Leaving Library World

I know I haven't been very active on this blog over the past few years. I've been busy pursuing my MBA. Over time I've realized that, while I'll always love & support libraries, my work interests lie elsewhere. So, I am leaving my position as a librarian at Thanksgiving and will be starting a new and exciting job in the corporate world in early December. At the same time, I will be leaving Library Cloud as a contributor. It has been a pleasure being involved in this blog, and I look forward to watching its continued success as a reader.

State of the Blogosphere Survey

It's that time again, Technorati is conducting their annual State of the Blogsphere survey.

"Technorati's State of the Blogosphere series chronicles the rise and evolution of the Blogosphere as we know it. Since 2004 we've seen explosive growth and maturing of this new arm of the fourth estate" (Technorati, 9/16/11).

I do read the State of the Blogosphere reports, but haven't used Technorati for some time; one other Library Cloud post is labeled Technorati, it presents the 2010 State of the Blogsphere reported by Tech Crunch. If you are a blogger and interested in participating in the 2011 survey, here's the information (in part) from the Library Cloud inbox this morning. 

"We'd love for you to share some information about blogging as your passion or your profession, that we can then share back with you, the bloggers, and everyone who is interested in you. It should take just 15 minutes of your time. The more responses we get the better the data we can deliver to you, so please share this link with other bloggers. http://www.psasurveys.com/detect.aspx?I.Project=a18214"

 

State of the Blogosphere 2010

Tech Crunch contributor Erick Schonfeld's blog post 2010 State Of The Blogosphere: Facebook And Twitter Drive The Most Traffic summarizes key points from The State of the Blogosphere presentation given by Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra.

State Of The Blogosphere Presentation 2010

Sad Demise of Bloglines

Logging in to my Bloglines account this afternoon, I was greeted with a prominently displayed message next to my updated feeds:

"As you may have heard, we are sorry to share that Bloglines will officially shut down on October 1, 2010." (Bloglines, 9/10/10).

The notice was accompanied by helpful instructions on how to export my feeds for later use. I've been using Bloglines for several years and enjoy the convenience of a web-based service; lacking the "bells and whistles" of other rss readers, it does what I want it to do. At least, it did. I have noticed a number of feeds that it no longer catches, downtimes appear with increasing regularity, and login began requiring word identification. Obviously, signs I ignored while mired in blogline complacency (smile).

• TechCrunch Exclusive: IAC Finally Kills Off Bloglines
• The Ask.com Blog: Bloglines Update
• ReadWriteWeb: The End of Bloglines is Nigh

I'm not relishing the task of finding a new reader and moving my feeds. I've considered Pageflakes, Netvibes, and iGoogle, but like the general reader format. The simplest option may be using Google Reader along with my other Google account items (Gmail, YouTube, Picassa, and Blogger). At the very least I need to move the feeds so I don't lose them.

The clouds are back!

I missed the clouds.

After tweaking the template and layout in January, the overall look was much easier on the eye, but the library clouds were gone. Last week Blogger in Draft announced the new Blogger Template Designer and post featured this handy video.



I spent time Friday morning updating the AU Library News Blog and the IRC News & Information Blog using the template designer. Not only can you choose cleaner template designs, but it is also possible to personalize the background colors, fonts, upload logos for the banner, and adjust the width of the blog text area as well. Once one was complete, it was easy to duplicate the template for the second. Now these blogs have a more uniform look that utilizes the university web site color palette and logo (though the IRC logo is about 20 pixels less in height). Plus, they are just prettier. It was only a matter of time before I started thinking about Library Cloud sans clouds.

Luckily, I have blog-mates that understand me and indulge my technology eccentricities!

New Year's Blog-keeping

It has been far too long since links were checked in the blog sidebar; one of those tasks that's often relegated to the "when there's time" pile. After I finished adding, deleting, and editing links, our template suddenly  looked a bit ragged and worn. Now that it is possible to adjust your template in Blogger without losing all of the sidebar information, I spent a good fifteen minutes tweaking the look of Library Cloud.

While not perfect, it is now a bit easier on the eye and cleaner on the screen.  I hope to get the cloud logo back to the header (it needs work, too) and adjust the color a bit more, but this evening Blogger refuses to let me edit any color or font on the template. For now, the cloud is back.

