More with IFTTT & Blogs

After successfully using IFTTT to tweet new IRC News & Information blog posts, I decided to create a new recipe to do the same with the general Library News Blog and IRC Twitter account. I quickly learned that once a blog channel has been selected, in my case Blogger, a second trigger can not be developed for a different Blogger blog. It presumes a second trigger with Blogger should be created with the blog channel already selected. However, a second blog can easily be set up using RSS feeds.

I first tried to copy Twitter post text used with the blog and found IFTTT uses a slightly different vocabulary with RSS (entry vs post). I used the same basic format of introductory narrative, title, content, URL, and hashtag for Library blog posts.

From the AU Library News Blog: Looking @ The New AU Home Page Ashland University recently updated the home page.  If you are having troub...
— IRC - AU Library (@IRCaulibrary) September 2, 2013

From the AU Library News Blog: AU Library Hours: Fall 2013 The library fall 2013 hours schedule begins Tuesday, September 3rd.  A comple...
— IRC - AU Library (@IRCaulibrary) September 3, 2013

After viewing the results, I have had to revise the layout removing content from the recipe in order for the URL to publish. The next library blog post is not yet authored (or scheduled), so results of the latest 'tweaking' will have to wait.

New blogs to read

One of my every summer projects is working with the juvenile collection; shifting books in the stacks (because you never know what letter of the alphabet is going to need more room), adjusting shelves (because I'm shifting books in the stacks), cleaning shelves with disinfectant wipes (because you can only imagine), weeding books (is it historical or just old with outdated information), and contacting faculty with questions about titles in their subject areas, all made a bit more difficult because of the finite space (but, I digress). I am always satisfied when the job is complete and I can make new signs for the stacks. Finishing this job for another summer means the collection is ready for new books, of which selecting, purchasing, and reading is a great job perk. So, while in the weeding mode, it is time to review blog and news feeds in my reader.

I find it oddly easy to be complacent about outdated feeds, after all, I can simply mark them read and move on to the next entry. But there is the nagging feeling of wasted time and it bother's my happy librarian's soul to proverbially waste the space better suited for something else. I've gone through my reader and removed blogs that have not posted in the last six to eight months, have changed their locations and/or feeds, contain topics that are no longer of interest to me, or are duplicates of Twitter (feeds) and Facebook (likes) I'm also following. Now it is time to add new blog feeds to my reader, starting with library blogs. 

A good place to start for library blogs is  Salem Press Library Blog Center; they have several categories of library blogs detailed with short biographical blurbs about blog authors and contributors. For the last three years, Salem Press has sponsored the Library Blog Awards (and in all honesty, we see an increase in traffic during their voting) and I enjoy perusing their nominations and winners. I viewed the academic blog list, quirky library blogs, and newly discovered blogs and chose to add these blogs to my reader (yes, the list is alphabetical).

• Agnostic, Maybe
• Bib 2.0
• Confessions of a Science Librarian
• Hey, Jude
• K-M the Librarian
• Lucacept
• Thoughts from a Library Administrator
• Virtual Dave ... Real Blog
• The Waki Librarian

As you are reading my list, feel free to add library and educational technology blog recommendations in the comments.

The 2011 Library Blog Awards

Salem Press is once again honoring library blogs.  If you are interested in nominating your favorite, take a few minutes to review their submission process.

"Blogs about libraries continue to spread across the web, with hundreds of people writing about books, libraries, and related subjects. Last year Salem Press set out on a mission to reward the achievements of librarian bloggers. Several hundred blogs by and about librarians entered the pool of nominations when the contest was announced. After the votes were tallied, 16 blogs were awarded prizes in five topical categories. Some were well-known and well-established, others on the rise or newly discovered. (For more information about last year's blogs, click 2010 Library Blog Awards.)"

"2011 Nominations:  Please share your favorite blogs with us. Doing so will enter your beloved online reading in our 2011 Awards process. We'll be accepting suggestions through June 1, 2011. To send us nominations (including a working link to the blog), email ptobey@salempress.com."

uFollow & My bloglines

After finding myself, so to speak, in uFollow, I explored the site a bit further to determine how many library blogs in my bloglines account were included in their site 'database'. It is possible to search by author or by blog name; often the blog has a listing of authors who contribute. I did notice not all blog contributors are automatically included as authors. For example, Library Cloud is included as a blog, but not all of our contributors have an author page. Users may choose to follow a blog source, a specific author, or both.

