I was reading this article, and I have to say that I really put it in the context of 2002. It is interesting to see that as the Meg Hourihan mentions, blogs have changed over time. She discusses the development of blogs after 9/11 to include warblogs, but we also know that corporate blogs are something even more current. Many private organizations and libraries (in the context of our course) have developed blogs in the past few years. We see those as an expression not only of thoughts, but of events in the community or organizations, of new things that happened and as a way of communicating with potential customers.
The way I look at it is that some people have personal blogs to communicate what is happening in their lives to their friends (as the author mentions), while organizations took this idea to the next level. I wondered at the beginning how a blog is this different from a webpage from the point of view of a customer looking at a corporate blog? The main difference I see is the time stamp and the reverse chronological order that the author talks about in the Anatomy of a Blog, as well as the ability of readers to post comments.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Week 2 post - Time to check: Are you using the right blogging tool?
I found this particular article very informative considering I am new to blogging. I am using Blogger only because this was the only blogging site I knew about from some of my friends and I started there. I was interested in finding out what else is out there, especially that now, once I have started to explore Blogger a little more, I came to the conclusion that it is a little difficult to use (having to know HTML code to change slightly a template and having a hard time linking to LibraryThing).
A number of blogging software is mentioned in this article, besides Blogger are: Typepad, Blogware, WordPress, Movable Type and Expression Engine. I noticed that many of them are actually not free. I don't know why I was always under the impression that all blogging software is free. Maybe because I would never pay to publish my own blog, however I would do that if I would be creating a blog for an organization.
This made me think that having a blog created with more advanced blogging software, that looks very professional is a way of introducing it into an organization (library) and still keeping the corporate look. I was always thinking that having a blog like mine to discuss my library's issues would be a little unprofessional and would not necessarily look like representing the organization.
In the context of libraries, I am wondering who makes the decision of which blogging software to use and who maintains it (IT/ a specific librarian or a group of librarians)? If any of you has any ideas, please share...
A number of blogging software is mentioned in this article, besides Blogger are: Typepad, Blogware, WordPress, Movable Type and Expression Engine. I noticed that many of them are actually not free. I don't know why I was always under the impression that all blogging software is free. Maybe because I would never pay to publish my own blog, however I would do that if I would be creating a blog for an organization.
This made me think that having a blog created with more advanced blogging software, that looks very professional is a way of introducing it into an organization (library) and still keeping the corporate look. I was always thinking that having a blog like mine to discuss my library's issues would be a little unprofessional and would not necessarily look like representing the organization.
In the context of libraries, I am wondering who makes the decision of which blogging software to use and who maintains it (IT/ a specific librarian or a group of librarians)? If any of you has any ideas, please share...
Monday, September 11, 2006
Week 1 article post - Social software in the library by K.M. Dames
This is the first article I read as part of this course only because my focus is understanding how libraries can use these technologies best. I was a little disappointed that the article did not really treat this subject in depth, but merely listed some social software technologies and how they have been used in the past. It is important to also note, that although this article may present a good historical perpective (published in July 2004), it may not necessarily touch on current issues, since in a world like ours, these change day by day.
I liked that the article talked about the image that librarians often have in the world as "we can find it (the information) in Google" and that it also recognized that by using social software tools, an information professional will reach to people outside the lirbary walls and in the end, it may even draw those people in.
I also pickep up the fact that Dames talks about large library systems that use blogs as a way of internal communication. Needless to say that I would love to see that in Mississauga, however we have a long way to go. However, I was recently told by a colleague about a website from a public library in the States where they set up a blog they use to teach their staff social software tools (similar to what we have in this course, but in a more laid back format with not marks, but with prizes). You may want to check out Learning 2.0
I also noticed that he talks about instant messaging (we don't even have that available in Mississauga for security reasons as determined by out IT department!!!) and wireless. Although many of us are used to have wireless technology at home or at school, in reality there are few public libraries who are offering that. Once again, in Mississauga, the project is in the pilot stage at the Central Library.
I think that once again, after reading this article, I'm a little dissapointed in what we have where I work and hope that things will change. I also noticed that at the time this article was written many of the examples are from academic libraries and hope that throughout this course we will be able to examine more the way in which public libraries have used social software tools to communicate with their customers.
I liked that the article talked about the image that librarians often have in the world as "we can find it (the information) in Google" and that it also recognized that by using social software tools, an information professional will reach to people outside the lirbary walls and in the end, it may even draw those people in.
I also pickep up the fact that Dames talks about large library systems that use blogs as a way of internal communication. Needless to say that I would love to see that in Mississauga, however we have a long way to go. However, I was recently told by a colleague about a website from a public library in the States where they set up a blog they use to teach their staff social software tools (similar to what we have in this course, but in a more laid back format with not marks, but with prizes). You may want to check out Learning 2.0
I also noticed that he talks about instant messaging (we don't even have that available in Mississauga for security reasons as determined by out IT department!!!) and wireless. Although many of us are used to have wireless technology at home or at school, in reality there are few public libraries who are offering that. Once again, in Mississauga, the project is in the pilot stage at the Central Library.