Batting 1000

I missed the third anniversary of my first library blog earlier this summer (it was June 10th), but this morning I noticed something more interesting. Today marks the 1000th post for my Instructional Resource Center Blog. While not overly surprised the post in question details new juvenile books added to the collection, nor concerned it took three years to get to this point, I admit a tiny part of me is amazed the blog has lasted three years. The first official post, I specify "official" because until post option was available allowing users to schedule post dates, the IRC blog had one lonely post dated 2003 that refused to be changed, was The New IRC Collection Blog published June 10, 2005.

"Welcome to the Instructional Resource Center Collection Blog! Beginning with the fall 2005 academic school year, this blog will replace the yearly book lists published on the IRC web page. Items, both circulating and reference, will be entered as they are cataloged and available for use. Each entry will have an accompanying heading, specific to the genre. Please note that anyone with a specific book request will continue to be personally notified via email when the books arrive."

While this blog endeavor was specifically created for outreach and information, it had the exciting dual purpose - a perk - of being a time saver for me. Instead of carving out time to create collection lists at the end of the year, I was able to present new books as soon as I had the slips from technical services. With the blog I am able to categorize purchases added to the IRC, education, and juvenile collections, and tag them for ease of use. I have also quit flooding faculty member email inboxes with notifications and provided them access to new book lists at their leisure.

The blog has evolved somewhat with color, widgets, photographs, search boxes, and links to library web page and other library blogs. And, I do post IRC hours, technology updates, and basic news and information on an as needed basis. But it's main function and purpose remains the same ... a time saving technology to present collection development information and market the IRC. Here's hoping the technology remains viable for another few posts.

Blog management or blog cheating?

Have you done it? Be honest; have you utilized Blogger's Post Options and either changed the date and time on a post or scheduled a post to publish at a later date?

I admit my initial reaction to this perk was negative. After all, was I not using a blog's journal format to compile and share information in a timely manner? Part of the beauty of a blog is it's instant placing of newest items first; keeping things in an honest, chronological order as opposed to an arbitrary order of importance. If I started scheduling my post publications, was it not counterproductive to the blog's over-all purpose?

The idea sat in the back of my mind, taunting me with possibilities. Next week I am on vacation. Instead of having a week without posting on the IRC blog, what if I scheduled a post or two a day this week while I have the time? Instead of seven entries on one day, the number of juvenile book categories waiting to be posted, what if I did three today, two tomorrow, and scheduled two more for Friday when I am at the CMCIG workshop.

Possibilities are inherently endless. With vacation near, I can post the IRC hours update anytime I want and schedule it to publish Monday morning. I can post reminders for the holiday weekend hours and publish when I want! I can prepare posts on anything I want, wait for someone else to post, and then schedule publishing so my posts are more recent than my blogging buddies ....

With a few planned exceptions, such as hour's updates and a few specific informational posts, I think I will stick with the traditional blogging format and feel secure that I can finesse things if needed and when appropriate.

Library Cloud News

Welcome to the newest Library Cloud contributor, Sara Klink. Sara is a reference and instruction librarian at Ashland University Library and provides library bibliographic instruction, is the department liaison to Biology, Toxicology, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and conducts library sessions for students enrolled in Introduction to University Life (IUL).

Though new to AU library and the academic library ranks, Sara has professional public library experience as the Teen Librarian at Stark County District Library in Canton, OH, where she was also the school liaison for grades 6 - 12 and provided library reference services.

I have already had the opportunity to work with Sara on several key library projects including our new IM/Chat service Ask Us! and the new library web site design committee. I admit to twisting her arm a bit to join Library Cloud as a contributor, but know she will provide an interesting and fresh voice to the forum.

Welcome, Sara!

2007 Blogging Scholarship

Straight from my email inbox, the Actions and Answers section of the lastest issue of American Libraries Direct:

Library Student is finalist for $10,000 blogging scholarship

"Karin Dalziel, an LIS student at the University of Missouri–Columbia, is one of 20 finalists for College Scholarship.org’s 2nd annual blogging scholarship, which features an award of $10,000 to help pay for books and tuition. Dalziel was selected from hundreds of applicants and is the only library blogger in the group." (ALDirect, 10/17/07)

I have read Karin's blog, already placed my vote, and would encourage people to take a look at the finalists for this interesting award. (And yes, seriously consider voting for Karin.)

