Rhode Island Blogs and Feeds Presentation, 10/25/2005
A Lively Presentation on Blogging in Special Libraries
j Baumgart
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/
SLA RI Chapter / URI GSLIS Student
Formal Dinner & Colloquium
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Why should librarians care?
· Feeds and blogs are great and powerful
· Librarians have not only a role in using feeds and weblogs, but also encouraging their clients to use the technology.
· If we drive technology in our organizations, we probably have a role in encouraging others to use the tools.
Weblogs
Raise Your Hand If You …
[Of an audience of about 45 library and information science professionals and students,]
· Know what weblogs are [most people]
· Read blogs [most people]
· Blog [only 4-5 hands]
· Blog anonymously [most of the 4-5 bloggers]
· Are here because you personally want to learn more [almost everyone]
· Are here because your employer is considering or already using the technology [almost everyone]
[I should have asked how many were there because a parent or spouse made them attend, too.]
What is a weblog?
· Definitions vary
What is a weblog?, 2
· Blog software enables easy updating of Web pages
· Bloggers don’t necessarily have to know HTML
· There are many different kinds of blogs, different kinds of platforms for blogging
· Can blog on the Web, on an intranet, on your desktop, etc.
Examples of Blogs
· ResourceShelf: http://www.resourceshelf.com/
· Rowland Institute at Harvard Library Blog: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/rihlib/
· SLA Annual Conference Blog: http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_confer…
Why blog?
· Communication
· Knowledge management
· Annotated list of links
· Networking, community building
· Sharing sources
· Easy to archive and retrieve material
Why read blogs?
· News
· Professional development
Examples
· beSpacific: http://www.bespacific.com/
· LISNews: http://www.lisnews.com/
· Issues in Scholarly Communication: http://www.library.gsu.edu/news/index.as…
Why read blogs?, 2
· Be/stay informed
· Get someone else’s personal perspective, view of the world
· Time management
– Portals and KM: http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_…
Blog to inform library users
· The Northwestern University Library has a blog http://www.library.northwestern.edu/news… ), which appears on the homepage http://www.library.northwestern.edu/)
Communication tool among staff members
· EMU Reference Desk: Notes & Queries: http://emuref.blogspot.com/
More examples
· List of library weblogs: http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links…
· Library Weblogs http://puck.emeraldinsight.com/vl=317972…) takes a scholarly look at fifty-five library blogs.
XML Feeds
Raise your hand if you …
· Know what XML feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) are [many hands]
· Receive feeds [about the same number]
· Use an aggregator or news reader [fewer hands]
· Are here because you personally want to learn more [many hands]
· Are here because your employer is considering or already using the technology [a few hands]
· Have coded your own XML feed [no hands]
Feeds
· Powerful way to distribute and receive content
· XML file on a server
· Usually appears when there’s new content
· Most people use software to read them
· Possible to route feeds to Web sites
XML feed headers, 1
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<!– RSS generated by UserLand Frontier v9.0 on Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:53:25 GMT –>
<rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>
<channel>
<title>j's scratchpad</title>
XML feed headers, 2
<link>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/</link>
<description>A blog about news librarianship and related topics, like blogging, feeds, wikis, copyright law, and journalism.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:51:07 GMT</lastBuildDate>
XML feed headers, 3
<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss</docs>
<generator>UserLand Frontier v9.0</generator>
<category domain=”http://www.weblogs.com/rssUpdates/changes.xml”>rssUpdates</category> <managingEditor>jkbaumga @ [e-mail address]</managingEditor>
<webMaster>jkbaumga @ [e-mail address] (j Baumgart)</webMaster>
Blog post in XML, 1
<item>
<title>More Thoughts on PowerPoint</title> <link>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2005/10/23#a4093</link>
<description>I used PowerPoint for the presentation I gave on Wednesday. Using slides makes it easier for people in the audience to see the information I’m presenting. However, I often find myself feeling “locked in” to PowerPoint. Switching from PowerPoint to browse the Web seems so clunky to me. […]</description>
Blog post in XML, 2
<dc:creator>j Baumgart</dc:creator>
<category>No Department Assigned</category> <guid>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/2005/10/23#a4093</guid>
<comments>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/comments?u=jkbaumga&p=4093&link=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.law.harvard.edu%2Fjkbaumga%2F2005%2F10%2F23%23a4093</comments>
</item>
Feed examples: Web sites and weblogs
· Librarians’ Index to the Internet: http://lii.org/ntw.rss
· Dysart and Jones: http://www.dysartjones.com/atom.xml
· Jenkins Law Library: http://www.jenkinslaw.org/webblits/rss.p…
Use of feeds by libraries
· University of Alabama RSS Feeds for Recently Cataloged Titles: http://library.ua.edu/rss/
· University of Pennsylvania’s Online Books Page has a feed for the New Listings page: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/new…
More feeds from libraries
· Yale’s Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library provides a feed for its newsletter: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/
· More feeds from college and university libraries: http://directory.edufeeds.com/index.php?…
Feed examples: news
· National Public Radio: http://www.npr.org/rss/
· The Providence Journal: http://www.projo.com/rss/
· The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/
· CNN: http://www.cnn.com/services/rss/
Assorted feed examples
· Buoys: http://www.gomoos.org/rss/hourly-buoy-da…
· Weather: http://www.weather.gov/alerts/ri.php
· Traffic alerts: http://www.traffic.com/Providence-Traffi…
Feeds used on sites
· Flight data: http://www.flightview.com/TravelTools/
· the World as a Blog: http://www.brainoff.com/geoblog/
· Portals:
– http://my.harvard.edu/
2 main kinds of feeds
· RSS: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
· Atom: http://atomenabled.org/
· Both are XML feeds
· Differences: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/20…
Feed Relationships
XML –> RSS –> Atom
· RSS is a kind of XML
· Atom evolved from RSS.
