Further to "today's webcast"
Submitted by reeganbreu on Wed, 2007-02-14 04:58.
A big thing for me is the accessibility of blogs. Most websites (and blogs too, as a type of website) have a "standard" way that they are organized. Blogs feel different for me when navigating through them, given the reverse chronological posts, etc. Have any of you received feedback from your clients/patrons/customers about your blog (if your library has one)? Did you find yourself having to explain to the public what a blog was before they felt comfortable exploring yours?
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I think a blog is not so
I think a blog is not so different from a news page on any library Website. Usually the most recent news will be at the top of the page and the older news will be further down the page. I think the commenting feature is certainly different (though some libraries do not use it if they're not writing posts that really ask for feedback), but otherwise, I think it's better with marketing to patrons to focus on the content you're now offering them, not the fact that it's a blog.
While blogs are great for a lot of things, considering the reverse chronological ordering, they are best for timely information/news. We use a blog at our library to tell folks about new databases, database trials, new services, events, etc. The blog is no different than a news page on a library Website; the blog just makes it easier for us to publish that information because the people writing it don't need to know HTML.
Thanks for your feedback,
Thanks for your feedback, Meredith. My experience of blogs is that they are different from websites (e.g. organizational websites). As an example, the design tends to not be seamless between a website and its blog (might be if you host it on your server and develop your own template...not sure). I find that organizational website news pages tend to be incorporated into the design of the website, not a separate website that you link to from your main organizational website (which seems to happen with a blog). I also think that blogs provide opportunities to provide additional information (in addition to news) that is commonly excluded from an organizational website (e.g. comments from the public). A blog can be "grown" into a large site, and could over time, be even larger than its organizational website.
Just wondering though...have you received feedback from your clients/patrons/customers about your blog? Have you found yourself having to explain to the public what a blog was before they felt comfortable exploring yours?
Approximately 50% of the peoples that we serve reside in rural and remote areas of the country, without access to the Internet (or limited access at best). The names of these tools (e.g. blog, Flikr, Technorati, de.li.cious, etc.) and how they "feel" when navigating through them, pose accessibility issues, particularly with individuals who might not even be comfortable with the Internet and surfing the web. This is just something that I need to keep at the forefront of my mind throughout the course.
Thanks again!
I think the key then for
I think the key then for your population is to integrate any blog into your Website as much as possible, which will require a little more effort on your part. Our blog (http://www.norwich.edu/academics/library/news.html) doesn't even look like a blog, because we have taken the blog content and syndicated it on our Website using RSS and JavaScript (something you will learn more about next week). We don't call it a blog at all, though users can certainly figure out it's a blog by clicking on the titles of the posts. We chose a blog because 1) it's great for posting timely info and 2) others on staff who don't have HTML skills can add news themselves. Because we are only posting news and aren't really asking for feedback, we don't need the comment features. If you just want to use a blog to disseminate info and don't want to necessarily use it as a feedback mechanism, this is a good way to have the benefits of a blog but make it much more "accessible." Much of my population would have no interest in a "library blog", but they sure would like to know about new resources and events. This "blog" is a part of the Website redesign I've undertaken over the past few months, so it's very much a work in progress. I'm actually thinking about putting information on the page about how one can subscribe to the RSS feed in an aggregator or via e-mail. We're not a very RSS-savvy population, but it's nice to give people as many delivery options as possible.
Hi Meredith. I agree, and
Hi Meredith. I agree, and think that a blog could be very useful for us if integrated into the website. The URL that you provided brings me to a log-in page. Should I be looking at http://www.norwich.edu/academics/library/news.html? I see on the library website that Meebo is the IM software that is used. Is this part of the blog as well or can Meebo be integrated into a website?
Oh dear, yes! Sorry, I was
Oh dear, yes! Sorry, I was logged into the proxy server at the time (I'm snowed in and working from home today!). That is the link I meant to give you. We use MeeboMe on our home page to provide a chat window that students can use to IM us without even needing an IM account. We just have our Meebo account open (which also monitors AIM, Yahoo IM, and MSN Messenger) and when someone tries to chat with us via the MeeboMe widget on the front page, we get the message. It really brings down the barriers for those who aren't into IM (it's not like someone is going to sign up for an AIM account just to chat with a librarian!). ;-) You can stick that little MeeboMe widget on a blog, website, wiki, etc. It's just a little piece of JavaScript that you paste in there.