I just wanted to let you all know that today is the first day of the Library and Information Resources track of HigherEd BlogCon. We’ve got a great schedule of presentations this week that cover a wide range of topics dealing with technology in libraries. If you’d like to take part in the conference, all you need to do is visit the presentation blog or subscribe to the RSS feed.
Our first topic covered is blogging in libraries. Below is the introduction to today’s topic, written by my amazing Section Editor, Michelle Boule:
Blogging 101
Susan Herzog
Eastern Connecticut State University
Subject Librarian 2.0? – ‘The Song Remains the Same,’ It’s Just a Cover Song Using New Instruments
Kristin Johnson
California State University, Chico
Blog Applications At a Small Academic Library
Natalie Forshaw
Karen Jensen
Ilana Kingsley
University of Alaska Fairbanks
In the last couple of years, blogs have come into their own as a driving force in politics, mass media, local information, professional discussions, and almost anything else a person can imagine. They are no longer confined to the discussions of lost loves and late nights, though there are still many, many examples of this early fare of blogs. Many libraries are just now discovering the new, innovative ways that this simple tool can be used to reach out to users for marketing, teaching, and discussions. Blogs are unique because they require no special technical knowledge to set up and administer, opening the platform to everyone with a computer and every librarian across the world. The possibilities of this little web application are virtually endless.
In today’s presentations, we will look at blogging basics, what blogs can do for subject selectors, and how actual academic libraries are using blogs in their everyday operations.
Susan Herzog is the Information Literacy Librarian at Eastern Connecticut State University. She has introduced blogging to her own library and campus and has presented on blogging at traditional conferences. Susan will go over the basics of blogging that every librarian should know.
Kristin Johnson, Information Literacy Librarian at California State University, Chico, is one of those librarians whose job includes a little bit of everything: instruction, collection development, and reference. Though she knows enough technology to get her in trouble, she prefers the label librarian over techy librarian. Kristin will be presenting using video on how the tools are different and varied, but the subject librarian’s song has the same refrain.
The last presentation in the blogging series will be given by a team from University of Alaska Fairbanks. The team includes Ilana Kingsley, Web Librarian, Natalie Forshaw, Head of Bibliographic Access Management, and Karen Jensen, Circulation/Interlibrary Loan Manager. They will be presenting on three ways their small academic library has utilized blogs in their services to users and as training tools for staff.
