Hello all

I think the Library Journal article on blogging gave a good set of things to consider if your library is thinking of starting a blog. Setting out clearly a time commitment, scope of topics and how to measure success would help to keep things from wandering off task. Being a very small library, with only three staff persons, I don't think we would benefit from any internal blogging, but I thought some of the interactions between schools, students and the public library might be very helpful for us in letting people know the services we have available, especially since our middle and high school students go to a larger, regional school. Setting up the blog on Wordpress seemed very easy - I think most of our patrons would feel comfortable with the process. I think libraries do need to keep up with changes in interactive media - it's definitely not "jumping on the bandwagon" these are just the ways that many people interact now - my teenage sons barely use the telephone except to text and a lot of their interaction with friends is on facebook.

Kathy Keirstead

I was pleasantly suprised that setting up my blog was straight forward and simple. Of course, the directions provided were very detailed. Most of the students and teachers possess basic computer skills, so patrons should be able to post comments to a blog. In a high school library, the blog would be useful as a communication and marketing tool to both teachers and students. After reviewing the high school blog website, I realized the multiple functionality of a blog for a school library. As stated in the Blogomania article, students enjoy using this form of communication and it provides the opportunity to self-publish. In an English class, students could create a blog and post comment about a current book selection. This would encourage, reluctant writers and help prepare students for the Writing component of the MCAS. Also, teachers could easily post comments to the students about grammar and usage. However, Blogomania also stated the problems with privacy issues. These would have to be addressed in certain school communities and with administration. I believe libraries should embrace the new technology to further promote the importance of libraries in society. I look forward to creating a blog for my high school library.

Kim Lavoie

Hello
We've talked about adding a blog to our website many times in the last 6 months at our library. Our Youth Services Librarian is fairly adept at most of the new technology (she is considerably younger than the rest of us) so she'll be a great asset to us getting this done. She's already planning to have a blog on the YA part of the website and plans on doing a "Book of the Day" post.

Since my focus is adults, I like the ideas in the articles about blogging about programming. Having talked to a few individuals in one of our book groups, it was suggested that patrons may like to comment about how they liked the programs they attended and they may provide suggestions for other programs that we may offer.

I also liked the idea about using a blog for intercommunication between staff members. We already have email, but sometimes there is a problem with individuals not checking it often enough. Some of this is because the staff is not technologically savy but it is also that they have little time. If we do a staff blog, we may have to give each individual daily time to focus on it.

Suzanne

It was easy to set up my blog. After reading the articles and looking at both public and school library blogs, I have to agree that blogging is a very easy, and effective tech resource. I can see how it can be used to nurture communication and innovation, not to mention a streamlined process for sharing. This was a good first lesson. Thanks!

Theresa

I have thought for a long time that an internal blog would be a great thing to have at our library because, quite frankly, the constant shuffling of memos that circulate from just about all departments is staggering. The LJ article once again reinforced this belief and I see that it can and does work. The frustrating problem is getting the majority of our staff to try something new online is an up hill battle. Though, over the past few years, we have added staff members from the computer generation comfortable utilizing such sources, a goodly part of our staff has been dragged into the computer age reluctantly.
Don’t get me wrong our staff has learned to use the programs they need to use efficiently, however, there is no desire to branch out, reach beyond, or try something beyond these basics. They feel more comfortable holding that paper memo than reading something on the computer and I honestly don’t know how to change those feelings. I constantly try talking up the benefits of things like blogs, giving them examples to check out, but so far it’s been a losing battle. I’m going to try giving the WordPress blog link to everyone and do more than once a week posts to it for these six weeks and see what happens.

The one thing I do question in the LJ article is the time factor estimate of 10 to 30 minutes a day devoted to blogging. Perhaps I am too wordy, perhaps I revise too much, perhaps I’m one of those people who just can’t write anything at a fast clip but I know that it would take me more time than that to make a coherent, informative blog post.

Daisy

I agree with Daisy - keeping up with paper memos and hoping that everyone reads their email in a timely fashion bogs down internal communication. Blogging is so efficient!

The time factor and limited staff are definite considerations regarding starting a blog at the library. But, I would like to embrace the technology and use it to the library's and patron's advantage.

