Blogging

 

Blogging Campus Blogging policy = ? Boreham Library Blogging Policy (draft) Purpose: Policies and Procedures: Before blogging, ask yourself these questions:  Code of Ethics for Blogging and Commenting Readings: 1. Use of library blog 2.  Blog Effectively 3. Create & use a sample blog -- well, at least use one Personalizing the blog? Posting and Publishing Frequency 4. ISSNs for weblogs? Drafts

 

[version 2008.12.1.a]

 

Campus Blogging policy = ?

 

I was told that we didn't have any campus policy on blogging, other than the standard computer use policy, which doesn't really cover it.

 

(In short, this is like the bid spec we had that required vendors to be compatible with the non-existent campus bar code standard... and we pretty much had to set our own standard, because the campus hadn't thought about it yet.  We're out on the bleeding edge again...)

 

I suggest that we create a policy based on other campuses for ourselves, and write them up with the rest of the campus in mind, and we will have a de facto standard for the web committee to work with when they finally catch up to us.  Here are some examples, and then the draft policy I worked up.

 

Sample policies: Newton Free Library 

 

http://libraryreference.sunydutchess.edu/blog/bloggingrules.htm Dutchess Community College, which I thought was pretty good.

 

I'm going to try to lay out a sample policy for us, including a code of ethics. 

 

Bear in mind that codes of ethics for institutional or corporate blogs such as this (meaning "unofficially sort of semi-official") are not quite the same as a personal blog that might have the same aims and information. For one thing, we probably won't identify the individual posters every time.

 

Boreham Library Blogging Policy (draft)

 

Purpose:

The purpose of the Boreham Library blog is to promote information literacy and library communication at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith.  It is to be used to convey information about library events, library tools (e.g. researching databases), library issues in the news, and relevant information that pertains to the library. 

 

Posts made to other blogs or sites on the web by the Library staff should follow this policy and ethics.

 

Note: The blog will likely contain links to external websites and/or news articles not maintained by the library. The Boreham Library is not responsible for the content, practices or policies on those pages. 

 

Policies and Procedures:

 

Technical Services Librarian Dennis Van Arsdale and other designated staff will be responsible for overall blog administration.

 

• All librarians invited and encouraged to participate in blogging.  Posts made to blogs or other sites on the web should always include a note that the opinions are strictly those of the individual and not of UA Fort Smith or the Boreham Library or other staff members.

   

• Students, faculty and other Library users are able to leave comments which may be posted to the blog with the blog administrator’s clearance.

   

• The Boreham Library blog is to be used as a forum of education and communication to the staff, faculty and students of the University.

   

• It is expected that all blog posts will be of a professional nature and will reflect positively on the University and the Library.  What is said will be read by co-workers, faculty, administration, students and whoever finds this materials on the internet.

   

• The blog is not to be used to express personal, political, or social opinions/ commentary.

   

• The Boreham Library blog is meant to be fun and educational.  It is an opportunity to convey relevant information from around the library; e.g., what can del.icio.us do for me, how does a student get a library card, etc.

   

• Remember it is very easy to damage a reputation, but difficult to create a positive one! 

   

Before blogging, ask yourself these questions: 

• Is this information relevant to UA Fort Smith and/or the library?

• Does this information positively promote the library?

• Did you verify the veracity of the information that you are posting? 

• Do you need to cite any of the information?

• Have you checked your spelling and grammar?

   

Code of Ethics for Blogging and Commenting

 

[since you can add comments to a blog, this code also applies to comments made to other blogs]

 

