Week 2 Blogging

Added by Karen Huffman, last edited by susan fifer canby on Feb 18, 2009  (view change)

Table of Contents

Thing 3 and 4: Blogging and Registration with Blog Central

Learning Time: 2 Hours

It will only take you five minutes to set up your blog. The rest of the time is spent on reading, evaluating, writing, editing and linking your blog.  Then you'll be hooked.

What the heck is blogging? 

A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Take a quick look at this YouTube video on Blogs in Plain English (00:02:58).

Google's Blogger, hosted by Blogspot, defines a blog:
"A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.  In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. "

To learn about its development and blurring with publishing as well as some of the privacy considerations take a look at Wikipedia's entry on the topic of blogs.
Need Help?
Need help or have a question? Leave us a comment or question at the bottom of any page or on our home page's blog, so others who might have the same problem or idea will gain from our interaction. Reminder: You need to be signed into SLA's wiki to leave comments.

What's in it for you? 

Your blog will become your personal journal to track your progress in the SLA "23 Things" initiative that we are all endeavoring.  For those new to blogging, you will soon see the potential for sharing information within your library, with specific client groups and even your family.  I encourage you to track not only what you learn, but also how you apply each tool in your life.

Perspectives: Links and ideas to pertinent resources 

Discovery: Let's Begin. Set up your own blog & add your first post

Next, determine which tool you want to use to set up your blog. There are free or cheap services that allow you to set up a blog easily on their websites. They provide web-based interfaces for creating, editing and managing blog entries. They usually include a pre-made selection of "templates" which define the look and feel of your blog. They also provide you with free web space on which your blog can be hosted.

Choose your tool from Mashable's list of *40 free blogging tools*OR select one of these:

Review the help tools and YouTube videos on tailoring your settings if you don't want the search engines to see your blog, or if you only want certain people to read it and are concerned with privacy.  If you have another blog already, you can associate it -- for instance I have one: Speaking with Susan

Start posting. This is the place we are going to keep track of our progress on your learning about the other 22 Things! If you need to edit anything you've posted click on Posting and choose Edit. You may want to add metadata - labels or tags to improve searchability as your blog grows.  Next, sign up the people that you want to see your blog by entering their e-mail addresses -- unless the blog is open to everyone. Add some biographical information to your blog to describe its purpose or intent. Include information on how to contact you.

Reflections on Learning to Blog 

Use your blog to write about which blogs you reviewed and to explain which blog service you chose to use and why. While you learn the 23 Things you can relect on your progress.

Blogging can be fun, but one of the hardest things about beginning to blog is figuring out what should go on your blog and how to get others to read it.  Think about sharing your blog with specific colleagues or even family members to see if you can get some traction.  For example, you can see how Stephen Abram uses his blog "Stephen's Lighthouse" to reflect on his own new learning and observations.  Marie Kaddell uses her blog at LexisNexis, "Government Info Pro," to stay in touch with her clients.  It allows her to reduce travel time but still stay very connected.  Maybe you could use yours to work with your staff.

Your Next Challenge

In next week's learning, you will bookmark your blog using Del.icio.us. If you want to handle it in this session here are a few options if you want handle now:

  1. Copy your blog's URL. Then click on the top right link in Del.icio.us "Save a new bookmark." Follow the prompts to complete the process. Remember to tag your bookmark with  SLA23Things.
  2. Or... add shortcut buttons on your browser's toolbar for easily bookmarking a website. Here are the directions for installing bookmark buttons. If you install on your browser's toolbar, then you can simply navigate to your blog and click on the appropriate icon for bookmarking your blog.

See Del.icio.us Help documentation if you have other questions about tags, bookmarking, etc.

Labels