Here's a sample group of my blog findings:

• ACRL Insider
  
• A Library Writers Blog
• Library of Congress Blogs
• iLibrarian
• LITA Blog
• Tame the Web
• In the Library with a Lead Pipe
• OA Librarian
• Walt at Random (blog)

A timeline, or post archive, allow followers to see articles (posts) by month. Of particular interest is their Librarianship Channel with close to 4000 articles; "This channel includes articles about libraries, librarians, and library related issues." It will be interesting to see what direction this venture takes.

The Library Blog Awards

Irony is a funny thing (ha-ha), it can be glaringly obvious or quietly humorous. For example, this afternoon I was instructing a student regarding correct use of the IRC's desktop laminator. During our brief discussion, I was careful to highlight the importance of placing the project and film inside the carrier pouch before running it through the machine. Though the carrier pouch is a safety net, it is not required for successful usage, once or twice a term the laminating film gets stuck in the machine resulting in an accordion-like end result for the project. It's not pretty. I can personally vouch that statement as after the student left I laminated my own project sans carrier and it is now in the trash bearing a striking resemblance to a paper-fan folded by a first grader.

Earlier today I published a post with an embedded Muppet Studio video. More for fun than academic library oriented, it was my cheerful tone for April 1st. After posting I continued wading through accumulated email and found a message titled "The Library Blog Awards."

Congratulations. Your blog has been nominated for a Library Blog Award by readers of it. You should be thrilled so many think so much of what you have to say. You are among a number of nominees that our judges will consider. Best of luck to you. We hope that our awards will publicize the most interesting, entertaining and provocative library blogs out there. -- Peter Tobey, Salem Press

Sincere thanks to the reader(s) who took time to nominate Library Cloud for this award. I spread the good news via email to my fellow blog contributors via email a short time ago. With the spring library conference and workshop season in full swing, I am sure we will have much to contribute to the blogosphere in the coming days.

For instance, my new HP netbook arrived today and I will be taking it on a test run when I present and attend Computers in Libraries 2010 ... but that is another blog post and topic for another day.

My Bloglines Account: HotStuff 2.0

I like to look at statistics, either inherent to the technology or placed there on purpose, available with various 2.0 technologies. I use LibGuides statistics to see which of my guides are most popular, when guides are being accessed (in conjunction with instruction or during midterms & finals), if they are used more during the fall, spring, or summer term (it varies), what links garner the most interest, and if guides used for presentations are used after sessions are complete. My YouTube channel lets me see the number of times each uploaded video has been viewed and an approximate last viewing date; since I know where they are embedded, I also have basic knowledge of the audience. So yes, it follows that I look at statistics for my blogs as well.

This blog has a StatCounter code embedded for simple web hits and analysis and I set up a FeedBurner account (before and after they became part of Google) for comparison of the same. But one of the more interesting - read fun - statistics for this blog is something I came upon quite by accident that is now a part of my Bloglines account; HotStuff 2.0.

“HotStuff 2.0″ is an automatically updated blog developed by Dave Pattern (Library Systems Manager, University of Huddersfield, UK).

A daily blog post is generated using a single word that has seen a marked increase in usage over the last few days. A “Word Wheel” image shows the strength of the links between that word and other words that have also recently seen an increase in usage. This can sometimes help to put to the words into context, but mostly it’s just an excuse for some eye candy! -- About HotStuff

Library Cloud is one of the 800 library blogs included and some days we are hot, we hit top ten several times, and others we are definitely not, today we are #409. February 11th the word of the day was "etech" and several conference posts were featured. Each blog has its own page with a word cloud generated by blog content, recent blog posts, blogs with similar content, an emotional analysis, and a Google map plotting places mentioned within posts. These blogs are recommended as having like content:

• Library Geek Woes
• info-mational
• habitually probing generalist
• Neal-Schuman Library Technology Companion
• rachelvacek.com
• Designing Better Libraries
• Loose Cannon Librarian
• informing thoughts
• Holly Hibner
• The Flemish Librarian

A quick look shows some of them do have like content and others ... not so much. I was interested in Holly Hibner's post on a seminar she attended and that the Flemish Librarian blog is done in her native language (I'll need to translate). The similar content lists vary appear to change with content of each blogs post, so it is always fun to peruse other librarian blogs. As often as I have posted about weeding my Bloglines account, this is one of the ways I add to my blog collection. Now I have to go check the blocking cookie on StatCounter so this post is not counted in the blog statistics!

We're on the list

Walt Crawford, Walt at Random, is compiling information for a new study on Library blogs and has posted a one-week-only opportunity for readers to recommended blogs for inclusion. There are specific criteria in place that must be met, including being "somehow related to libraries or librarianship" and "not an official blog of a library."