I think that once again, after reading this article, I'm a little dissapointed in what we have where I work and hope that things will change. I also noticed that at the time this article was written many of the examples are from academic libraries and hope that throughout this course we will be able to examine more the way in which public libraries have used social software tools to communicate with their customers.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
First post for LIS757
A little bit about myself:
My name is Simona Dinu and I am a part-time student in the MLIS program (my 4th semester now, planning to graduate in December 2007). In addition to taking 2 courses per semester I also work full-time as a supervisor at the Courtneypark Branch Library in Mississauga. I am very luck to have had the opportunity of working in libraries since I started doing the 40 hours of community service during highschool. I fell in love with the library (as I always like to say it) and ditched a promising accounting career (well, I'm not sure how promising it would have ended up). Right now, I work at the newest and largest library branch in Missisauga and I am basically responsible for a variety of duties, anywhere from supervising staff to preparing payroll, from being in charge of circulation to providing reference, from doing preschool programs to participating in organizing a systemwide staff conference. My days busy, rewarding,challenging, fun and I would never want to move out of the public library world....well, not for a while anyway....
My experience with social software started last October when as part of the committee responsible for organizing the annual staff conference in Mississauga, I was put in charge of the most innovative session ever, one about emerging technologies in libraries. All this, with the help of 5 very talented and knowledgeable part-time staff. That's how I learned about blogs, wikis, RSS, del.icio.us and even others such palm pilots and ipods. After this learning experience which took until May (conference time), I started exploring on my own: I created by own blog, but only finished it tonight. I set-up a del.icio.us account for myself (I have not really used it much, but will use it more now) and also one for our library in order to organize favourite sites (this project has been successful and we continue to build on it). I created a Library Thing account and added a few titles I read recently, just to try it out. I set-up a Pageflakes account (an RSS feed aggregator) which I have not used much, but at least I have it ready for this course. I also became more aware of wikis and of the different kinds of wikis (I always thought there's only wikipedia) and I think I have a better understanding of when it is appropriate to use them.
In addition to this I had the opportunity of listening to Stephen Abram talk about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 at OLA this year and at our Mississauga Conference.
Overall, I hope this course will give me an opportunity not only to explore these technologies in more detail, but to also look carefully at the practical applications they may have to libraries. They all look great when you try them out, we just have to know when to make the best use of them and how to go about selling these mew ideas to others.
Looking forward to interesting virtual discussions....
My name is Simona Dinu and I am a part-time student in the MLIS program (my 4th semester now, planning to graduate in December 2007). In addition to taking 2 courses per semester I also work full-time as a supervisor at the Courtneypark Branch Library in Mississauga. I am very luck to have had the opportunity of working in libraries since I started doing the 40 hours of community service during highschool. I fell in love with the library (as I always like to say it) and ditched a promising accounting career (well, I'm not sure how promising it would have ended up). Right now, I work at the newest and largest library branch in Missisauga and I am basically responsible for a variety of duties, anywhere from supervising staff to preparing payroll, from being in charge of circulation to providing reference, from doing preschool programs to participating in organizing a systemwide staff conference. My days busy, rewarding,challenging, fun and I would never want to move out of the public library world....well, not for a while anyway....
My experience with social software started last October when as part of the committee responsible for organizing the annual staff conference in Mississauga, I was put in charge of the most innovative session ever, one about emerging technologies in libraries. All this, with the help of 5 very talented and knowledgeable part-time staff. That's how I learned about blogs, wikis, RSS, del.icio.us and even others such palm pilots and ipods. After this learning experience which took until May (conference time), I started exploring on my own: I created by own blog, but only finished it tonight. I set-up a del.icio.us account for myself (I have not really used it much, but will use it more now) and also one for our library in order to organize favourite sites (this project has been successful and we continue to build on it). I created a Library Thing account and added a few titles I read recently, just to try it out. I set-up a Pageflakes account (an RSS feed aggregator) which I have not used much, but at least I have it ready for this course. I also became more aware of wikis and of the different kinds of wikis (I always thought there's only wikipedia) and I think I have a better understanding of when it is appropriate to use them.
In addition to this I had the opportunity of listening to Stephen Abram talk about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 at OLA this year and at our Mississauga Conference.
Overall, I hope this course will give me an opportunity not only to explore these technologies in more detail, but to also look carefully at the practical applications they may have to libraries. They all look great when you try them out, we just have to know when to make the best use of them and how to go about selling these mew ideas to others.
Looking forward to interesting virtual discussions....
My first blog ever....
It's the first time I'm writing something on my brand new blog.
Where did it all start?
Well, I found out what blogging is over six months ago (long story, maybe I'll share it in later posts), I played around by reading other people's blogs and then I created my own, but never finished it till tonight.....I guess I was just lazy and I only got it done (with picture and everything) because I am now enrolled in a class about Social Software and Libraries and school just started yesterday. I will be mostly using this blog for this class, but I hope to to continue using it in the future even if only for the sake of being up to date on what's going on in the technology field.
More posting to come....
Where did it all start?
Well, I found out what blogging is over six months ago (long story, maybe I'll share it in later posts), I played around by reading other people's blogs and then I created my own, but never finished it till tonight.....I guess I was just lazy and I only got it done (with picture and everything) because I am now enrolled in a class about Social Software and Libraries and school just started yesterday. I will be mostly using this blog for this class, but I hope to to continue using it in the future even if only for the sake of being up to date on what's going on in the technology field.
More posting to come....
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