Kim

I've noted that now two people here have mentioned staff not checking their e-mail. That's interesting and a bit comforting since this is a chronic problem here and we thought it was just us.
Daisy

I've enjoyed reading all of your comments so far. It sounds like the process for setting up the blog has gone smoothly and that most of you already have some definite ideas on how a blog could be used in your libraries.

I wanted to comment on some specific points that have been made:

Regarding using a blog for staff communication, I think it's a great idea! However, when it comes to staff who don't check their e-mail, I think you'll have a hard time getting them to check the blog as well. One possibility (and you may have already thought of this) is to set the blog as the browser's home page on staff computers.

You could then add important links that they need to your blog's "Blogroll." To do this, click the Blogroll link, located in your main menu in between the Comments link and the Presentation link. This is traditionally used to link to other blogs you like to read, but it can really be used to link to anything. These links will display in the sidebar of your blog. This will give staff quick access to things like the library catalog, your home page, etc. At the same time, the latest news you want to share with them will be the first thing they see when they open the browser.

Kim - When I read your comment about privacy, it made me think of a comment I heard form a teen who is a frequent user of My Own Cafe. We were encouraging the teens to add a guideline for the site saying that they should never disclose their full names and the names of another person on the site. She didn't think it was necessary because she felt teachers had been talking at them about these issues for years. You could tell she was tired of hearing what she considered to be the same old lecture from year to year.

It made me think that the best way to get the message across to students is to stop talking about Internet safety rules and start creating environments where students' first experiences with online interaction are under the guidance of a teacher who can then work with them on what is and is not appropriate to post. A blog certainly is a way to do that. Another selling point for school administration is that most blogging services give you the ability to moderate comments so that you can view them before they are posted to the public. My experience with My Own Cafe is that the teens are usually pretty good about what they post, but that may be a first step to address some of those privacy concerns.

Daisy - regarding the time factor, I agree it can take a lot of time to create a coherent post. In fact, it's already taken me 20 minutes just to type out these comments. But I don't think you really need to do a substantive post everyday. On my Tech Watch blog, I often only post links to articles I find interesting. I then just add a couple of sentences with my thoughts and usually can have the post done within five minutes. In one of my blogging attempts, my plan was to just write one substantive post a week and then try to find other smaller things to blog about or link to during the rest of the week. A friend of mine who, unlike me, actually keeps up with his blog says he just forces himself to sit down at least once a week to write a post.

Those are my thoughts for now, but keep the conversation going!

Hello Everyone,

I feel like a true beginner to this world of techno tools. I thought I knew what a blog and Wiki were about but it has been an eye opener to actually start the process. Now that I am here, I am starting to feel excited about the possibililties for our library. Getting over the fear of the unknown and learning the basics would be the biggest challenge for our staff and would take the most time. However, we have embraced a lot of new ideas and technology over the years and I know the staff would be successful. I supervise a staff of 11 in our Circulation Department. We rely on paper notes, a hot sheet, and a good old fashioned blackboard to make announcements and report changes. I think a staff blog would be a great message board for us. The younger members of our staff have organized a techno night next week at a local restaurant. Food is always a good lure. They will present a discussion of technolgy tools to any staff member interested. This will be good introduction.


Reading the articles and visiting the suggested blog sites, I saw what wonderful resources they could be internally and externally. The academic settings have a built-in audience and lots of willing, young participants. I thought about our patrons at the public library and wondered just how many would actually use a library blog. Many are still uncomfortable with computers.


Linda

Hi kathy,

I have 2 questions that I need to answer before I continue onto the next unit. I thought I was editing the domain name for my blog but now it seems I have 2.

I entered the 'About me' section as a comment so it doesn't show up until comments is clicked. What should I have used?

Okay 3 questions

How do I reply to a comment on this page?

Thanks

Linda

Hi Linda,

Once you create the domain for your WordPress blog, you can't change it to a new one. You can change anything else, but the domain needs to stay the same, which is probably why it created two domains for you.

When writing a post to your blog, you want to click the "Write" tab in the upper left corner of the navigational menu. The comments are what your public would use to comment on your post or what you would use to reply to one of your comments.

You can just post a comment, the way you did with this comment, to reply to comments on this page.

Hope this helps!

Kathy

As I get more familiar with the course, I keep fine tuning my blog.