team blogging for librarians (10 may 2011)
DESCRIPTION
Team Blogging for Librarians (10 May 2011), without images which might be (c)-protected; and to cut on size of slides/pptTRANSCRIPT
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Team Blogging for LibrariansClemens Gresser
(UL Music & Pendlebury Library)
Margaret Jones (UL Music)
Rachel Rowe (UL, Royal Commonwealth Society & Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge)
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Why a joint team blog? Present your team with a
collaborative effort Make use of each team
member’s expertise and what each one observes.
Different bloggers write differently -> more interesting blog.
Shared blog-load. It can be fun!
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But, erm, I might have nothing to write about?
Share blog writing burden amongst team helps
Look at other team blogs and see what they do
Don’t underestimate your expertise / your colleagues’ expertise?
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Encourage all team members to participate
No pressure on team members (one cannot force people to write!)
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Possible pitfalls of a team blog?
Sometimes it’s hard to motivate team members
Some team members feel less inspired than others
Someone has to input posts; will all team members learn how to do this?
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Possible pitfalls of a team blog?
blog team = peer review!
some team members can’t think of tags, images to use, …
It can be less fun than it could be.
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
democratic vs. more imposing ;-)
Stage 1
If the group/team is big, best to present idea: i.e. suggest ideas and then to discuss / ask for comments
in a big team either create a Powerpoint presentation and circulate or present
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 1 (cont.)
Your initial idea should include suggestions for:
name(s) for Blog
tag line
banner idea (or finished banner)
‘mission statement’: ‘<Name of Blog> is written by, and focuses…’
possible topics / areas to blog about
publication / editing process
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 2
If blogger team and blog generics settled:
get things rolling -> ask for 3-5 topics from each team member
share these topics amongst team
possibly create “production list/database”
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 3
Providing guidelines?
make a “uniform”-ish start
give guidance to novice bloggers
provide some framework for working
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 4
Example for guidelines:
keep things short (max. 500 words)
include at least 1 public domain image
start with 1 fairly short paragraph (2-3 lines of text)
think of 3-4 tags (keywords)
about treasures in the collection.
daily discoveries or enquiries.
other reflections.
think of one time-sensitive post
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 5
“Soft launch” vs. hard launch?
Have 6-8 posts ready before launch (depending on team) Try to have 1 or 2 posts on “backburner” for a “rainy week” workload vs. enthusiasm
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 6
Launch & promote!
don’t forget to
promote the blog! don’t shy away from notifying people of
specific posts
(team blog: it’s not your ego, but could be a post of a team member!)
present the blog as library news & project news
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How to organise a team blog from scratch
Stage 7
Continuous care & sometimes more 1 person should try to keep things going, and encourage team bloggers commission blog post with specific people think of guest bloggers (from own institution, or further afield).
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Good luck and have fun
Questions so far?
If you spot any interesting library-team blogs, please let me know:
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The contributor’s taleor….Why does it have to be me?
Why ever not?? Multiple contributors have
different ideas and viewpoints. It’s fun (and can be addictive!) BUT don’t take on more than
you can do Don’t have unrealistic
expectations Let the Bloghost know if you’ve
got problems
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Setting to work Expectations Who does what? Breaking the rules The walking dead The computer says “No”
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Great expectations? Be positive Follow guidelines (but don’t
be afraid to bend them) Be aware of pressure points
within your blogging community
Don’t set unreasonable targets
Great Expectations / David Lean 1946
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Who does what?
Have a team ethos but remember to look for different angles from contributors
Make a list of possible blog posts to avoid duplication
Don’t assume that everyone has the same skills levels
Make time for team members to discuss blogging with you
Don’t be afraid to recruit more bloggers than you think you need
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Don’t forget…..
• To add images and links• Wikipedia’s great – but
try to have a variety of links
• Think about your audience – don’t link to subscription databases unless you’re only blogging on an intranet
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Breaking the rules Don’t be afraid to: Introduce serial
posts…. Have the occasional
longer (or much shorter) post….
Accommodate different styles….
Experiment
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The walking deador…The case of the missing
blogger It’s better to have too many
potential bloggers than too few Be aware that volunteers in
particular will have time constraints or may simply not want to be too involved
May be better to blog less frequently but with quality posts. BUT if you promise to blog by a particular date, do so!
Frankenstein / James Whale, 1931
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“The computer says no” As a contributing
blogger : Be aware of any
“privileges” that have been set up
Can you access earlier versions of your post?
What can’t you do?
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That’s not news! The birth of a SAALG blog
SAALG? South Asia Library & Archive Group
Representatives from UK libraries, archives, institutions with South Asian interests or collections
Where are we?Edinburgh, Oxford, London, Cambridge …
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What do we do? Learn about new information resources Learn about collections in each other’s institutions
Exchange news and project updates Discuss potential cooperative projects and funding sources Exchange ideas
Promote our institutions and collections
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Historically achieved via…
2 conferences a year Annual newsletter (also used to publish conference
papers)
But then… we all got busier (fewer specialised South Asian posts) no time to research/write articles Newsletter became biennial News out-of-date by time it was disseminated No one wanted to be SAALG Editor
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Finding our feet online…
Website hosted by British Libraryhttp://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/apac/saalg/Links to conference presentations/papers
JISC mailing list used primarily by SAALG Secretary to disseminate
details of future conferences and minutes of meetings reluctance of SAALG members to email the list re. their
collections, projects, news etc. Will people want to read my ramblings? Don’t they all
already have over-flowing in-boxes?
