Blogging in Saskatoon

Yesterday, to celebrate the first day of summer, we rode out to the Lutheran Seminary, and joined up with two friends also on bikes. It was a sultry, steamy evening, with every green and living thing reaching for the sky. We had to do some ill-fated off-roading, and the aroma of the plants crushed under foot and tire was intoxicating. I had hoped that we could travel down a path toward RPC that has beautiful vistas, but we were thwarted by some construction being done on one of our city's many bridges. Instead, we rode to a luscious garden located within our city's research park, plopped down in cedar chairs in a wood pavilion lit by mission-style lamps, and gazed over the pond while sipping rosehip tea and eating crepes. We stayed until 10:30 p.m., and it was still light enough to make our way home down the path. Welcome, summer!

I have created blogs before, and I have a few favourites that I've been reading on and off for a few years, but I am not what you'd call a blogging expert. However, I am a public librarian, which seems to mean I get to become an instant expert on nearly every topic imaginable at least 50 times per day. At this moment, I am working on becoming a blogging expert. I am hoping to achieve this lofty status within a few weeks, as a colleague and I will be teaching a blogging class to the public in not too long. I understand the principles, the logic, and the act itself. Most importantly, I know where to find the answer.

What I love most about blogs and blogging is when you get a glimmer of human nature or about the inside thoughts and values about a person when you read their professional blog.

A blog that is 100% professional, in my opinion, is often dull. In the library world, 100% professional means that all blog posts sound like "There's a new electronic database that you can use for this," or "There's a new privacy law that is limiting access to information there". Ho hum.

But when a librarian writes a blog that occasionally says "Help - I'm insane today! I should really go and hide under my bed instead of trying to help someone do their research!" or "Don't you just hate it when someone grips a computer mouse so hard for an hour that it's hot to the touch afterwards?!" - somehow that's wildly interesting. I think it's about suddenly knowing a tiny bit more about the writer and how they think or how they feel.

Stories about people are so powerful. The big stories AND the little stories. If you're going to blog and you want me to read it, give me a little bit about yourself. Not too much information, of course. Just a little.

To follow the idea of an organizational blog or a group blog, BookBlog is a great example of a group running a blog together. BookBlog is a book club that exists only online.

The book club members all take turns 'hosting', by running the discussion on a particular book at a particular time, and the only people who are allowed to comment on the blog are the members of the book club. Anyone else, of course, can read the blog and follow the discussion, but can't participate unless they apply to become a participating member.

What a great example of an online community with a shared interest. Computers can leave us sitting alone in our rooms staring at a tiny screen, but they also have the capability to allow a real meeting of the minds in a virtual space.

And all that chat about books on the BookBlog warms my little librarian heart. Especially if they talk about books like "The Time Traveller's Wife" - there's a librarian in that one!

There are lots and lots of personal blogs on the Internet, but groups and organizations can have blogs too. Saskatchewan Learning, for example, has a website with a 'news blog' built right into it. It looks and smells like a blog, but it's not called a blog - it's simply a tool to use to promote their services.

What looks like a blog:

• all news items have publishing dates attached to them
• the newest items appear at the top of the news list, and get older as you move down the list
• all news items have a title

What is different from a regular blog:

• news items do not have a 'signature' that says who put them there
• publicly-viewable comments on each news item are not allowed - to reduce mischief - your organization would want to control the look of its website, and that includes comments. In this case, you would want comments to come in through an e-mail address instead to protect the privacy of the writer and to protect the image of your organization
• posts tend to be more formal

Ooooh, when the pressure to blog and be clever is on, how tough it is.

I just read, recently, that the University here has made Moveable Type blogging software available to people on campus so that they can create blogs. What a great way to invite people to learn new technological skills, and at the same time, a great way to create online content and to create community.

One of my mentors here at the Library once said something very wise about having a website online: 'you must create original content, as well as linking to other online resources. If all your online content sends people elsewhere, then what reason would they have to come back to your website?' She's right, and this works for blogging too. The best blogs to read (I suppose this is a subjective opinion) are the ones that say something original. If all your posts direct people somewhere else, people might get bored with your site and start 'cutting out the middle man'.

The organization, Reporters Without Borders/Reporters san frontieres, has a great online handbook about blogging called the 'Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents'. You can either use the online version which has many useful links to blogging tools, or you can print the PDF version.

Oh man, we feel TERRIBLE about our lack of blogging. The fact that we have not blogged since Feb. 28 technically makes us "blog mutes". And we are sorry. Really sorry.

It's a crisp, sunny day in Saskatoon, and we're getting ready to host another blogging class here at the Library. The last one was fun, so I'm expecting good things from this session.

How do you find blogs that are interesting to read? There are a lot of blogs out there (me and my dog, me and my computer, me looking for love, me lost in love, my cats and me, etc., etc.), but not every blog is one you want to read.

There are a bunch of different ways to find a blog. Here are some of the ways:

* know the address of a blog and go there
* use the random 'next blog' button at the top of the screen
* click on the username of a person who comments on your blog
* use the links in your profile to find like-minded people (or hike-loving, Nietzsche-reading, jet-skiers from Illinois...)
* browse the links in someone else's blogroll
* use a blog-specific search engine, such as Feedster

And there are probably a whole lot more ways to find blogs that I don't know about!