• College Scholarships.org: The Blogging Scholarship
• Announcing the Finalists for the Blogging Scholarship
• Cast your vote!

And, to answer the question posed in the header of Karin's recent blog posting, Am I the only one that likes library school? ... nah, I really enjoyed my experience at Pitt.

Tags: Blogging Scholarship, College Scholarships, Karin Dalziel, AL Direct

Blog Etiquette

I just read the September issue of Campus Technology last night and in it was an a column about blogging. The Editor-in-Chief, Katherine Grayson, was commenting on an IT blog that was not getting read. She offered some suggestions, which I thought were useful for bloggers to remember (which now means me!). The particular blog was intended to mark the progress of a construction project, but no one was reading it. She mentioned some good points, such as many blogs are long- winded and not organized for easy retrieval of info. Being succinct, using bullets, boxes, headlines and other editorial type features would be more helpful and allows readers to see quickly what was new. See the complete article at http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/49914/

It's Blog Day 2007

Library Garden had a post today reminding readers today is the Third Annual Blog Day. What is Blog Day; I missed it last year, but do remember reading about it and possibly posting late? The Blog Day 2007 website defines the event:

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

I am not a fan of playing blog tag and realize that is the basic point of having Blog Day. I will, however, post the five newest library and technology themed blogs I have added to my Bloglines account this summer. So in no particular order:

• Lifehacker, Tips and Downloads for Getting Things Done
  "Lifehacker points out software downloads, web sites, do-it-yourself projects, how-to's, tutorials, shortcuts and tips for going beyond the default settings and getting things done in the most clever, unexpected and efficient ways. Think of Lifehacker as self-help for geeks."

• Information Wants to Be Free
  "A librarian, writer and tech geek reflecting on the profession and the tools we use to serve our patrons."

• YALSA Blog
  ALA's Young Adult Library Services Association Blog

• Cranky Geeks
  "John C. Dvorak, whose crankiness knows no bounds, is a contributing editor of PC Magazine, for which he has been writing two columns, including the popular Inside Track, since 1986. "

• Compiler - Monkey Bites
  "Wired.com's Compiler blog is everything you need to know about software that makes the web tick — and how you can put it to use on your own website and digital media projects. By Wired News Senior Editor Michael Calore and Wired News blogger Scott Gilbertson."

With the campus change to MS Office 2007 this summer, the new blogs on my list are more heavily technology oriented than library. I also admit to letting my Bloglines account stagnate somewhat instead of adding interesting new reading. I will tag this post with the requisite Blog Day 2007 Technorati tag and look to see what others are reading.

Anything to recommend?

Tags: Blog Day 2007, Blogging, Library blogs, Technology blogs

Blogosphere Survey Results

If you participated in Meredith Farkas's, author of Information Wants to Be Free, 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogopshere, she has detailed eight short points/facts in her post Interesting facts from the Survey of the Biblioblogosphere 2007.



Tags: Librarian bloggers, Library blogs

Library Cloud News

Welcome to our new Library Cloud contributor Betsy Blankenship. Betsy is the head librarian/director of Marion Campus Library, Ohio State University at Marion/Marion Technical College.

Betsy has significant experience with library outreach programs for her library and has presented at both state and national library conferences including "Bringing Museum Exhibitions to Libraries: An Innovative Partnership Reaches Communities Nationwide" at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting and Museum Expo in 2004, "Staff Appreciation on a Shoestring: It's 'Knot' as Hard as You Think!" at the Ohio Two-Year College Library Director's Conference in 2004, and "Upsetting the Applecart: What Happens When Your Lecture Class Goes Online" at last year's ALAO Annual conference in Akron.

Betsy is an active ALAO member and board alumni with experience serving as a Conference Program Committee member, ALAO board member, and Public Relations coordinator.

Welcome Betsy!

Blogging librarians

Are you a librarian that blogs? Are you interested in learning more about the librarian blogosphere? If so, take a few minutes and complete a survey developed by Meredith Farkas, author of the Information Wants to be Free Blog:

“If you consider yourself a “biblioblogger,” please consider taking this survey and pass the word on to other library-related bloggers. The more people who fill it out, the better picture we will have of the characteristics of the library blogosphere. I’m looking for both people in the profession who have blogs and people who blog at their library as part of an official library blog. You don’t have to have an MLS to be a part of the survey and you don’t have to work in a traditional library setting. If you consider yourself a part of the profession and you blog, please do take part. I’ll probably keep the survey open for four weeks.” (Farkas, 7/29/07)

Check out the 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogsphere. Thanks to Walt at Random for pointing readers to this information in his post: Surveying the State of Liblogs.