1. Posts will be made deliberately and with accuracy.  While humor is permitted, it should be used discreetly and no "joke" or "hoax" posts are permitted.
2. Posters will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.
3. Posters will preserve the original post, using notations to show where any changes were made so as to maintain the integrity of the blog.
4. The blog will never delete a post until/unless it becomes irrelevant, outdated or inaccurate by changing situations, and will do so only in order to avoid confusion and misinformation.
5. Posts and comments will be deleted if they are spam or off-topic, or deliberately intended to be personally offensive or abusive.
6. The blog will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly.
7. Posters will strive for high quality with every post – including basic spellchecking.
8. Posters will stay on topic.  Long posts should be edited and referred to longer sources of information, such as instructional web pages, elsewhere.
9. Posters will disagree with other opinions respectfully, only when absolutely necessary for strict accuracy, and without making assumptions concerning others or their motives.
10. Posters will link to online references and original source materials directly whenever legally possible, and provide proper citations as appropriate.
11. Posters will disclose conflicts of interest.
12. Posters will keep private issues and topics private, since discussing private issues can jeopardize personal and work relationships.
13. Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discourse are individual interactions, not official communications. Posters are personally responsible for their posts, and remain mindful that what is posted will be public for a long time.
14. Posters will respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws.
15. Posters will not disclose confidential or other proprietary information, including that of students, staff or faculty.
16. Posters will not cite or reference students, faculty, staff, other patrons, partners or suppliers without their approval.
17. Posters will respect their audience and not use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc., and show proper consideration for others' privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory – such as politics and religion.  Commenters are subject to having comments edited or deleted without notice on the same basis.
18. Posters will always try to add value and provide worthwhile information and perspective.

 

[assembled and adapted from Dutchess Community College and various other sources on the web]

 

 

Readings:

 

WordPress covers this so well that I'll link it here again: Introduction to Blogging -- especially because it covers a lot of the details of blogging.

 

Why We Blog from Library Journal -- also note the box further down: Academic Blogs Make the Grade

 

How and When to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services .

 

Nine Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers

 

Nine More Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers

 

Twitter Explained for Librarians for minute-by-minute style blogging.  Some libraries find this is useful for question-and-answer stuff going back and forth.

 

Greatest Link Attraction Strategy Ever on how to get other blogs to link to yours

 

1. Use of library blog

 

We've already found that the blog is a handy place to have certain information easily accessible, online, for both staff and students.

 

* How else would we use it in the library?  Comments, please.

 

* What would you put in it for use by students, faculty?  Comments, please.  Better yet, BLOG POSTS!

 

2.  Blog Effectively

 

Read:

 Blogger's Code of Conduct (for Librarians)

 

 20 Usability Tips for Your Blog

 

 CopyBlogger advice on blogging effectively

 

 

3. Create & use a sample blog -- well, at least use one

 

You can create one yourself, of course ... to track your progress of this course, comments?

 

But let's think about what we might want to put into a Boreham Library Blog.

 

I created a sample blog, and then we can present it for approval IF and when the administration/web committee wants to bother to do so. We can be relatively limited until then while we work out our style and conventions and rules.

 

Oh, yeah -- where do we put it?  Do we need to host it?

After looking around in my usual low-budget (read: zero budget) way, I think WordPress is probably a good choice.

 

It might well be the software the campus uses in the long run (it's open source -- free!).   Which would make it fairly easy to transfer any existing blog to it.  Meanwhile, the basic blog hosting is free.

 

It's definitely well-respected by a lot of bloggers -- many have moved to WordPress software or the WordPress host.

 

It can be upgraded to a paid version with more features if we want, later on.

 

It has a  lot of useful features for a free blog.

 

It has spell-check, okay?  'Cause I knew somebody would ask...

 

It has an application that integrates with Facebook, if we decide to use that (see a later tutorial on Facebook in this wiki!).

 

Because Library Catalogs Should Be Like WordPress according to one librarian blogger.

  

WordPress shortcut key combinations:

Bold: Alt+SHIFT+b

Italics: Alt+SHIFT+i

Link: Alt+SHIFT+a

Blockquote: Alt+SHIFT+q

Code: Alt+SHIFT+c

Read More: Alt+SHIFT+t

Unordered List (ul): Alt+SHIFT+u

Ordered List (ol): Alt+SHIFT+o

List Item (li): Alt+SHIFT+l 

 

If you host your own blog or pay for it to be hosted, you can vary the background, style, etc.: the "theme" or "skin".

WordPress Theme Viewer shows the various styles that can be used with a WordPress blog.

