The Liminal Librarian

Aaron Schmidt, Carol Garland, David Lisa

First up, Aaron Schmidt: Presentation will be up at website. WordPress, why you should use it — now works for DC PL, but used to work for 2500 sq. ft library:

1) FREE — wordpress.org

1.5) If not free, can be CHEAP. If you download it, it has to live somewhere — inexpensive places like LISHost.

2) Support — active community developing — active forum, post ?s, but search first. Section just on blogs as CMS.

3) Interaction — automatic, comments, trackbacks.

4) SEO — blogs are great for search engine optimization. Already 5th hit though he just started recently.

5) Less work — users — create different roles, different control over different pages. Can have friends or volunteers do.

6) Easy — just like writing an email. WYSIWIG. Check out wordpress.com — hosted and free just like blogger.

7) Themes — Don’t need design/coding to make blog look different. Check out Thematic, customizable. K2. Cutline. Popular for libs etc. Wordpress.org, browse theme directory.

Widgets — all the stuff on side.

8 1/2) Plugins — can do a bit more than plugins.

9) Flexibility — it’s open source so flexible. Examples — Plymouth State, Collingswood. Plymouth State, WordPress OPAC. Lake Washington Technical College. My Kansas Library on the Web. Ford Auto Shows.

10) People — facilitate interaction and easy to keep up to date.

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Carol and David

Carol: Serve a little over 1000 people. Old site was with FrontPage, person left, site got out of date, ugly. Went to meeting, colleague showed blogger. They chose — easy to learn, set up, adapt, maintain, update. Took down website, anything they want to communicate to patrons can do instantly with Blogger — put up “we’re closing early, there’s a blizzard, roads are bad.” Info right in front of you all the time.

Use to: Publicize services, PR campaign — trying to get rechartered to serve 9k in school district, video on blog. Showcase actvities, slideshow for summer reading, list new materials, advocate for libs (NY wants to cut them back to 93 levels, put button to contact rep), sub blog for events and closings.

Link to dbs, local libs, local libs blogs. Enhancement — free clip arts, photos, picasa slide shows, google pages, artbex, stock exchange, blogger polls, videos, stat counter.

Put links to annual report, other library information.

Polls in sidebar with Google widget, upload videos, visitor map showing where visitors come from — someone from tel aviv spent 50+ minutes on their site.

Easiest thing you could do if you don’t want to be stuck with FrontPage, whip it up really quickly. Go get started now.

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David

West Long Branch Public Library — chose same theme as Carol even though they didn’t know each other, but customizable so looks so different.

Why use? Also part of a library system, but wanted to do own website. 2006 reformatted from old style to completely blog formatted. Wanted to be more usable, content to be reverse chronological order to stress newest news, promote new items to users.

Have every staff member who contributes have first name attached to blog entry. Had patrons come in and ask for by name. Name of library, address, phone number = a graphic they put in header.

Can make multiple posts and make them links in sidebar to create a whole website, continue adding to.

What about static stuff — hours, list of board members, etc. Created HTML page that mimics look of blogger template.

Emphasize new items in collection, started flying out door.

RSS feed — patron doesn’t have to keep coming back to site, can get news at their convenience.

Question: How do you link back to library catalog on the blog?

Answer from David: He put a link: Find items in catalog — his library was county library member, just put a link to from the sidebar. Answer from Aaron — on WordPress, found another library in system that had search box on their page, he pasted their code into a widget, put it on his site. Carol: Copied a picture of the library card, linked it back to the catalog.

Question: Do both systems take podcasts?

Aaron: Yes.

Question: What about subscription databases?

Answer: Karen from audience — use Links tool in wordpress to put links from sidebar. Answer: David — links to county list of electronic resources from sidebar, links to list of resources, have to put in card number to access remotely/IP recognition in lib.

Question: For Aaron — in WordPress can you work in code view?

Answer: Yes, he works in HTML editor exclusively. Can set defaults by user.

Question: Has anyone used different blog software, how does it compare?

Answer: David has only used blogger, Carol has only used blogger, Sarah from audience has used Typepad but wouldn’t recommend it.

Question: Can you tell how many people sub to your RSS feed?

Answer: David — numbers weren’t huge, but happy. Aaron — how did you find the info? David — he uses Feedburner.

Question for Aaron: What’s the benefit to hosting it yourself (besides URL) — their URL is on wordpress.com. What other benefits?

Answer: The URL issue, can pay if hosted. Also, a lot more control when download and upload software — your stuff lives on your own server (can troubleshoot if problem) and also can completely customize CSS and plugins — tradeoff convenience and control. David: Agrees — they have own domain name — Can set Blogger up to post to a domain, biggest work was registering domain. Aaron: Can give Blogger FTP credentials and send to own server.

Question: Good examples for linking from blog to a library OPAC?

Answer: David — we just put a link to find books in catalog. Carol suggests going live to show it. Aaron says Plymouth is more advanced, not just a link, he actually turned it INTO a catalog — imported records as blog posts. David shows the link — just clicks through to the catalog.

Question: Tips for enhancing the search engine optimization?

Answer: David — Blogger gives search bar on the top of blogger you can customize. Aaron — Using this software is a step forward in itself, All in one SEO pack plugin for WordPress.

Question: How do you divide work among staff so someone’s always putting something fresh up there?

Answer: David — good point! Goal for using blogger. Buy-in issue re: using first names, got past, talked about personalization of service, started having good time.

Followup: Is it on a schedule?

Answer: David — example is Janice (cataloger) weekly, book club, him, etc. Besides cataloger, catch-as-can basis. From Audience: Certain people don’t want to write/blog, others enthusiastic. Will schedule events — national library week, sign up ahead of time for certain topics. Then other people who love to blog fill in around it. Aaron: Have a plan for content and posts in can waiting to be published when you start. Audience: Can just post a photo with a caption.

Question: How do you promote your blog and get people to comment and respond? She has older pop, not tech savvy, people are using it but no one is commenting — one couple comments.

Answer: David — get hands on, show people in person, work one on one. Aaron — think of blog as a normal website and do user testing on it. Carol — the blog is the homepage on public computers so they have to see it.

Question: How do you manage your comments?

Answer: Aaron — can have open and free, can have moderated. Carol — has email sent w/ comments but doesn’t turn them down. David — no comments on his but he says open it up and have policy to address abuse.