This is a 23 Things course for information professionals. A collaboration of members of the Western Regional Section of the Library Association of Ireland.
Now that you're all set up with your shiny new blog, it's time for you to explore the world of library bloggers. We will be encouraging you later on in the course to take a look at the blogs of the other Rudai23 pariticpants. For now we want to share with you some of the amazing library blogs that will hopefully inspire you, like they do us.
Following blogs
When you've logged into the platform you've chosen to create your own blog, you will also have the option to follow others who use the same platform. In Blogger, it's called your Reading List. You will find it at the bottom of your list of settings, when you're logged into the editing mode of blogger.
To add a blog in Blogger
Click on Reading List.
Click on the pen icon on the top right corner.
Click on 'Add' and enter the URL of the blog you want to follow.
Alternatively when you visit a blog, you can click follow on the blog homepage and it will automatically be added to your list.
Blogger doesn't suggest blogs for you to follow, or have a search facility; you must find them yourself on the web first.
To add a blog in Wordpress
Log into your wordpress account.
On the top right you will see a tab called 'reader'.
Here you can search for topics, look at wordpress recommended sites or search for specific blogs that you want to follow.
Using a blog reader
Our favourite method for following blogs however is to use an RSS feeder. An RSS feeder is a tool that will scan any websites of your choice for new content and deliver that content to one location for you to read at your leisure.
RSS feeders are useful when you have a number of websites that you regularly like to visit to read new content. It can be time consuming to have to periodically check these websites for new content, RSS feeds cut out this work for you.All you have to do is set up an account with an RSS feed service of your choice, bookmark the websites that you want to follow through that RSS feed service and then every time you log-in you will find all the content there waiting for you.
Feedly
We recommend Feedly as a reliable, free RSS feeder. We use it ourselves to keep track of all the Rudai 23 participant's blogs. You can sign up for free using your email address. When you log into feedly, search for our blog using our web address www.rudai23.blogspot.com and click on follow. Everytime you log into Feedly any new content that we publish will be waiting for you.
Feedly not only lets you read the content but also share it to various social media sites, curate your own boards or save content for later. Feedly also has some really interesting features if you're prepared to pay for the pro version that makes it a very powerful collaboration tool for work.
30 of the Best Library Blogs You Should be Reading
To get you started on reading some of the best Library blogs and blogging Librarians out there we have created an OPML file of 30 library blogs for you to follow which you can access here.
Importing blogs into your blog reader
Download this file and save it onto your computer.
Log into your feeder of choice and find the settings/options area
Look for the option to Export /Import OPML and click import.
Upload our OPML file which you just downloaded to your feeder.
Every time you log into your blog reader any new content from these blogs will be there waiting for you.
Your first task as part of your Rudai 23 journey is to create a Blog and write a blog post. Hopefully the post you craft will be just the first of many of such pieces on your very own librarian's blog.
Last week’s post was a practical guide to setting up a blog of your very own. What follows here, to help you get started, is a simple introduction to blogging that will provide some encouragement, and show you, again hopefully, how ‘easy’ blogging actually can be and is.
What is Blogging?
So, for those of you new to blogging what is a blog? What is blogging?
I always find etymology a good place to start learning about something and with this in mind the word Blog is a contraction of two words Web (as in world wide web) and Log (as in regular record of incidents.) So, in essence a Blog is like a web journal. It is a place, a public space to write and record your opinions, your reflections and thoughts on a particular subject. It is a space for you to spread your word to the world (wide web)
Why Blog?
Why do people blog as individuals? (As opposed to blogging as institutional account which usually aims to promote an institution)
A recent article from the New Review of Academic Librarianship offers some reasons why Librarians blog. A number are below (But first – Shameless, or should that be shameful, plug now - a preprint of the article Many voices: Building a biblioblogosphere in Ireland is available at UCC’s very own repository, CORA)
To share and communicate ideas, knowledge best practice with other librarians and the library profession in general
To connect and engage with other librarians
To advocate for the profession outside the profession
Another reason could be to practice writing in a safe collegial atmosphere.
And finally – because it is actually enjoyable
How to Blog
First step, actually set up your blog.
Most people use Blogger or Wordpress – but you can also use Tumbler or Medium amongst others For more detailed information please read Thing 1 if you haven't already.
Whichever one you use you use you shouldn’t be overly concerned with or worried about the template. Follow the KISS Principle
Choose a template that allows your writing to shine. You want the content to be the important thing, not how it looks. You should be aiming for substance not style. Ultimately your readers will go that’s an interesting argument – not I like their choice of theme.
Importantly - Give yourself time to write the blog. Take time out. When writing try to avoid distractions like your social media accounts. Distractions , well they distract, and make completing the post and making a coherent argument more difficult.
Read other librarians blogs. See what works for them. See what you like and enjoy. And see if you can apply how they blog to your blog.
What to write about and related…
Write about what you know, things that you’ve done in your daily work and your opinions on these things. Reflect on the work and write down these reflections.
If you read something interesting, write a blog post on it.
If you read something you vehemently oppose and think is utter £&$%&* - write a post and argue with it.