Free WordPress themes has more possible themes, sortable by certain criteria.

WP Designer adds a new theme a day.

Skins for WP has themes a.k.a. themes.

There is a WordPress Theme generator that lets you select criteria and create one from scratch.

WordPress Widgits has optional widgits that handle special features, and also widgit-compatible themes.

 

Literary Lions

 

Anyway, our sample blog is called "Literary Lions" .  From our mascot, right?

Well, I considered "Thrown to the Lions" and "Lion Food" and ... maybe you don't want to hear the rest.....

 

At present, the comments are open -- you can only post if you leave your email, though.  Some students don't use the campus email, but the contents of the post should give us a clue about legitimacy.

 

We retain the option to be notified (via email) of comments, and can remove anything we consider inappropriate, BEFORE it is visible on the blog.

Otherwise, a comment sits and waits, invisible, for somebody to approve it.

 

Paid versions of blogs, of course, have even more control over this function. 

 

It is considered very important to allow comments, however, to get feedback and let people feel they have some input.  WordPress has a pretty good spam filter to protect us, and responding to the comments when we get email notice that one has been posted will keep control.

 

I put in a sample comment on one post -- check the one under the Programs for an example of what a regular comment would look like from somebody.

(oh, yeah -- another avatar.... !)

 

So, let's take a look around the sample blog:

 

The header is not fancy.  Free blogs have a small group of headers/styles available.   You can do a lot more with a paid version, of course, and if we wanted to get fancier, we could arrange to pay for an upgrade for more features.  Still, I picked something that allowed me to import a picture.  It's limited but it's free.  The picture has to fit within the limits of the template's specific header area, but I cropped the picture down.  We can change that whenever we want.

 

The title is just an example.  Maybe we'd want something else.  We definitely need something more attractive and less stiff than "Boreham Library Blog", after all.  I'm still partial to "Thrown to the Lions", by the way....

 

I chose a simple 2 column format.  The "posts" are on the left, and I've set up the Categories on the right.

 

Next come the Pages which are the static pages on the blog.

 

Below that is the Blogroll which consists of the links we consider useful.

 

I threw in another link to the Programs search here.

 

Below the Categories are the Archives for past posts, by date.

 

The Meta section is sort of the login access and housekeeping function.

 

There are other ways to arrange this, but I stuck with a very basic one for starters.

 

There's also an About tab at the top for the About page (what else?!) which just states the obvious about who we are.   "About" is a pretty standard cue on the web for background information on the site.

 

Note the use of the word unofficial, please.  We can do more of a disclaimer if needed, but I put in the standard one from our catalog pages.

Once we decide on an "official" campus policy,  it would go here.

 

I can't do some things with just the free version.  Certain things are or are not available for any given "theme", and some themes do not function as well as others, at least in early versions.  Lots of functions are not available in the freebie that would really flesh this out, but we're just getting our little toesies in the water right now, aren't we?

 

All the readings you've done -- you DID do the readings, didn't you????!!! -- should have told you that this is NOT the place for "academicspeak."  No dry, formal, third-person BOOORRRINNNNGGGG writing is allowed.  You want people to WANT to read this. 

 

Read Why Writing Like a College Student Will Kill You Online.  Really.  Read it!

 

So, I've tried to speak very much the way I would speak to a small tablefull of faculty or students sitting at lunch, and I use "you" instead of third person and all that.  User friendly, remember.  Write to friends, not for a formal presentation.  Use contractions.  You're giving advice to friends, not doing a presentation.  Loosen up!

 

The posts for a blog are intended to be short.  If you need a long post (more than one page of paper's worth, including all the blank lines), then write up instructions somewhere else and use the post to tell people what the instructions are about and where to find them.  Not only does this allow people to dip in quickly, but if you're using an RSS reader like Sage that shows part/all of the post, you can often just read from the reader and not bother going clear to the blog.  We're saving people time and effort, which should be attractive.  Use the ones I do as an example (usually a maximum example, granted).  Occasionally, you need to do a longer one with graphics, but don't make a habit of it.

