Rules of blogging

For those that might be interested, there’s an article by me in the latest CILIP Gazette (14th August 2009) on writting effective blogs for librarians.  Currently available online free of charge here.  Enjoy, and try not to point out how many of my suggestions my posts have breached over the years…

Research into how academics use blogs

Adventures in digital academia

Could be a useful resource when discussing web2.0, professional identities and open publising with academics.

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World Reprise

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World: Cover

Following on from Gareth’s earlier post on this subject, here’s my thoughts & questions:

• Information Literacy is a major component of this report – it argues that it is a growing area that students are deficient in. Recommends that it is a high priority for HEIs to train their students in & keep their staff updated on.
• “Information literacies, including searching, retrieving, critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it – represent a significant and growing deficit area”
• However, no mention anywhere of how to do this or that libraris have been struggling to get this on the agenda for years.
• Q: What do we do with this report? Take it to VC? Take it to teaching & learning committees? What strategies & solutions do we suggest for training students & staff? Do we take a take roots approach with lecturers? Do all of the above?
• Web 2.0 skills (communication, networking, sharing) are becoming employability skills.
• Students are living in a Web 2.0 world and might expect Web 2.0 solutions in the future – though at present they expect a traditional face to face approahc in HE and do not equate social software with learning. This may change as the next few generations come through the school system.
• Students are currently consumers of content in the Web 2.0 world rather than creators – we need to find hooks i.e. show them how the technology helps them.
• Q: What are the hooks for staff and for students in using Web 2.0 in a learning context?
• Three types of online space: Personal (emails & messaging), Group (social networking sites) and publishing (blogs, wikis, youtube).  Students will not want us in their personal space but there is scope for utilising group and publishing space for learning & teaching.
• Information literacy should incorporate other web awareness issues e.g. plagarism, data protection, personal data on the web and online identities.
• Q: How do we do this? How do we work with others in the institution who teach/train on these issues? How do we update ourselves in all these areas?
• Upskill staff on e-pedagogy: as this will be needed for them to take advantage of using Web 2.0 technologies.
• Q: How skilled are we as librarians in this? What training do we need in order to offer the information literacy teaching the report advocates?
• Report suggests there are already examples out there of good practice in the use of digitised materials and online learning resources at module level. Though no specific examples included. It asks how these can be supported and used on a wider/larger scale.
• Q: What good practice are we already using or aware of with regards Web 2.0? Does it upscale? What opportunities are there for us to work with other colleagues inside & outside the institution to provide services?
• Take into account the prior experience and the expectations of students.
• Q: How do we do this? Do we cultivate more links with school librarians in the UK? What about overseas, distance learning and mature students?
• Digital divide still exists – don’t forget that!
• “Means of access will be multimedia, mobile and pocket-sized”
• Q: Are we prepared for the next wave of multimedia and mobile type resources?

Overall, this report is good for librarians and the information literacy cause as long as we DO something about it. Take action & not just talk about it!

Talking about my blog regeneration

I have just returned from the outer limits of the 2nd floor, where I’ve been having a lively discussion with Stu Johnson and colleague Marta about blogging.  Stu tells me that he’s been very impressed with the UoL Library blog and what we’ve been doing with it, which is really great to hear.  As regular readers know I’m a big advocate of blogs as knowledge based resources and communication channels within organisations (as well as without); so I’m delighted our own little corner of the blogosphere has encouraged some other people to have a go.

It is interesting that a lot of the challenges we faced in setting up and populating this blog are uppermost in the their minds as well; getting content, ensuring engagement from staff, coherent voice and privacy issues.  From what I heard they’re well on their way to creating a first class blog for their staff to share experience and learn from; so I wish them well.  I’ll look forward to reading it (if and when they allow public visitors).

I think my one regret from the meeting is that once again I don’t have anything especially exciting top blog about at this point; but perhaps we should be grateful I’m not writing about digital preservation and curation again!

Arcadia@Cambridge – looking at Web 2.0 and libraries

Following on from Friday’s excellent meeting on digital strategy for the library I’ve been pointed towards this site by a couple of folks – http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/.  To quote from the site:

The Arcadia Programme is a three-year programme funded by a generous grant from the Arcadia Trust to Cambridge University Library. The grant will enable us to explore the role of academic libraries in a digital age, create new programmes and services, particularly for undergraduates — and also to improve the external environment of the library.

They’ve a blog as well, which like the UoL Library Blog covers a lot of emerging technologies, though unlike our good selves they’re focussing into them in more depth.  Not a great deal on the site yet, but probably one to watch over the coming months.

An author’s guide to blogging – some help & guidance

As noted earlier we pioneering 4 wanted to expand out our test community to include a few more people, and hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to read the various emails I’ve sent out about it.

One thing we didn’t cover in the emails were any house rules and regulations for authors and commentors.  This blog is very much an informal knowledge exchange tool, which means we try to keep the tone light, informative and professional. It isn’t an appropriate place to air any inflammatory issues; rather it is a space to seek comment and input to areas you’re working on or to share/reflect on your own experiences. It is also a useful place to post links to articles or reports that are of interest to the library community.  We 4 have certainly learned quite a bit over the past couple of months already.

If you’ve never written for or read a blog before, we’d recommend following some of the links in the Blogroll(on the left) to see the tone and style adopted by other academic bloggers.  It might be that you’re actually a long time blogger with a different hat on (personally I’m into my 5th year of blogging now), in which case the four of us would like to invite you to start contributing sooner rather than later.  Don’t be afraid – no one is going to call you stupid!

I’ll leave you with Johnson’s good blogging conduct rules of thumb, which I’ll expect you all to inwardly digest and be able to quote from heart by next month:

• Keep posts/comments short, light and readable (yes this post probably fails that test)
• Don’t stress over the grammar – better out than in!
• If you think it’s interesting, chances are someone else on staff does too and will benefit from it.
• Add tags freely and plentiful – use categories sparingly (and please ask if you want to add more categories!)
• Try and blog at least twice a month if not more – the more voices the blog has the more valuable and enjoyable it will be
• Try and comment on at least one post a week – I will be keeping score.
• There is no such thing as a bad post…(well almost)
• If you’re unsure about anything- just ask me, Keith, Selina or Sarah
• AND remember: anyone in the world could read your post/comment…so never blog anything you wouldn’t be prepared to stand up in the middle of a crowded room and shout about!

Librarians and blogging

Latest SCONUL Focus has a number of articles on librarians blogging.  Read it here:

http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/43/

Any thoughts or reflections people?

Open Access blogroll

The Repositories Support Project have rolled out a nice list of blogs from individuals, projects and institutions working in the OA/IR field.  Thanks to Stuart Lewis at Aber for the heads up.

• http://rsp.ac.uk/blogs/

A suprising number of them, and casting my over it’s good to spot a fair number of the main movers and shakers in this field (both techy and non-techy I hasten to add) have something to say on the matter.  Reccomended browsing for anyone dealing with OA or repository related issues.