Tags: Meredith Farkas, 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere, Librarians & Blogs, Librarians who blog

Library Cloud News

Welcome to our new Library Cloud contributor, Karen Plummer. Karen is an Associate Professor, AV/Special Materials Cataloger, at The University of Akron's Bierce Library. Anyone familiar with the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) will recognize Karen's web authoring skills and board contributions as one of ALAO's webmasters. A familiar face at ALAO conferences, Karen has been an active member of the past four conference planning committees. On her Blogger profile, Karen has indicated her interest in "standards-based web design, metadata, cataloging, computers" and technology.

Welcome Karen!

Tags: Library Cloud, Karen Plummer

Looking at Pipes

One of the topics Matt Barnes discussed during his portion of the Technical Services 2.0 session at ALA was "mashups." As I understood it, a mashup combines elements from different web resources and combines them into one usable element pursuant with the developers wants/needs. Most importantly, it is a skill used generally by hackers and those involved in open source software programming (see again the statement "as I understood it"). I found it an interesting premise, but one I would most assuredly not be using in the near future. Now it seems there is a way for the average user to create mashups.

A Test Drive review by Jeff Hastings in the June issue of School Library Journal highlights Yahoo!Pipes, "an interactive data aggregator and manipulator that lets you mashup your favorite online data sources." (About Pipes, Yahoo) Hastings briefly defines mashups, details his first experimental use of the service, and defines Yahoo! Pipes.

"Yahoo! Pipes consists of information gathering and processing modules that you select and drag onto a grid and then connect, flowchart style. You select what goes into your pipe and reprocess it to get the results you want spewing out the other end. There are modules that fetch, count, filter, combine, and sort information from RSS feeds, as well as modules that interpret, extract, and import location data so that you can regionalize your pipe’s output. You can also plug in services like BabelFish and Flickr to translate or associate images with your pipe’s content." (Hastings, SLJ, 6/1/07)

I have the site, and Hastings' article, bookmarked with my blog items. It looks a bit complicated, sounds like fun, and may have interesting uses in libraries; create specific mashups for classes and users.

Below is a quick sampling of web definitions:

• PC Magazine: mashup definition
• Mashup, a definition from Whatis.com
• Mash-up definition - ISP Webopedia
• Glossary Definition - Mashup, C# Online.net
• MashupCamp.com

Tags: Mashup, Yahoo! Pipes, School Library Journal, Jeff Hastings

ALA: Poster Sessions

This year marked the 26th Annual ALA Poster Session. The 2007 Annual Poster Session Abstracts booklet presents a history of the sessions stating that they "cover a broad range of subjects grouped according to such areas as management, collection development, technology, reference, and library services to special groups." (More information about poster sessions may be found here.)

There were six specific sessions of twenty posters scheduled throughout a three day period, June 23rd - 25th, totalling 120 posters of different ideas and topics from a diverse group of presenters. Poster sessions were in the exhibit hall, and even though a last minute change of location from one end of the hall to the other made finding them a bit challenging, I was very pleased with the interest generated.

My first poster session, Keep Blogging Along: Side by Side Library Blogs, was 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 24th, part of Poster Session IV: Outreach: Posters on Interlibrary Cooperation, Library Services to Special Groups, and Reference, and Information Services.



Presenting a poster is a great opportunity to converse one-on-one with people who are interested in your session topic. I had occasion to talk at length with current and budding bloggers about projects that worked, ones that did not live up to their potential, and how to determine the difference. There was significant interest in the blog widgets, particularly in how I was using LibraryThing in conjunction with the library specific blogs in IRC (unbeknownst to me, there was a session prior to poster time slot featuring a speaker from LibraryThing), as well as time management and blog purpose.

A Tale of Collaboration: The Art of the Picture Book Conference was 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday, June 25, part of Session V: Connections: Posters on Cooperation with Non-Library Institutions and Agencies, Interlibrary Loan, Library Use Instruction, and Public Awareness.