Write a book review.
It is your blog. You can write about whatever you want to write about.
Don’t worry about length of blog post. And I know I might be going against the orthodoxy here which says keep posts to under a thousand word. My most read post on Libfocus was over 4,000 words. Likewise, the most read posts on Sir Henrys and Blackpool Sentinel were over 3,000 words. If the post is interesting enough and written coherently people will stick with irrespective of the word-count.
Check your spelling and your grammar. Make this perfect. It just looks bad to have typos, spelling mistakes etc. And can take away from the pleasure for your reader.
Encourage Feedback and engage with the feedback – if somebody comments, reply.
Link your blog into your social media accounts and share your post across these platforms. Don’t be shy to promote your post – you have done the hard parts, actually writing it and putting it out there.
Do try to post regularly. Posting regularly builds momentum and helps to keep your blog in the eyes of people.
If you feel that keeping up your own blog takes too much time and effort why not consider contributing guest blogs to a blog, and thinking local here, like Libfocus or Slip Ireland
Conclusion
And to finish up – a bit of advice that I have to keep repeating to myself when I am finding it difficult to get a blog post or an article started, or more importantly finished. As a particular sports brand motto goes – Just do it. Every written piece in history has started with one word, get that word down, and keep going. Don’t worry about how it reads – you will have to redraft and redraft. NEVER publish a first draft – of anything. Just get writing, and rewriting etc.
And enjoy it. It will be fun. But most importantly Just do it!
Your task for this Thing is:
Write a blog post on any topic of your choice and publish it on your blog. Please ensure to put 'Thing 2' in the title of your blog post to make it easily identifiable to our moderators later.
Further reading:
This article by Michael Stephens encapsulates a lot of the reasons why we think that sharing the work we do on social media and through blogs is so important. He gives some useful advice about best practice when blogging and is definitely worth reading for inspiration.
Today's post was written by Martin O'Connor. Martin is a member of the Collection Development & Management team at University College Cork Library. He has published and presented in the areas of library promotion & marketing, collaboration, social media, library exchanges and user engagement.
He is a long time member of the Libfocus blogging team. He runs the Irish music blog, The Blackpool Sentinel. He is also part of the Shush: Sounds from UCC Library team and co-manages their blog. And finally, as far as blogging goes, he also managed the Sir Henrys 2014 blog an exhibition run by UCC Library in 2014
Welcome to Thing 1 of R23: 23 Things for Information Skills. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are essential reading in order to progress with the rest of this course.
One of the core elements of a 23 Things course is self-discovery and reflection. These are valuable learning methods and we know that you will get a lot more out of this course if you embrace them throughout.
We will have lots of opportunity in each module for you to discover and learn on your own. In order to be eligible to apply for a Digital Open Badge you must reflect on that learning and write a reflective blog post on your thoughts and learning experience. That is where the blog comes in.
Blogging can be a valuable tool for career progression as you record your CPD activities, share your experiences and connect with others online. We will talk more about the benefits of blogging in Thing 2. In this bog post we will show you how to set up your own blog.
A common starting point for us all in the world of blogging is a blank screen. And possibly a blank expression. Well, don't worry, we've all been there, and I'm going to walk you through the whole process of starting a blog from scratch. By the end of this post, you will have seen some "how-tos" on creating a blog, writing a post, following other bloggers, and most importantly, you'll have seen that it's pretty straightforward when you get stuck in.
So, what is a blog anyway? It's many things to many people, but where the word comes from is a combination of the phrase "web log". Many users initially saw blogs as a way to keep an online journal (or log) of their lives. The uses have since expanded, and now there are many forms of blog, but they all involve a user writing a "post" and publishing it to an online tool. The user can choose to keep the blog private or leave it open for anyone to see. For those that go public, there is the option to gain followers/fans, and there are even cases of bloggers making a living out of their writing. The benefits of sharing your blog include opportunities for others to engage with your posts, to share ideas, and as a support network.
What do you need to do to get started?
Firstly you will need to decide on which blogging platform you wish to use. There are many out there, and each has pros and cons. What is common to all platforms is that you will need to create an account to use them. You can think of this in terms of when you were setting up an email address for yourself: you could choose from Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, Vodafone, etc. They all essentially do the same thing, but there are a few to choose from. Well, it's the same with blogging tools. I'll go through some of the options in the next section, to help you decide which one you want to use.
Which blogging platform should you use?
This will come down to personal choice, really, but to help you decide, I'm going to introduce you to a few options.
Owned by Google, so if you have a Google or gmail account, you already have Blogger
Completely free
Easy to set up and use
Offers basic analytics
Blogger Cons:
Hosted by Google, so if they ever shut it down, you could lose your blog
Some templates look a bit dated
WordPress Pros:
Blogs can look very professional
Easy to set up and use
Free (but limited) version available
WordPress Cons:
Free version has the same risk as Blogger (if the host ever shuts the service down, you could lose your blog)
You may find that you have to pay for the "nice" parts that come free with other providers
Tumblr Pros:
Very well suited to blogging on a mobile device
Media-centric, although you can post just text
Clean and modern look
Tumblr Cons:
Blogs tend to not look as professional as Blogger or Wordpress
Analytic tools are not as in-depth as Blogger or Wordpress
Tumblr has become a well loved micro-blogging tool by librarians. Just search for the hashtag #tumblarians to get an array of librarian humor and real librarians sharing their workday lives.
