Week 1 - Blogs

Wow, what a lot of information about blogs this week!

First, let me say that I'm a rather private sort of person, so I am not inclined to post a weblog of personal stuff.  But I can really appreciate the value of blogging for my organization, both as a way to post current information to the public and to collaborate with my colleagues within the organization.

Blogging software, especially if the service is free, is a great way for libraries, and especially small public libraries with no money, to get a presence on the Web.  You don't have to know html - don't have to invest in WYSIWYG web editor software (and learn how to use it) - and don't need to pay for a web hosting service (although it would be good to have a domain name).  It's definately a good place to start, and we have seen some fabulous examples of what libraries are doing with blogs.

The Library Development Division of the Montana State Library is at this moment involved in redesigning their Web page, with a blog as the projected centerpiece of content, so I am poised to provide some expert advice as a result of being in this course!  Thanks to Nanette for her sound recommendations concerning policies and procedures for managing a blog team - I'll be passing that on to our team, as well as sharing some of the examples of libraries who feature blogs on their websites in this way.

In the meantime, I'm developing a presentation about online readers' advisroy services - for a Montana Library Association meeting next weekend, and hoping that blogging about books will be an exciting way to get Montana librarians blogging.  For the presentation, I considered Blogger and WordPress because they are both free, developer-hosted and user-friendly, but I decided on WordPress because I like the look better and because it doesn't have the navigation bar at the top where users can leave the site to the next blog.  Maybe I'm a control freak, but for my library site, I don't want users to be surfing a bunch of other blogs that aren't related to the site, perhaps without realizing that they have left the library site.

What makes a good blog?  One that is updated frequently with current information, and includes pictures.

Comments?  If it's a library blog, I think they need to be moderated.  Your taxpayers might get upset if there are unsavory comments posted to the site.