Thanks to everyone who stopped to talk and my apologies, again, to the last dozen or so people who did not get one of the blog poster session information/handout CD's. As promised, I have posted the CD information from both sessions online:

• Keep Blogging Along: Side By Side Library Blogs
• A Tale of Collaboration: The Art of the Picture Book Conference

Tags: 2007 ALA Annual Washington, D.C., Poster sessions, ALA, Academic Library Blogs, Academic Libraries and collaboration

Live blogging

With ALA fast approaching I have been pondering the number of Bloggers who may actually blog "live" from sessions. However, beyond the idea of clicking keyboards being (a) umseemly, (b) borderline rude, and (c) potentially distracting to the session presenter, I did not consider any potential copyright infringement issues. After reading NCAA vs Blogger on the Inside Higer Ed blog this morning I wonder.

"On Friday, the association [NCAA] did just that when the University of Louisville, acting on NCAA orders, evicted a credentialed reporter for The Louisville Courier-Journal from a baseball playoff game for doing his job. According to the NCAA, it would be fine for the reporter to write online about the atmosphere of a game, the mood of the fans, even the quality of the hot dogs in the stands. But mention that someone just hit a home run — information the NCAA wants to preserve for those that pay to broadcast games — and the reporter is outta there." (Inside Higher Ed, NCAA vs Blogger, 6/12/07)

Potential ramifications for not only NCAA and sports, but any other event where live blogging may occur, are widespread. Let's say, hypothetically, a presenter at ALA Annual is discussing a topic that has been submitted for publication. Is the session information copyrighted to the presenter? Or, is it free for public consumption once presented as long as bloggers cite the information and presenter?

Looking at the big picture it may not matter. Librarians are proponents of disseminating and presenting information. If those blogging live ask the presenter for permission to blog during their session, all will be well (if they say no, take notes and blog later). But as blogging continues to be a popular form of communicating information, we may need to revisit.

Update: 6/13/07

The Chronicle's Wired Campus Blog posted about this topic yesterday as well (guess my Bloglines account lagged a bit). Read more at No Blogging Allowed at College Sports. Additionally, the Chronicle article links to USA Today's Revoked Press Credential Spurs Blogging Question.


Tags: NCAA, NCAA and blogging, University of Louisville, Louisville Courier-Journal, Inside Higher Ed, Live blogging

Blogging articles

Early last week I read two different articles regarding blogging and employment. The first, an article in School Library Journal (April 2007) discusses Five Reasons Not to Blog, the second; an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (4/22/07), a reprint from the Wall Street Journal Online, How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job highlights the usefulness of a blog during job searching. Both articles present valid arguments concerning blogging as a professional and how to approach the call to blog. However, both articles also present different viewpoints regarding the actual use of said blog.

Teachers and librarians are using blogging professionally and in the classroom as a tool for learning. You only have to take a quick look at Will Richardson’s blog Weblogg-ed to see how truly innovative teachers are harnessing Web 2.0 technologies to expand the traditional classroom. But, as Chris Harris mentions in his article Five Reasons Not to Blog, “unfortunately, some educators should have thought twice before answering the call to post.” Here are the five reasons presented:

• “I want to give them a piece of my mind.”
• “Oh, the stories I could tell.”
• “I think I can find some time at school …”
• “Nobody will find out that it’s me.”
• “It’s OK, I will keep it private.”

Sarah Needleman, author of How Blogging Can Help Get You a New Job, mentions a few of the same instances and states that while blogging can help you be seen,“indiscrete bloggers can derail job opportunities.” For instance:

“Job seekers who blog increase the odds that a potential employer will find information online that the candidate wants to be seen, says Debbie Weil, a corporate blogging consultant in Washington and the author of "The Corporate Blogging Book," which was published last summer. "Everybody has an online identity whether they know it or not, and a blog is the single best way to control it," she says. "You're going to be Googled. No one hires anyone or buys anything these days without going online first and doing research." (Needleman, 4/10/07).

Rebecca and I discussed these topics before beginning this blog last summer. It was important to both of us our bosses were made aware of the endeavor and that we had a few general rules in place for what we would present on the blog. While the blog is a great option for professional discussion, it should definitely not be the “teacher’s lounge.”

Tags: School Library Journal, Five Reasons Not to Blog, Wall Street Journal Online, How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job