 

(By The Way: for Boreham Library longer instructions, that's something that might go better in the Computer Helpers blog as a tutorial -- see Dennis about that.]

 

Personalizing the blog?

 

Do we want to sign posts?  I usually didn't on these, but these are very general. It's considered better to have a person connected to a post, but that's for individuals writing to their personal blogs (even if they do it on behalf of their library, or whatever).  If the Chancellor decided to blog, he'd want to make it personal and have his picture (and some chancellors do!).

 

Notice that at the top of each post, it shows the blogger's login of who posted it.  Some themes have that, and some don't, and sometimes it seems to be an optional thing.

 

Maybe we'll want to have general posts unsigned, but from time to time, have a book review or something that is signed (say, if a faculty member does a review or article for us).  Or something about some new feature of the Pebley Room that someone wrote under their own name, for example.   Then it might show me as poster, but we'd put a byline for the actual author.  That's not uncommon.

 

We are pictured out there on the web already, so it's not as if we're trying to keep identities a secret here.

 

Right now, the email is set to mine, but we could change that to library@ and then have all of us register with WordPress (you don't have to get a blog to register), and then write under our own names as we choose.  You can even add a picture or something to represent you (it doesn't have to be your face -- pick an avatar -- use the avatars link in the Helper pages and find or create your own (see mine on the wiki's sidebar or another in the comment I made in the blog).  Or use your picture, maybe play with it.

 

Caveat: You might hear a few bad stories about some bloggers having some personal attacks made on them, but this is the Internet version of heckling by drunks and punks and you can just delete the comments.  (Give some people a medium and they just have to abuse it.)  The relative anonymity of the web brings out the worst in a vocal minority.  But we're just putting out information and if you'd rather remain anonymous, it's perhaps slightly less effective but still functional in this case.  I do the responses to suggestions without personalizing it, after all (and some day we might change those over to a blog format).

 

Now, you notice that the comments on some posts are attributed to ME, not to uafslibrary, and even have one of my avatars.  There's a way to do that.  You register as yourself, as I mentioned above.

 

* Go to WordPress and create a login for yourself.  Very simple to do.

 

* Select the option to only have a login but without a blog.  Then let me know you've done it and the signup name you used (your email is logical, if cryptic, like mine).

 

I'll enable you to access the blog via your personal login.  That way, you can enter comments under your own identity, or write posts as just "the library", as appropriate.  The comments under your own name show up like mine (see the posts with "1 comment" or more).  You can throw in an avatar if you like, too.  Check under the color printing one for my comment there, for example (and wasn't I tactful about our late printer?).

 

I am notified if anybody comments, and check to be sure it is acceptable under our rules (see above).

 

Posting and Publishing

 

You can write, and wait to publish.  Or, we can have somebody approve for publishing.  Until somebody authorized hits the Publish button for a post, it stays out of sight.  And, you can always go back and edit something again.   (I before E except after... ?  Oh, yeah... )

 

Frequency

 

At least weekly, or more often.  I can do some of it on my Monday nights upstairs and sometimes my weekends on duty.  It needs to be often enough that people will need to check it, and consistent enough that they won't give up on checking it.   Maybe sometimes once a week, other times two times, perhaps by different people.  And we're off at least one week a year. 

And some people on 9-month contracts have all summer to think up more topics, so the rest of us can take fall semester off....

 

This doesn't have to be a burden, but it's a nice bit of promotion.  It should appeal to faculty/staff and students.  It can get information out quickly, and we can link to specific blog posts if we need to send out emails or put links on a web page.  And it's EEEEAAAASSSYYYY.

 

4. ISSNs for weblogs?

 

Check here to apply.

 

Blogs may be personal (with lots of personal references, activities, etc.) or more institutional (the authors are more or less identified for any given post).  Comments, depending on how the blog is set up, may be allowed, allowed after being reviewed (which is much safer but still allows feedback), or not allowed.

 

Probably we should wait for official approval before we get one for ours. 

 

Drafts

 

 

Draft 1

Draft 2