I’m at the
Iowa Library Association Annual Conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Michael Stephens of
Tame the Web is
our keynote this year. I attended his preconference yesterday (very good!) and he did the opening general session today. Now he’s doing his final session on blogging in libraries.
Michael asked in the opening general session if we were blogging it live. I was not due to connectivity issues. I’m trying again with his session on library blogging. This may end up being “almost live� in that I’ll post it as soon as I can get a good connection…
I’m delighted by the crowd here for this session—he really lit them up in the general session! I was lucky enough to be at the preconference yesterday that he gave. Very informative and useful. It got the best buzz of any session here this week.
His PowerPoints for the whole conference are here:
http://www.tametheweb.com/iowa (in PDF form).
The following are my general impressions and rough following of this session:
Blogs are his “favorite social networking tool�. Best place for libraries to start social networking on the web is with a blog. Easy way to add content to websites.
L.A. Clyde – Univ of Iceland – 2004 – basics of weblog.
Weblog as journal.
Weblogs in libraries are a way to deliver content up to the web and out to your users easily.
Props to MS for one of the best basic explanations of how blogs work – comments, trackbacks, etc.
Side menus, etc. Archives. Look for draft mode. “Never blog in anger�. This got a laugh, but I know he’s right!
What you need to blog.
Web-based Blog Editing. Mu.ltiple authors throughout library. Can post from wherever they are – handy
Suggest going to blogger.com. He assigns his Internet class to have blog, and they have 200 word post due as assignment.
Great suggestion: make a practice blog for your library. Have them try it out, get used to it, then go ‘live’ on official blog after a bit.
Why blogs and libraries?
Quotes Marylaine Block in 2001 – Keep current in profession, great tool for promotion/communication. Huwe in 2003 – use for internal, not just external communication. Librarians are “born to blog�.
Jumping on the ‘cluetrain’. All about conversations. “We can smell PR speak a mile away and we turn it off. We want companies to tell us what they’re doing and why.� He urges ILS creators to read weblogs.
Great idea, really. Too bad they won’t listen.
Told story yesterday about his colleague blogging from New Orleans during ALA. To public blog. Very powerful. Communicate to patrons what staff does.
Transparency and presence. Put conference reports on your blog. What you learned. “Prove you’re not going to Council Bluffs just to hang out with friends� (except we are…and to learn…and to network ).
Use blogs for collaborative work.
ALA TechSource blog. He and Jenny Levine and others. Collaboration in weblog atmosphere – he likes.
He charged the ILA with starting a blog. Showed Calif Lib Assn blog. Post pictures, text, reports, etc.
Feel-good Librarian. Feelgoodlibrarian.typepad.com anonymous, but shares ‘story’ of her library. This is valuable.
Flickr is basically a photo blog. He suggests Flickr presence for ILA, for conferences, meetings, etc.
He discusses basics of starting your first library blog. How to. Very clear on planning steps. Again, his explanation is clear, logical and helpful. Very nice.
Best practices for library blogs. He covers the real issues. Great ideas. Getting new library building? Blog about it throughout process—more transparency, etc.
Some of my impressions of M. Stephens: Engaging speaker, good presence, casual but professional. I’m sure it’s been said before, clearly. But for Iowa, this is a remarkable thing – a room full of library types getting excited, maybe a little scared, engaged and challenged. This is important.
At the ILA Leadership Institute this year, we talked about the need to PUSH Iowa libraries into the 21st (and sometimes 20th) century. Sometimes it takes someone from outside the state to get things rolling. I hope Michael has done this.
Question and Answer portion:
Q: How get users TO your blog? MS: make flyers, hand outs
Suggestion from high schooler: myspace page.
MS: blogger may be blocked in schools – have discussion with IT folks about why this is necessary and useful. How it can be used. AKA “Blogvangelism� from school librarians and teachers – uphill battle with admin who don’t think there should be collaboration in schools.
Q: how start book discussion blog. Esp. for teens.
MS: start teen book club blog. John Blyberg from AADL made catalog cards and put in post. Ask questions, engage readers.
Q: Facebook - application in academic libs.
MS: entities being deleted, but you as individual could get on and talk about what’s going on, ask for input.
Q: permissions question about photos on websites
MS: carry around release forms. Have them sign. Take distant group shots (ok). Kids today are assuming this will happen (web 2.0). Kids like to see themselves on the web.
Q: question about his bullet point on keynote: “go global�
MS: from Beck’s writing – access to worldwide resources, we can push this out to patrons.
Q: from LSA about small libraries – how encourage small libs and tell them how they can use this.
MS: start with blog – it can BE your website. We could sit here and make website for every small library by end of today with blogger.
(Michael, watch your feet! I’m afraid you’re going to trip on that cord!)
Challenge to State Library of Iowa – huge server with Word Press for blog for every library in Iowa. (Great idea!!!)
Q: library with blog, new – how know if successful if no comments.
MS: may not be commenting, but are reading. Get site counter (blogger.com). Ask your teen group or others to go in and comments.
Follow up: Make another one for the teens?
MS: Yes!
Suggestion from librarian: collaborate with schools on this.
Q: What is the big difference we’ll see with Web 2.0? What has this changed?
MS: collaborative living. Creating, sharing content online. More open, participatory online.
***
Again, I was delighted to see the reaction to Michael’s talks. A lot of nods, some cheers, but also head-shaking and furrowed brows. Why is this good? Because they’re thinking about what he has to say. About what we can do here in Iowa libraries that isn’t just ‘business as usual’. About using new technologies and tools – many of them free! – to bring people to our websites, to our libraries, to our services. Show them the value of what we offer.
Thank you, Michael, from Iowa libraries.