"If you know of a blog or blogs that meet the criteria below and aren’t currently on the list, let me know–either by commenting here or by sending me email at waltcrawford, domain gmail.com. (Note: If you comment and include more than a couple of blog names and links, it’s possible your comment will be trapped as spam. That’s OK: I check spam before deleting it.) Please include the URL, although if you only have the blog’s name, chances are I can locate it. Deadline: Friday, September 12, 2008". - New libr* blogs? 9/4/08

Reading a great library blog not on his list? Consider submitting it to the study, it's worthwhile for research and general information. I have a personal copy of Academic Library Blogs (and purchased one for our library) and found the number and types of academic library blogs a great resource.

In the interest of full-discloser .... Yes, I checked his list of 587 blogs and was surprised to see our own humble Library Cloud included. Go figure. :-)

Dissention in the ranks

I've been reading folks' library blogs and they are interesting, to say the least. The names of the people who post are very creative and often bordering on risque. The topics that are covered range from informative and instructional to ranting and raving about lack of training, preparation or nasty coworkers/patrons. I must say, I would be curious to see how my staff might decribe their working conditions in our library. True, we are small and we often have to take in stride our quirks, crises and plain bad days. But I often ask in evaluations what is needed to be able to do their job - more specialized training, learn something new to enhance their professional development, going to school to to earn a degree, etc. I also ask what I could do to make their job easier or better - better directions, more communication, more flexibility, clearer instructions, leave them alone, jump in the lake, etc. Regardless, I try to allow the opportunity for input, even if it is during an evaluation.



I was reading the Annoyed Librarian blog on courses that people wished they had offered in library school. I found some of the "descriptions" to be hilarious and often on the mark. I found myself saying "yeah, that would have been a good one to have learned about" or "man, the poster really has had some bad experiences, work environments, etc." The entry obviously struck a chord - there were about 66 replies as of this morning. I certainly didn't have all the answers or the experience when I was hired; I learned many aspects on the job. I learned how to respond to people both in writing and verbally in a way that didn't raise hackles or cause ill will. I learned that I didn't know everything and sometimes the old way is just not better.

I hope that all our new library professionals keep that in mind - even years of being in the trenches does not always make you the authority just as coming straight out of grad school does not give you the right to criticize mindlessly without first learning how it works in the first place.

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

What's new: LOC Blog

New to me this week is the Library of Congress Blog authored by Matt Raymond, LOC Director of Communications. Several catagories have already been determined for regular discussion and include blogging, curators, exhibitions, news, and my personal favorite Today in History.

A hidden gem in their blogroll listing is a blog from the Smithsonian, "Eye Level."

Tags: Library of Congress Blog, Library blogs

Finally, a new widget posting

It's been some time since I have mentioned my love of blog widgets ( see Widgets, Beautiful Widgets, Widgets, Widgets, Widgets, and The Sidebar). Why? Quite honestly, things were getting a bit out of hand and I am sure Rebecca cringed at any mention of adding one more sidebar item to our blog. Today I am making an exception, I found a blog post by Robert Lackie at Library Garden. He linked to a New York Times technology article titled Some Bling for Your Blog. The article provides a short definition of widgets, details how they may be divided into basic categories, and discusses how some bloggers are using widgets.

"Ed Anuff, a co-founder of Widgetbox.com, divides widgets into three categories. 'One is self-expression widgets, like photo galleries, games or YouTube videos that you like,' he said. The second category includes widgets that generate revenue for a blogger, like a box that displays auctions from a particular eBay category, or a blogger’s favorite DVDs from Amazon.com. The third category, Mr. Anuff said, encompasses 'site-enhancement widgets, like discussion forums, news feeds or a guest book, which provide better utility for your Web site."

"Widgetbox is a site begun in September that collects widgets, spotlighting the newest and most popular ones; it offers more than 500 widgets." (Kirsner, NYT.com, 1/18/07)

A technology article, Some Bling does not detail how these may be used by library bloggers specifically, but I have found widget additions such as LibraryThing, WorldCat Beta, and the AU library catalog are great features on my library blogs. For example, with a LibraryThing widget on the IRC web page, I am able to highlight books reviewed on the blog. Having a small AU catalog widget on the IRC book blog allows a patron to search the catalog directly from the blog. Both of these widgets make the blogs more user-friendly.

Tags: Library Garden, NY Times Technology, Blog Widgets, Library blogs