Microblogging

Everyone participating in hcplc2.0 should be familiar with blogs and blogging now - how many people are sharing their ideas and interests online. So I want to write about something that involves sharing even more personal information - microblogging. This means using online sites to send a small amount of information at a time. The most well known of the microblogging web 2.0 sites is Twitter.

People use Twitter to send out messages of only 140 characters. You can say anything you like, but most people are answering the question "What are you doing now?". Some people detail their lives throughout the day to let their friends know what they are up to, others post useful URLs, some use it to market their brand, and some people use it to discuss a conference session - while still in the session! People can twit by posting online or by using their cell phone to text message to Twitter. There is even a Firefox browser Extension called TwitBin. Webware has a very good introductory Guide to Twitter here.

I think that people tend to either love or hate Twitter. I have not done a lot of posting to it, since I prefer to network in Facebook or Library2.0 Ning and also post to my blogs. There does not seem to be a lot of time left over for Twittering! My twitters can be read here. You can use this twitter search engine to look for other librarians who twit. I recommend looking at these "tweets" to get a better idea about what twitter is.

However, Twitter can also be used by libraries to give instant news and updates- for example the Missouri River Regional Library posts about changes to bookmobile routes and about library closings due to severe weather. Other libraries using Twitter include: Boscobel Public Library, Lester Public Library, and Yale Science Libraries. The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County has a twitter feed of literature quotes from the first line of novels.

For more information, I recommend Ellyssa Kroski's (iLibrarian) excellent post, called "A Guide to Twitter in Libraries".

More Suggested Library/Librarian blogs

In the sidebar to the right, under the recent comments section, I have a list of my favorite librarian blogs. In this post, I will give some additional suggestions.

Here are some good general purpose library blogs:

Papercuts (Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library)
Icarus (Santa Fe Public Library Blog)

Libraries with several blogs:
Ann Arbor District Library System (AADL) - has lots of different blogs and you can choose what topics to subscribe to on their RSS page.

Pasco County Library System - has several blogs - including library information, e-government, outreach, youth services, teen, programs and exhibits, resident information, and reader's advisory.

Blogs with Library-Related Topics:

Dewey and Main - Where Library Meets Local
The "M" Word - Marketing Libraries
OPL Plus - blog for librarians in small libraries
The Reader's Advisor Online
MADreads - Madison Public Library book reviews

Fun With Image Generators

Here are some examples of fun with image generators.
Here is a cute ImageChef mashup:
(found via A Library By Any Other Name)





Beagle is best in show at Westminster 2008 Championship:
(also created at ImageChef - which supplies the code to paste to your blog)

Funny Blog Readability Test

Heidi, over at Heidi in 2.0 Land, has posted her blog readability level. I am not sure how the test determines readability level. However, readers of this blog must be really brilliant - since Play2.0's readability is:

Some of my Favorite Non-Library Blogs

Humor and Personal Blogs:

Cute Overload - cute animal pictures. Here is an example:

I can haz cheezburger - cute animal pictures with funny captions - these can cheer you up! Here is one:


moar humorous pics

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - beautiful ranching photos, recipes, humorous stories
Here is my favorite picture from this blog:


User Friendly - comic strip about computer programmers and some political humor

Misc. :

Lifehacker - technology tricks and general life tips
Bargainist - sales, coupons, and special deals from major stores

Environmental Scanning for Librarians

Librarians should keep up with new trends in society and technology, so that we can plan for the future.

Here are some good blogs for environmental scanning:

Docuticker - new research studies and statistics on everything
Teleread - what is new with ebooks and ebook readers
Massively - all the news about virtual worlds (like Second Life) and massive multiplayer online games (mmos)
GigaOm - general technology news
Mashable- social networking news
Read Write Web - web technology news

New Blogger Templates

When you start a "Blogger" blog, you are asked to choose a template. You may be disappointed because there are not many to choose from. If you want to have a different style, you may create your own, but that takes a lot of time and effort. However, I have found a great post from Blogger Buster, called 101 Excellent Blogger XML Templates. There are many beautiful templates in this list and they are available as free downloads.

Blogger Buster is a great resource for Blogger information and hacks. I recently used her "create your own recent comments widget" to add a list of recent comments to the sidebar of each of my blogs. You can create your own by using the code generator on this page. I think that adding this sidebar may help to encourage readers to read the comments and to post comments of their own.