This is a page for anyone who maintains a library-related blog to discuss issues, share ideas and maintain contact with other library bloggers. See
Resources.New Zealand Library Bloggers for a list of library-related blogs, and add your own blog if it isn’t listed.
Update:
I’ve created a Ning network for NZ librarians/libraries using Web 2.0 tools (meaning anything from blogs to wikis to podcasts to del.icio.us or whatever):
http://nzlibraries2.ning.com/ - please come and sign up! - Simon
Some questions/issues to start:
(Obviously, this is a Wiki page so feel free to edit ruthlessly - I’ve just put this content up here as a starting point)
What’s the best way of fostering communication among library bloggers?
Should we use this wiki? Should we set up a mailing list? (how?). Any other ideas? What about something centralised, like the Australians have?
http://librariesinteract.info/australian-library-blogs/
- A wiki is good for building up a body of knowledge/resources that can be used long-term; a mailing list is good for short-term discussion that doesn’t need to be referred back to. Depends what we’re looking for. —Deborah
I’ve created a Ning network for NZ librarians/libraries using Web 2.0 tools (meaning anything from blogs to wikis to podcasts to del.icio.us or whatever):
http://nzlibraries2.ning.com/ - please come and sign up! - Simon
What sort of support/advice do you need to make your blog work?
- Or, what tips can you share with the rest of us?
- I want to figure out marketing-on-a-$0-budget… Tips - well, I keep up myself on reading a lot of blogs (I heart Google Reader for making this manageable) and draw a lot of stuff from there for content for our blog. —Deborah
- Tips - Rodney Libraries has a guide to posting which outlines rough topics for each day (Tuesday titles; Thursday it’s your local) although we don’t always stick to the theme and these titles are never referred to on the blog. Have more than one person posting and set up a calendar so you know who posts on what day and what they’re posting on. We’ve also done some draft posts that are hanging around until we run out of things to say. — kris aka rodneylibraries
- I recently read a good article about blogging by ‘telling stories’ rather than just baldly giving information - makes it more personal and interesting - I’m definitely thinking of giving this a try. —Deborah
- Try ‘Problogger’ and ‘Copyblogger’. They have nothing to do with libraries, but are all about blogging and copywriting tips. Although the focus is on monetising blogs, the advice often stands — Courtney
Is blogging part of your job description, or ‘just something you do’?
- if it isn’t part of your job description, how do you ensure that the blog is updated regularly, when you have other demands on your time?
- Not part of my job description but I enjoy it a huge amount. Main concern is keeping it updated when I’m away. —Deborah
- Technically not a specific part of my job description although there is some stuff about Outreach in there so I guess it counts. It was started because feedback from staff indicated that they wanted us to be out in the world more rather than concentrating on in-house library only. Not a part of kowhai reader’s PD but I am eternally grateful that she put her hand up. (She has a nice way with words that I think complements my rather clipped style.) The calendar helps keep us on track as to who posts when as does writing posts for a later date. — kris aka rodneylibraries
- I’m running ‘Create Readers’ and ‘LibraryTechNZ’ as an add-on to my Web Editor. Each has a pool of writers who have added this on to their normal duties - the idea being that if we could spread the load, we could keep the content coming. We have a champion / editor for each blog (in addition to me) who helps to smooth the flow of posts. On ‘LibraryTechNZ’ for example we aim for article-format posts on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a news feed on Fridays. Long posts can be drafted in advance, and published when required - but time-dependent posts are published as need be. — Courtney
What policies do you have regarding appropriate content?
- Do your blog posts have to be approved by management?
- No regular approval process though I occasionally ask if a particular topic is okay to talk about. —Deborah
- No. (Except I am part of the library management team so I guess as long as I approve…?) Guidelines say “Remember – your [virtual] grandmother will be reading this” so there shouldn’t be too much controversy over appropriate content. There’s a disclaimer on the site plus a statement that we’ll be covering almost everything you can find in the library which gives us latitude to discuss almost anything we want. kowhai reader and I have kicked around a couple of topics that might have seemed a bit unusual (e.g. Associate award at LIANZA) but I think as long as we are clear about why we wanted to post on a topic then I can defend it if necessary to my colleagues. kris aka rodneylibraries
- No - we thought in fact it was really important that posts not have to go to managers before posting (it wouldn’t really be a blog otherwise). We do tend to peer-review posts, and have a ‘what would my manager say’ approach towards anything that might be touchy. There are disclaimers on both our blogs. — Courtney
- As part of our trial we’re testing pre- and post-moderating comments, one method on each blog. So far we’ve had comments posted on both - far more on ‘Create Readers’, interestingly, which is the one we’re moderating. We’re interested in which method takes more time, and whether we have any problems with spam etc. I think it’s likely we’ll keep the pre-moderation on for ‘Create Readers’ because there’s the possibility kids might be reading it. — Courtney
Who is your target audience?
- have you surveyed them?
- what sort of feedback do you get?
- Do you allow comments?
- Students and staff of the college. No survey, not much feedback unfortunately, though I keep track of hit statistics a bit. We allow comments but only moderated; I often wonder if that poses too much of a bar to commenting, but it does let us get rid of comment spam and truthfully I don’t think we’d get a lot of comments anyway. —Deborah
- Here’s where we fall down a bit. Target is everyone making it general like the library so maybe noone is targeted. I’d like to include some questions about the blog when we do our survey later. Comments are moderated - so far I’ve posted every one. Feedback has been minimal - “it looks great” is about the extent of it. kris aka rodneylibraries
- We quite pointedly chose two particular audiences. ‘Create Readers’ is written primarily for school librarians and teachers - these are the people that the bloggers work with, and the blog contains the kind of information they would usually pass on in person. ‘LibraryTechNZ’ is written for people like us - techy-types in libraries, people interested in digitisation. The network location tab in Google Analytics is useful for seeing where your visitors are coming from, and getting an idea of whether the readers are where we expect them to be. — Courtney
Fill in your question here…..
Do you run a private/non-institutional blog?
- tell us about it…