Signs something offers a feed
· Icons
· Text
– Subscribe
– Syndicate
· What works best? http://bokardo.com/archives/interface-el…
Differences between reading a feed and a site
· Lose niceities of the Web site
· Stream of content with no distractions
· Easy to find what’s new
Aggregators
· Aggregators read feeds
· Many kinds
· Good aggregators should handle various feeds and files
· Public vs. private aggregators
Desktop news readers
· Come in all flavors
· NetNewsWire: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
· Pluck: http://www.pluck.com/
· BlogBridge: http://www.blogbridge.com/
· MSN screensaver can be aggregator: http://screensaver.msn.com/
Web aggregators
· My Manila aggregator: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/ aggregator/
· Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
· My Yahoo!: http://my.yahoo.com/
· Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader/things/intr…
More about news readers
· Review of PC aggregators: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printabl…
· Review of Mac aggregators: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/20…
· Six readers: http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Arti…
· List of aggregators via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggreg…
Enclosures
· Send files via feed
– Podcasting
– Vlogging, or video blogging
Library/Librarian Podcasts
· List from Open Stack’s Greg Schwartz, who also podcasts: http://openstacks.net/os/archives/000838…
More about feeds
· RSS Feed bibliography: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTAC…
· An Introduction to RSS Feeds: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/20…
· The scratchpad’s Feeds department: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/ne…
· RSS4Lib: http://blogs.fletcher.tufts.edu/rss4lib/
Finding feeds and blogs
· Look for syndication/subscription hints on sites
· Some general Internet search engines
– For a specific feed, try looking for the title and add ‘feed’ or ‘RSS’ or a similar term to the search query.
· Search engines specializing in feeds
· Directories
Search engines specializing in feeds and blogs
· Feedster: http://www.feedster.com/
· Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/
· Daypop: http://www.daypop.com/
· Share Your OPML: http://feeds.scripting.com/
· NewsIsFree: http://www.newsisfree.com/
Finding feeds and blogs: directories
· Blogwise’s list of blogs: http://www.blogwise.com/
· Open Directory Project’s list of LIS weblogs: http://www.dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/…
· SciencePORT: http://www.scienceport.org/
· Syndic8: http://www.syndic8.com/
Managing feeds
· Create one feed from many
– Frankenfeed: http://frankenfeed.com/
· Tag feeds:
– RSSor: http://rssor.utblog.com/
– FeedAlley: http://feedalley.com/
– feedmarker: http://www.feedmarker.com/
Time management/
information overload
· “Don’t feeds and blogs mean you get lots more content with no more time to read them?”
· Yes, actually it does
· But using a feed to read a source saves lots time and makes it easy
· Blogs can be great digests
How to start blogging
· Think about what you want to blog/need from a blog and select appropriate software for the task.
– This is not necessarily easy. It’s similar to picking library automation software.
· Blog platforms may be similar, but they aren’t the same.
– More details about picking blog software: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/jkbaumga/st…
How to start blogging, 2
· Take some time to really learn about the system you choose.
· Find out your support options: discussion list, superusers, help desk, etc.
· Market your blog
· Start casting those bottles into the ocean
– (I’m being figurative here. I’m not advocating for pollution.)
Collaborative blogging
· Multiple people can contribute to a blog
· Works well for projects with multiple contributors
· Like all group projects, people need buy-in and encouragement
Blogging on multiple blogs
· What goes where?
· Posting the same item in multiple places
· Managing multiple blogs
Thank You!
