richardkong.com » Blogging

Blogs in Plain English

Rich — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:36:41 +0000

The people over at the CommonCraft Show are seriously making my job a lot easier! They have a new video out explaining what the big deal is about blogs. How convenient because I’m just starting to teach blog-related classes at my library!

Check it out…

Blogs: The Basics & Beyond

Rich — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:44:39 +0000

Here are the slides from my recent class on blogs and rss feeds. I ended up just adapting the presentation from the Blogs and Blogging class I taught at my old library (thanks to my former colleague, Margaret). I think there were 11 people who attended the class and each person left with at least an idea of what blogs are and a new Google Reader account with a few subscriptions of their own. I think it went well and I actually had a lot of fun teaching it, though my voice was failing me near the end. It’s always nice to teach a class like this and see people really catch onto something quickly. I could tell that most of the students were really excited about making use of rss feeds. I also set up a class blog to demonstrate what a typical blog looks like and how it works. It also serves as a place for students to return to for more information and make use of the glossary and recommended links.

Next week I’m teaching a follow-up class on starting your own blog. I’m getting things ready for that class and I’m wondering whether or not I should focus on one blog-host or demonstrate a few. Normally, I would teach people how to create a free wordpress blog, but I think I’ll use Blogger just because I think it’s slightly easier to use for the absolute beginner and it’s just so convenient to have one Google account and handle blogging, rss feeds, email, etc. It’ll be interesting to see if people continue to sign up for these types of classes. I think it’s true that most people who are interested in blogging are already tech-savvy enough to figure out for themselves, but I still think that there are a lot of people just learning about the Internet and computers who need a little bit of help to get started. By the way, now you can visit the computer class archives page and check out more slides and handouts from recent classes at my library.

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Thing 1: Blogs

Rich — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:31:02 +0000

So, as part of the 10 Things @ SPL, the staff at mpow is being asked to take a look at blogs. My introduction to the world of blogs came in 2002 when a friend of mine told me that he had a blog both on livejournal and Xanga. At the time, I had just moved to Seoul, Korea to live, study, and work for a year and the idea of keeping an online journal really appealed to me. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that I could stay connected to friends back in the States by journaling my life in Korea. So I opened a Xanga account and started my first blog. I quickly realized that not only would blogging keep the doors open to people who were already my friends and family, but it would also open the doors to connections and friendships with people I would never meet face to face. Blogging ended up being a huge part of my life that year and it really allowed me to keep my sanity while I experienced an entirely new culture, place, language, and lifestyle. It’s ironic that even though I was living in a place so far from home, not knowing hardly anyone, I never felt more connected to people than I did that year when I became a blogger.

When I started my masters in information science, I realized that blogging would not only be a part of my personal life but it would also be a huge part of my professional life. I consider myself lucky because I worked part-time (while a student at UMSI) at the Ann Arbor District Library when they rolled out their new website built on Drupal. Blogs were suddenly a major part of the library’s web presence and the great thing is that the library empowered every staff member to contribute to the library’s various blogs if we were interested. I had the opportunity to contribute to the video blog mostly, writing entries promoting the video collection.

So, when I think about blogging and libraries, I think of all the possibilities. Libraries can use blogs to communicate and connect with their patrons in various ways, like this, this, and this. And the best thing about it is that patrons have the opportunity to participate in the conversation. Sure, most library blogs don’t get a lot of comments yet, but the fact that libraries with blogs are giving patrons an open invitation to express their thoughts on the library’s websites is a big deal imho. And speaking of comments, take a look at this entry from a blog I enjoy reading; it addresses the important question of how to handle the dearth of comments on most library blogs. I really think that blogs can help libraries remain vibrant in and relevant to their communities, but the reality is that libraries are still figuring out how to use blogs most effectively. It’s an exciting time!

So how about you, what kinds of blogs would you like to see from your library, whether you’re a library worker or a library patron? For those of you on staff at SPL, would you want to contribute to a library blog (e.g., book blog, video blog, research blog, technology blog, etc.)?

Sharing via Google Reader

Rich — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:06:54 +0000

When I first started utilizing RSS feeds, I primarily used NetNewsWire for Mac. Then, I gave Safari‘s built in aggregator a shot and used that for awhile. I eventually decided that accessing my feeds from anywhere with Internet access was important to me, so I switched over to Bloglines. That worked out for awhile, but recently I gave Google Reader a shot and I’ve decided to move things over once again! I have a feeling I’ll stick to Google Reader for a long time. It seems more reliable and quicker to pick up new feeds than Bloglines. Also, I love the fact that I can create a “Shared items” clip and place it right into the sidebar here on this blog! Now, whenever I read something especially interesting or worthy of sharing, I just mark it “shared” and it’ll automatically be picked up on my sidebar (“Recently Read Online”) for everyone to see. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Btw, we’re offering a new class at the Library on blogs and I’m definitely going to be talk about Google Reader, so sign up by calling (805) 449-2660 x. 204 if you’re interested in learning more about blogs and how to keep up with them.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Rich — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:40:45 +0000

I’ll be making some changes to this site during the next few days, so it might look a bit off. Right now this is a free blog on wordpress.com, but I’m going to move it over to my remote server and install wordpress.org software. I’ve done this once before and it took me forever to figure out since everything I know and do with my websites is completely self-taught (read clueless). Hopefully this time, things will go a lot smoother and it won’t take long before my new and improved site is up…*fingers crossed*

–update–
Well, apparently I learned something the first time around because it didn’t take me long (1 hour?) to make some of the changes I wanted. The site is now hosted on a remote server and I have a lot more control over things. One obvious thing I changed immediately was the wordpress theme. It took me a long time to pick one since there are a gazillion to choose from. I finally settled on the one you see now, called TerraFirma, and the only things I modified were the header image and some of the sidebar widgets. What’dya think?