LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Fall 2010)

Marin County Free Library Blog, a blog that is listed above, is a blog th

I like LibGuides and how the information is presented in sections making for easy navigation.  When I read bavatuesdays blog, I thought "This is so cool",  a DIY approach to creating a LibGuide without the price tag.  I can see this being very helpful for cash-strapped libraries, whether public, academic, special, or K-12.  The WordPress "hack" incorporates similar features of a LibGuide, such as subject guides and 2.0 widgets.

How do you think blogging will contribute to your learning in this class?

Community in the Blogosphere

Several of our readings and our lecture this week addressed important considerations one must think about when starting a blog.  Below are a few that resonated with me as particularly important factors when considering starting a library blog:

Blogging is great way to communicate with almost any audience.  Libraries are no exception.  However, there are a few considerations to be made before undertaking such an endeavor.  What does it really take to start a blog and keep it going?

After only a few weeks blogging has had a significant impact on my overall learning experience here in the online classroom.  Having never really engaged in social media outside of email prior to the start of the semester, I was a bit apprehensive about diving in to social media for the sake of the class.  Nevertheless, I decided to jump in and make the most of the learning experience and so far my experience with blogging, and other forms of social media thus far, have been surprisingly positive.  Blogging from the get-go in this class has allowed me to learn a new mode of communication. 

The examples we saw this week of library blogs taught me at least one valuable lesson - there is no one correct way to design a blog for a library.  This type of resource can be customized in so many different ways, it can focus more on upcoming events or on book reviews, it can maintain a professional and somewhat detached tone or have a very personal voice - in short, there are so many different possibilities for how a library blog can look and operate that there isn't one prescribed way to set about designing one.

I think the two more important things for a librarian to consider when starting a blog are time and feeling comfortable responding to comments. A librarian must have the time to maintain the blog by putting the content together and posting it in the blog in an interactive and attractive manner. In these difficult economic times, many librarians are doing more work because there is shortage of librarians in many library systems. A blog requires time and if a librarian is thinking of opening a blog he or she must allocate time to respond to patrons.

Although it is only the third week of the semester, I have already observed several ways in which blogging is contributing to my learning in this class: