about in conjunction with blogs because blogging software almost always creates an RSS feed for you. It's easy to provide quick access to your RSS feed.

With blog-city, the RSS feed is automatically added to your gutter. If you accidentally removed it, you can re-add it by following these steps:

• Click on "Look and Feel"
• In the gutter, click "Add Widget."
• Under "...For 3rd Parties," click on "Add-me RSS"

Why should we add the RSS Widget?
This allows your patrons to subscribe to your blog, much in the same way that they subscribe to newspapers. When a new issue of the newspaper comes out, it automatically arrives at their door. When a new posting for your blog comes out, it automatically arrives at their computer.

Let's see what other libraries do with their blogs.

Hanson Public Library - http://hansonplinfo.blog-city.com/
Darien Library blogs - http://www.darienlibrary.org/blogs.php
Ann Arbor District Library - http://www.aadl.org/
Galileo Academy of Science and Technology Li-Blog-Ary - http://www.galileoweb.org/galileolibrary/
Hunterdon Central High School - http://central.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/imc
Mabry Middle School - http://mabryonline.org/blogs/media/
Dutch Fork Middle School - http://nlcommunities.com/communities/mshaddon/


What do you think? Was there anything that caught your attention that you really liked? Are there ways these libraries could have improved these blogs? Would you like to take any of these features into your own blogs?

Tweaking your blog

Here are some settings you may want to tweak in your blog.

Here are some settings you may want to use to tweak in your blog.

Skin Manager - Provides options for changing the location of your blog's gutter, changing the theme for your blog, and customizing the header and colors.

Main Blog Widgets - Remove and add items to your blog's gutter, or just move them up in the list. A couple of items you may want to consider including:

• Click the Latest Entries widget to control how your latest entries appear on the home page.
  
• Bookmarks - allows you to put permanent links to web sites in your gutter.
  
• Most Used Tags - if you're planning to tag your entries, this will list your most popular tags in the gutter.
• Link Blog entries - many bloggers post a lot of links to their blogs. With blog-city, you have the option to create a separate Link Blog. By using a Link Blog, your main blog does not become cluttered with these postings. The latest Link Blog entries can then be posted in the gutter.
  
• Profile - Let your blog readers get to know you.
• RSS Add-Me - Easy way to add an RSS feed to your blog (more on this later.)
• Monthly Archives - Allow users to easily access your archive.

Settings - Configure the following options for your blog:

• Site Name/Domain - By going to the tab, you can give your blog a usable title.
• Blog Entry Options - This is the place to go to control who can comment on your blog and to set the time zone for your blog.
• Blog Site Profile - Manage how your blog is listed in the Blog-City directory. This is also where your enable e-mail notification when somebody posts a comment to your blog.
  

Extras - See how many people have signed up for your mailing list and add documents to your file space.

Entries - Set up the ability for "Future Blogging." Click on the Entries tab and select "Choose your Editor." Place a checkmark in the box that allows you to put a "Publish Date" on your entry form. This allows you to create seven posts in one day, but spread them out over seven-days worth of posts.

Let's create a blog!

To create our blog today, we will be using blog-city, a free hosted blogging service. Some features require a paid subscription, but it's only $35 per year and well worth it if it is a feature you really want.

Some other free hosted services include:

Blogger - http://www.blogger.com - Owned by Google, Blogger is the software used to create this blog.

Live Journal - http://www.livejournal.com - this site is typically used for personal journals.

WordPress - http://www.wordpress.org - can be hosted or installed on your server.

NEW! Vox - http://www.sixapart.com/vox/ - is a new hosted personal blogging service that will be in full release in October. School librarians may want to keep an eye on this service. The privacy features in Vox may be just what is needed in schools where administrators are nervous about who will be reading your blogs. Posts can be set up to be only read by students, parents, or everyone.

For more robust blogging, you can try these blogging tools that cost money:

Movabletype - http://www.movabletype.org is blogging software that can be installed on your school's web server.

Typepad - http://www.typepad.com - if you like Movable Type, but cannot use your school's server for blogging, you can use this hosted service, which uses Movable Type software.

Radio Userland - http://radio.userland.com - another option for a hosted solution.

Blogging resources

Read these resources for more information about why you might want to blog in your library:

Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services, from Marketing Library Services, November/December 2003.
Preparing for the birth of our library blog from Computers in Libraries, February 2006.
Blogging & RSS in Libraries presentation to SEMLS blogging class by Steven Cohen.
Blogomania! from School Library Journal, 8/1/2005
Blogging@Schools a presentation from Computers in Libraries 2005
Bloggers: a Portrait of the Internet's new storytellers a July 2006 report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project
The State of Blogging a January 2005 report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project

Why blog?

First of all - don't create a blog just because you want a blog. A blog will not be successful it does not have a purpose with content that patrons and students will find useful.

Having said that, there are several reasons why your library may want to use a blog:

• It's an easy way to update content on your web site.
• It gives patrons and students an opportunity to interact with your web site. Members of a book discussion group can post their comments to your blog. Patrons can give you feedback on library services.
• Team blogs are an easy way to collaborate on a particular project online.
• You can highlight new services and resources.

As we go through this session and look at some library blogs, you may think of other reasons to use a blog in your library. Feel free to post these ideas here.

What is a blog?

Blog is an abbreviation for weblogs. This name comes from the fact that early blogs were literally logs or diaries written online. However, this name is misleading since blogs have grown to be much more than diaries. Essentially, blogs are web sites that are:

• Listed chronologically with all written content dated and timestamped;
• Easily created with a web-based form;
• Archived.

Standard features of a blog include:

• Comments;
• Permalinks, i.e. each posting has its own page to which anyone can link;
• Categories that a post can be labeled with;
• RSS feeds;
• Trackback, i.e. see who is linking to your posts

Types of blogs you will see:

• Diaries
• News
• Political
• Professional
• Collaborative
• Educational

Good morning

Welcome to Blogging & RSSfor libraries. I'm thrilled to be able to tell you a little about blogging today and how you can use it to support instruction in your media center.

My goals for today are to:

• Tell you what a blog is and show you different types of blogs that are available.
• Show you how to create a blog in five minutes (yes, that's all it takes.)
• Look at different ways librarians are using blogs to support their services, to disseminate information, and to collaboarate with patrons/students and each other.
• Explore what RSS feeds are and how you can not only create them easily with your blog, but how you can use them to keep up with news.
  

I would like to hear what your interest is in blogging. Are you considering it for your library? Are you just interested in learning about the communication tools that your patrons may already be using? Do you see any barriers to using blogs in your library?