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June 2008 - a blog is bornTechnology Web 2.0 – interaction,
collaboration, information-sharing
People to convince Demo at conference
It’s Officialhttp://nlsopublog.blogspot.com/
Persuasive comments by steering group!
Conference voted to replace newsletter with blog
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Making it happen
Contributors acquired Google accounts Secretary set-up/designed blog using
Blogger Steering group blogged
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So what did we blog about?
Events - workshops, conferences, lectures, exhibitions, open days, heritage trails,
New resources – books, databases, open access journals, wikis, blogs
New courses – MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies! Digitisation projects – films, sound archives, electoral
registers, medical papers Trips to India, museums, book fairs Our own conferences and speakers’ research Job vacancies Press publicity
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What did we include in posts?
Links Labels (keywords for
index) Photos
and as we became more ambitious and adept…
Sound clips Film clips
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Behind the scenes
Comments are moderated (to avoid spam)
Settings can be amended by contributors – they can add contributors, list additional blogs or websites
Statistical analysis - popularity of posts - traffic sources - audience
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Our most popular posts
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Some pleasant surprises
Our blog is followed by members of the public in Australia, academics in Sri Lanka and military historians!
New delegates at our January 2011 conference (followers of our blog)
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But new challenges
More institutional blogs – NLS, BL, AIIT - pressure on colleagues to post to these, but we still need to direct people to these and flag up useful posts
Less subject specialisation (job cuts) – fewer colleagues have S. Asian knowledge to blog about, yet ironically they have a greater need to learn about new S. Asian resources and other institutions’ collections and expertise
Facebook, Twitter ? Competition or opportunities for promoting blog and SAALG?
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The future? Seek views & feedback at SAALG summer conference Encourage new contributors - academics presenting
SAALG conference papers? Broaden subject appeal?
Collaborate with Southeast Asia Library Group? European/international collaboration?
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Contact details Rachel Rowe
Chair, South Asia Archive & Library Group
Smuts Librarian for South Asian & Commonwealth Studies, University of Cambridge
Centre of South Asian Studies (Mon/Tues)
Cambridge University Library (Wed/Thurs)
http://saalg.blogspot.com/
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A team blog I like
Great banner showing some of the treasures of the collection
Blog title is not especially clever, but does sum up nicely what the blog’s about
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What it is and why I like it
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington blog
Quirky and fascinating Excellent use of images (and one of the few sites to
feature a rubber chicken!) Many focuses to the site : promoting collections,
providing visitor information, backstage at the museum, news and background to aerospace issues
Attracts a wide audience via tweet-ups (in collaboration with NASA)
Using a team allows for interaction with all audience levels
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Some highlights of AirSpace
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Gilmore “brief” and “full” blogs
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What I like about this
Clever use of teamwork to produce two contrasting blogs
Blog 1 contains brief notes : Information about the library and
resources Links to favourite databases / websites Easy and quick to maintain Can be updated daily
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“Brief” blog
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What I like about this
Blog 2. Extensive information Attractive images Connects to a wider project High maintenance, but day-to-day blog
keeps readers informed. Doesn’t matter if there’s a bit of a gap
between posts
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Encountering the other
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URLS
• AirSpace : http://blog.nasm.si.edu/
• Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale : http://www.library.yale.edu/musiclib/news/
• Encountering the other blog (featuring images from the Gilmore Library) : http://encounteringtheother.wordpress.com
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Team blogs I like
It’s Official – National Library of Scotland Official
Publications Unit blog; http://nlsopublog.blogspot.com/
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Team blogs I like
Wellcome Library blog http://wellcomelibrary.blogspot.com/
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Why I like them
Topical e.g. The King’s Speech
Attractive or weird pictures http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/
Catchy titles Variety of subject content Bring seemingly dull
items to life e.g. retrospective cataloguing projects
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Why I like them
Innovative e.g. Annual Archive Popularity Contest
Clean layout Not overly personal Promote range of
library collections & services
Useful links
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A team blog I like Nice name!
Not so nice banner
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What it is and why I like it?
Official Blog RILM = Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) = bibliographic database for music
It’s the Queen of Discovery/Stumble upon blog
Quirky & engaging good use of images and video E.g. Sexual attraction by genre
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Top 5 tips for team blogging
Identify your team & blog Make your team of bloggers as big as
possible (no “too big”). Encourage volunteers, lecturers, visiting
professors to contribute (if only once!) Team’s expertise at core, but go beyond
and be creative Get inspired by current affairs, or problems
which crop up at work
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What are your top team blogging tips?
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Survey & Feedback
You might be asked to complete two surveys for this session (via email / ):
1. Librarians in Training survey course evaluation
&
2. Team Blogging for Librarians / “our” survey.
Please help us to improve this session by
replying to both.
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Overall Questions?
• Clemens Gresser
• Margaret Jones
• Rachel Rowe