The 5 Ws and 1H of Blogging

presented by Sarah Sogigian
Fall, 2007

What is a Blog?

“An Internet website containing an eclectic and frequently updated assortment of items of interest to its author.”- OED of Modern Slang

It’s also a great and very underused marketing tool for libraries and librarians.

What is a Blog (plain English version)

It’s a website created for discussion on a topic or several topics that allow the owner to write a post and have others comment on it:

Owner: I hated the new Pirates movie. Thank goodness it’s the last one.

Other person : Really? It wasn’t too bad; the 2 nd one was worse.

Who Blogs?

Who doesn’t? Authors, business people, publishers, companies, celebrities, fictional characters—they all are Bloggers!

http://brentsbrain.livejournal.com/

http://telepicturesblog.warnerbros.com/ellenshow/

http://blog.nbc.com/DwightsBlog/

Where do you blog?

At home, in your jammies!

In your office

On the reference computer! (check with your director, first)

From your cell phone!

Any device hooked up to the internet

Where do you blog Part 2:

Google’s Blogger- www.blogger.com

Live Journal- www.livejournal.com

Why would you blog?

Creating a blog is easier than creating a website.

Maintenance is easy and you can do it every day, every week, or whenever you have time.

Adding graphics and colors is easy with blog templates.

Why would you blog? Part 2

To promote programs, events and news at your library

Blogs provide an outlet for comments from the public

Depending on setup, anyone or just members can respond to your posts.

How do you create a blog?

Have an email address ready

Create a dummy, “blog only” account

Pick a program:

We’ll use blogger

www.blogger.com

Follow the easy steps to creating a blog

What if I mess up?

Most blogging programs have excellent help available online (sometimes in the form of blogs!)

Ask someone who knows!

Teens and other librarians

Set aside about 45 minutes to set up your blog.

Posting can take anywhere from 2 min to however long you have.

Who will use this blog?

All ages

Parents, teens, seniors.

It might be wise to have a couple of blogs for your library.

What else?

Many people will see this blog, so remember to use proper online etiquette.

This may not be the best place to “sound off” about things.