BLOGs & RSS

Eiman ElnoshokatyE-Resources Unit

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online

• Short for Web log  or  Weblog  online journal where an individual, group, or corporation presents a record of activities, thoughts, or beliefs.

What Is a Blog?

“Push-button publishing for the people”..

Blogger changed the face of the web!

TIME person of the yearPublished: 13 Dec 2006

URL:http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html

Jargon!

Blog blogging blogger post publish

Bloggrolling Archive Permalink Widgets

Feeds Aggregator FollowerBlogsphere

Components of a Typical Blog

• Title of Blog – Unique Name for your blog• Title of Individual Entry or Posting • Date Stamp for each entry – This is the time the

entry is posted to the blog.• Main Body of individual entry - Sentence,

paragraph or essay with links and names and current news

Components of a Typical Blog Cont.

• Author - Blogger!• Archives – Listing of past posts either by

category or date• Permalink – Reference link to a permanent

page just for one post.• Comments (optional) – Allows readers to react

to post• Tags (optional) – Allows the blogger to describe

posts

Components of a Typical Blog Cont.

• Other Links (optional) – Links to related pages, author’s favorite pages etc. 

• Widgets (AKA features) – examples are: RSS feeds, calendar of events, ilike, polls, chat, search, share, others.

Blog Page Example

1

3 2

4

5

6

Typical Kinds of Blogs

• Political BlogsEx.: Demaghy, Nora Younis, etc • Personal Diaries of life-

changing experiences

• Proffesional BlogsEx. Public Library Association blog, Libworm–ALA, LOC blog, etc

Why Should Our Library Have a Blog?

Marketing: Promote Library events and programs, list new movies, books and links to their reviews.

News: Keep patrons informed of new collections, events, and more

Staff Picks: Great for community building, share music, books, movies that are favorites. This is also a great help for Reader’s Advisory.

Online Book Discussions: Let readers post commentsStaff Development: Share tips and tricks with software, search engines etc. Knowledge Sharing: Post difficult reference questions and resources used to answer them. In addition to sharing new, worthwhile sites.

Pause Before You Blogto consider…

• Purpose of the blog• Who will be in charge of setting up and

maintaining the blog?• How will you train your staff to post/use blog?• Ease of use• Features needed/required on blog

Blogging Software:Hosting Services

• Blogger: http://www.blogger.com• Pitas: http://www.pitas.com/ • Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com• WordPress: http://wordpress.com• Easy Journal: http://www.easyjournal.com/

Things to Look for in Hosting Services:

• How many authors/contributors are allowed on each blog?

• How many blogs are allowed for the price?• Are they strictly for personal use or may they be

used by organizations?• Is there good documentation and support?• Do they include all of the features you

need/desire? (RSS, comments, graphics etc.)

Library Blogs

• Library of Congress Blog• The New York Public Library Blog• Teen Services at the LFPL • The Lubin Files• Les blogs de la BnF • .. And more!

Library & Information Science Blogs

• VIP2 – http://vip2.blogspot.com - For visually impaired persons and librarians who serve them

 • Resource Shelf – http://resourceshelf.freepint.com/ -

Resources and news for Information Professionals

• A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquettehttp://libetiquette.blogspot.com/

• ilibrarian - http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/ - Online Education Database (OEDB) blog directed for librarians

• Library Weblogs - http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html

Blogs by Individual Librarians

• Free Range Librarian - http://freerangelibrarian.com/ - Karen Schneider’s Postcards from the Edge of Librarianship

• The Shifted Librarian – http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com - Jenny Levine’s webpage – also has one for Moblogging!

 • Library Stuff – http://www.librarystuff.net - Library

weblog “dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development” by Steven Cohen

Finding Blogs on the Internet

• Peter Scott’s List of Library Weblogs: International in scope, this list is broken down by country.

• OR:Check recommendations through your aggregator

• Google Blogsearch

• Technorati Blog Finder

• IceRocket Blog Search

• Feedster Blog Search

Blogs as a Source of Information?

• Format ideal for current awareness

• Knowledge/expertise sharing

• Check quality blogs from selections/recommendations/awards

Creating a Blog Using Blogger

1.Go to http://blogger.com2.Set up an account with username and

password (you can use your Google account)3.Select a name for your blog4.Select a template (Can be changed later)5.Pick and choose features

• RSS means various things – “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”

• Often called an “Internet headline Service”• Using a RSS reader (aggregator) you can

subscribe to various blogs and have headlines and/or abstracts delivered to your reader.

• Saves time since it all goes to one spot.

RSS

Feed Aggregators

• Also known as feed readers.• Software that tracks a list of feeds and displays new articles.• If you use the Firefox or Internet Explorer web browsers, a website with a

feed will be shown in the address bar with a feed icon similar to this one: • Many web pages now publish a feed of their content. Usually, they’ll use a

graphic to show readers that a feed is available.• Feed readers can be downloaded to your computer, or you can use

an online feed reader.       Examples are: BlogLines, Google Reader          , My Yahoo!, and others• For a list of available desktop and web-based feed readers, see

http://www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators

1. Copy the URL for the blog/website/alert you want to follow

2. Go to https://www.google.com/reader OR

Cont’d

3. Login to Google4. Paste the URL

Cont’d

5. Browse feeds

Cont’d

RSS in Databases

• Search Feeds• Journal articles Feeds• New titles: topic

RSS in Databases – General Onefile

RSS in Databases - EBSCOhost

RSS in Databases – ScienceDirect

Wrapping Up….

• Be sure you really want a blog.

• Start simple. Then consider upgrading if necessary.

• Keep it current or remove it!

• Careful before you consider a blog an information source

Check out useful articles, blogs, and websites: http://delicious.com/e_resources

Thank you!

Eiman ElnoshokatyExt. 1860