The best way to decide which one suits you is to have a look each of them online. I have also added a link in the "Want to know more?" section below, which goes into a bit more detail about each of the platforms.
My thoughts on the three platforms.
Unless you are willing to pay for hosting to set up your own WordPress site (which can look VERY professional, but costs money), then Blogger or Wordpress.com (the free version of WordPress) are your best options. Tumblr is fine, and arguably has the best mobile app (iOS andAndroid) of the three. However, it doesn't have the same administration tools as the other two. Blogger is a bit easier to use for a beginner but doesn't look as fancy as WordPress. If at a later stage you wish to transfer your blog into a self-hosted website using the full (paid) version of WordPress, then you can easily export your Blogger blog to WordPress. So, it is up to you to balance the pros and cons and decide which platform suits you best. Any of these three will work fine for Rudaí23.
Which blogging platform do I use?
Well, actually, I use all three! When I started blogging for my students, I decided to use Blogger, as I found it easier to get up and running on it compared to Wordpress (at the time, Tumblr was not as mature as it is now). A few years later I wanted to spruce up the look of the blog, so I tried moving it to WordPress. What I found was that the blog was no longer showing up in search engine results, so I switched back to Blogger. If I had been using WordPress from the start, I would not have had this problem. I had created a "track record" and had gathered followers through my Blogger site and so it made sense to leave it there.
Another BIG reason why I choose Blogger to begin with is that it is completely integrated with my Google account, so everything is really smooth: I can link my Google Calendar, Drive, Photos, Google Plus and YouTube stuff to my Blogger blogs very easily. They all work well together because they are all part of the one account. By the way, you may have noticed that the Rudaí23 blog is also created using Blogger!
More recently, I have started using Wordpress.com for my personal web site. There is a blogging element to this site, but I use it more as a "landing page" for my web presence. This is an example of an advantage of Wordpress: it can be used to create websites, not just blogs.
I also use Tumblr because I like how easily it works on my iPhone. It is very convenient for blogging on the go. I tend to view it as "Twitter Plus", in that I use it in a similar way to Twitter, but it does not have the limitation of just 140 characters. It is so easy to share media content (as well as text) using Tumblr, so it is a great option if you have something short and snappy to share. I have my Tumblr and Twitter accounts linked, so anything I create on Tumblr also gets published automatically on Twitter.
Whatever platform you decide to use for your blog, that is absolutely fine. When you have created your blog, its URL will be shared to other Rudaí23 users, and we will be able to work with you no matter what way you decide to go. However, for the purposes of sharing a tutorial with you, the next thing I am going to show you is how to get up and running with Blogger.
Getting started with Blogger
There are only a couple of simple steps involved in setting up a blog using Blogger.
1. Blogger requires a Google Account. If you do not have a Google Account, you can watch the video below to see how to set one up. If you already have a Google Account, you can skip this step.
2. Once you've logged into your Google account you can set up your blog.
The video below shows you exactly how to do this. In this video, you will also see how to publish a post, which is the basis of "Thing 2"
If you cannot watch these videos just follow these steps:
You will then be asked to sign into your google account, or set up a google account if you do not have one already.
You will then be asked to choose a blog title and URL. These do not have to be the same. If you choose a long blog title, you might prefer a shorter URL. Take some time to think about your URL and blog title, you will be sharing this with your professional peers.
Your URL is the information that we need to complete registration. More on that later.
You will now be brought into your blog editing page. Here you will see a menu of options on the left, where you can chose the theme, layout, background and write your first post.
On the top left click on 'view blog' and a new tab will open showing you what your blog looks like on the web.
Every time you add an element to your blog, change the layout, or compose a post you can preview it before committing to it.
That's it! You're now up and running with your blog!
If you chose to use Wordpress or Tumblr or a similar blog platform the set-up are broadly similar to blogger and relatively simple. Try it out and see how you get on.
Your Tasks for Thing 1:
If you've been looking at the links and working through them as you read this post, you may have already completed most of the first Thing! If not, all you have to do is:
Click here to complete Step 2 of our registration process once you have your blog set up.
Writing your first post will be coming up in Thing 2.
Want to know more?
Blogging, and the finer detail of how to use your chosen blogging platform, is something that you will get better at with practice. One of the best ways to find out how your chosen platform works is simply to experiment with it. Have a look around at the settings. Play around with the themes. See if you can figure out how to add images to your posts.
As a helping hand, I've put together a number of short video tutorials. You can look at these now, or you can come back to them later on when you want to explore some of the more advanced tools in Blogger. The videos can be found at the following links:
For a more detailed comparison between the three blogging platforms outlined above, have a look at the following link. It is about a 10-15 minute read.
