Blogs

From IPL Wiki

Blogging provides a free online medium for broadcasting ideas and connecting with others. Blogs and blogging communities are dedicated to everything from motherhood, to cooking, to technology, to general discussion of random daily thoughts.

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Contents 1 About Blogs & Blogging 2 How Does Blogging Work? 3 Best Practices 4 IPL examples 5 Hands on Activity 6 Articles about Blogs or Blogging 7 Feedback and Prize Drawing

About Blogs & Blogging

Blogs are a type of website composed in the style of an online journal, usually maintained by an individual or group of individuals with frequent entries of text, video, images, and the like, commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Additionally, two features of blogs include unfiltered content and reader comments.

Blogs range in type, including personal or corporate blogs, and genre-specific (e.g., art, fashion, travel) or device-defined (e.g., created on a mobile phone or PDA: moblog). Vlogs or video blogs are another variant. Some blogs are made up of contributions from communities of users, such as Livejournal's Community feature.

According to Wired Magazine, Jorn Berger coined the phrase “weblog” in 1997. The Economist wrote in 2006 that “in 1999, another user, Peter Merholz, playfully broke the word into 'we blog', and somehow the new term—blog—stuck as both a verb and a noun.” Dave Winer estimates that the earliest blog was also the first web site, created in 1992 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, which kept a running track of new sites on the emerging World Wide Web.

How Does Blogging Work?

While a programming-savvy person can create their own website from scratch, there are several blogging platforms available on the Web which will handle this aspect for you. They vary by ability for customization, and cost. There are many free, highly customizable platforms, including the most popular:

• Blogger: http://www.blogger.com
• Wordpress: http://www.wordpress.com
• Typepad: http://www.typepad.com/

To compare blogging platforms by criteria including hosting features or system requirements, use

• WeblogMatrix: http://www.weblogmatrix.org/

To search blog contents, use a blog search engine:

• Technorati: http://technorati.com/
• BlogScope: http://www.blogscope.net/
• Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/

To find other blogs and connect with other bloggers, use:

• MyBlogLog: http://www.mybloglog.com/
• Blog Catalog: http://www.blogcatalog.com/

Best Practices

Check the Blogging Libraries Wiki to access blogging librarians, organized by library type.

Blogs:

• Ann Arbor (MI) District Library: http://www.aadl.org/
• Valenza, Joyce “Never Ending Search” on School Library Journal: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334.html
• Bell, Steven J. “The Kept-Up Academic Librarian.” http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/.
• Library Garden http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/
• The Shifted Librarian http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/
• Stephens, Michael http://tametheweb.com/

Other Ways to Use Blogs:

• 11 Non-traditional Uses of WordPress, including as an email newsletter: http://designm.ag/design/11-non-traditional-uses-of-wordpress/
• 10 Ways to Use Blogs for Managing Projects: http://www.adoptioncurve.net/archives/2005/01/10_ways_to_use_blogs_for_.php

Blogging LIS Educators:

• Lankes, Dave: http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/blog/
• Pomerantz, Jeff: http://www.ibiblio.org/pomerantz/blog/

IPL examples

The IPL Blog The IPL's main blog, which uses Wordpress, includes information about the Internet Public Library, The IPL Learning Community, and announcements and other information.

Learning Community blogs Within the lIPL Learning Community site, a blogging community allows students and instructors to communicate and share information while using the IPL in reference and digital library course work.

Blogging Sandbox The IPL also provides a Drupal-based "sandbox site" where you can experiment with non-permanent blogging and commenting on blogs.

Hands on Activity

The IPL Learning Community provides a "sandbox site" where you can post to your own experimental blog. The "sandbox" is so-called because it is cleared out and returned to its basic settings every 24 hours (thus you can "play in the sandbox" without having to establish a permanent blog.)

• IPL 15 Things Hands-On Activity: visit the IPL Learning Community's blogging sandbox site and practice creating your own blog entries. Additionally, you can practice making a "comment" on other people's blogs.

What makes a good blog entry for your practice? Some bloggers use their blogs as a daily journal of their experiences and thoughts; others choose a theme or favorite topic area and blog about that. If you'd like to first read some other blogs for inspiration and ideas, take a look at the blogs in the Best Practices section and then return to the hands-on activity when you're ready to give it a try.

Articles about Blogs or Blogging

• Arnold, J., Chittenden, L., Ellis, K.D., Eubanks, J., Godwin, I., McDonald, E., Morris, S.E., Ovadia, S., Shrode, F., Teplitzky, S., & Johnson, K. (2007). What's the ballyhoo about blogs? Serials Review, 33(3), 175-187.
• Balas, J.L. (2003). Here a Blog, There a Blog, Even the Library has a Web Log. Computers in Libraries, 23(10), p 41-43. Retrieved from: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0198-34661/Here-a-blog-there-a.html
• Bar-Ilan, J. (2007). The use of Weblogs (blogs) by librarians and libraries to disseminate information. Information Research, 12(4). Retrieved from: http://informationr.net/ir/12-4/paper323.html
• Carver, B. (2003). Is it Time to Get Blogging? Library Journal, 128(1). Retrieved from: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA266428
• Fichter, D. (2003). Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services. Information Today, 17(6), Retrieved from: http://www.infotoday.com/mls/nov03/fichter.shtml
• "Mattering in the Blogosphere: cybrarians speak frankly about their online lives." American Libraries, 38(3), (March 2007), 40-44.
• Pomerantz, J. & Stutzman, F. (2006) Collaborative reference work in the blogosphere. Reference Services Review, 34 (2), 200-212.
• Winder, D. (2007). Blogging for Beginners. Information World Review, 236, 23-24.

Feedback and Prize Drawing

To give feedback to the IPL about the 15 Things and to register for the prize drawing, please visit: http://vll.ipl.org/15things/index.html

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