Blogging 101 Aaron Schmidt Thomas Ford Memorial Library

Blogging 101 Aaron Schmidt Thomas Ford Memorial Library aaron @ lisnews. com www. walkingpaper. org

Objectives n General intro to blogging n Looking at useful blogs n Determine why/if you want to blog n Learn how n A few advanced topics

Blog? n Short for Web Log n An online diary of sorts n Reverse chronological order n Jorn Barger, 1997

Blogs as Tools n Keeping current in our profession n External promotion/communication n Internal promotion/communication n Self expression and journaling

Useful blogs n www. fordlibrary. org n www. lisnews. com n www. theshiftedlibrarian. com n www. librarystuff. com n www. tametheweb. com/ttwblog

Really Simple Syndication n Known as RSS n www. bloglines. com n “XML”

Why You Should Be Blogging n Easy to update – Say goodbye to FTP n Nice looking pages fast n Division of Duties n Free, or cheap (minus staff time)

Requirements to Blog n Blog software – Movable Type, Blogger, Type. Pad – Other Web or client software n Server space & a bit of programming n Time n Something to say

Library Applications For Blogging n New materials list n General news n Programming n **Intranet (Internal staff page)

Internal Communication n Keep staff in the loop n Digital depository for documents n Knowledgebase applications

Blogger vs. Movable Type BLOGGER n Housed with them – Ads MOVABLE TYPE n Housed at SLS

How I Log in

Posting As Email

The Result

Customizing your Blog config – Preferences • • Days dispalyed Order of entries “Status” of new entires Defaults

Cascading Style Sheets or How to Change the Look of Your Entire Website in under 30 Clicks

Paste Default Styles Into the Box http: //www. movabletype. org/default_styles. shtml Save and rebuild

Class Sandbox n http: //www 2. sls. lib. il. us/classblog/sandbox/

Practice Blogs n http: //www 2. sls. lib. il. us/classblog/cgi-bin/MT/mt. cgi

Creative Passwords! we’ll change them First name – first name

Changing Passwords, Adding Users

End of Power. Point, I’m Going Live