The Online Education Database has an article listing who they objectively think the top 25 librarian bloggers are. Now this is nice and all - but I have to disagree with their methodology - and not because I’m not on the list

To begin, we found a set of Web sites that met a certain criteria. To become a member of the set of Web sites to be ranked, a Web site must, as of August 14, 2007:

• be listed on the DMOZ page Library and Information Science : Weblogs and be a blog written by a librarian; or
• be listed in the top 200 results for a Google search for librarian blog and be primarily a blog site; and
• not be hosted on a subdomain of a domain whose purpose is not primarily related to a blog written by a librarian.

Where is Tame the Web and Information Wants to Be Free and ResourceShelf (which I guess isn’t a librarian blog really … but still).

The problem is that by searching for solely “librarian blog” you miss all kinds of great blogs by librarians about libraries. If you do a search for “librar* and blog” (without the quotes) you get a totally different set of results and once again if you do this “librar* and blog*” (without the quotes) it’s another set of results.

Now, I’m not really trying to get the best list of results (it’s almost time to go home and I’m in a hurry) but I guess this just goes to show you that you need a librarian to do the search for you

All that said, this is a good list and there were a few on there that I had never heard of - so I guess I’ll have to go check them out.

5 new blogs you say? Well I don’t know much about what’s new out there, but I can point you to 5 new(ish) to me blogs.

• Cataloging Futures
  Yes, I’ve mentioned it before, but there are so few cataloging blogs out there that it deserves mentioning again
• Discovery XQuery
  While Matt doesn’t post very often, his posts are very helpful to someone just learning XQuery
• OPL Plus
  Okay, this one is in no way new, but it is so awesome and it may be new to some of you - check it out Judith has tons of great pointers for useful sites.
• Beyond the Job
  Looking for professional development, speaking or writing opportunities? This is a blog you must subscribe to!
• Reader’s Choice
  For number 5, please make your own recommendations in the comments

Technorati Tags: blogday2007

The next session I attended at the NFAIS meeting was on blogging. It started with Steven Bell who talked about the four different types of blogs he writes for and how he managed blogging for four blogs.

The newest of Steven’s blogs is called Designing Better Libraries. It was started as a promotion for his book and is managed by a team of writers. I mention this blog because it intrigues me and has just been added to my blogroll. I also mention it because Steven had a great tip for finding the time to blog - join a team. A team blog is a blog written by more than one person. This way you don’t have to be solely responsible for publishing on a daily basis - you get to share the work with others.

Next up was Rafael Sidi of Really Simple Sisi (RSS). Rafael was awesome to listen to! He was so genuine - I hope my presentations come off that way. Rafael talked about how people say we’re controlling the information age - in particular he pointed out the Time’s person of the year issue where we were all named as the winner. He said he wished he was controlling the information age, but the truth is that we’re just contributing to the information age. He went on to compare the blogosphere to the grand bazaar in Istanbul. When you go to the bazaar you have to know who the trustworthy merchants are and where you’ll get the best deals - the same is true for blogs.

Rafael’s secret to blogging? He doesn’t care what people think. He blogs for fun! He said, “I use my blog as a post-it note.” What a great analogy. Another great quote, “If you are planning to blog you need to be ready to be transparent!” The thing about blogs is that they’re open - which is both the beauty of blogs and the challenge of them. Lastly, Rafael encouraged us by telling us that we’d learn more from reading blogs than we ever would from our colleagues. By reading blogs, you hear from people all over the industry - not just your little pocket. I’d actually take that one step further and say that by having everyone in your organization read blogs, you’ll actually be able to learn more at work.

Of course I didn’t see this over the weekend when I could fix it - but it looks like images in my posts aren’t displaying with this new template. I’ll see if I can figure it out later today.

[update] Okay, it’s not the template. Somehow, when I downloaded a copy of my site I didn’t get the May images folder - so they’re all gone. I’ll recreate them and add them back in ASAP [/update]

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.2 and figured it was time to upgrade my template as well (the one I had was very very very old).

I keep meaning to do something custom, but I just don’t have the time - or the design skills necessary. So, bear with me while I make customizations. And feel free to share you opinions!

Over at The Compass there is a post about blogging a conference:

I found that knowing my notes/blog would be publicly accessible motivated me and helped me focus more critically than if I had been a passive listener, recording notes privately on a notepad.

This prompts another hypothesis. Blogging was promoted as a teaching tool at CIL. Could blogging become an effective educational assessment tool (i.e. requiring students to blog their notes from a lecture or reading)?

This is very true - blogging a conference requires you to pay a bit more attention. I think it would be great if students did things like this - I doubt it could be required for all courses - but it certainly makes me pay more attention than I might normally.

Technorati Tags: blogging, cil2007

TechSoup has a two articles with tips for would-be bloggers. Check them out:

• Nine Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers
• Nine More Lessons for Would-Be Bloggers

Technorati Tags: blogging

I’m not sure how to summarize what I just read on lis.dom - but what I do know is that it touched me! Laura writes about the biblioblogsphere as a group - or non-group is it may be.

Though we're [the biblioblogosphere] often in agreement (let's hear it one more time-just how badly does the OPAC suck?), we don't have a mission. Though some of us get to meet occasionally, we don't hold regular meetings. And, of course, though many people list their blogs on their resumes, no one that I know of adds "The Biblioblogosphere" to the list of groups to which she belongs.

The truth of the matter is that we are all part of the same group - and like members of any group, it sometimes feels like there are cliques or “cool kids” and sometimes if feels like you’re one of them - and sometimes you feel left out.

Last week, when everyone was Twittering, debating Twitter, denouncing Twitter, defending and defining Twitter as the next big thing, wondering what the hell Twitter was, and, in probably more than one case, wondering why no one had invited them to Twitter or why no one cared what they were Twittering about, I was feeling somewhat downcast. Twitter seemed wonderfully, and horribly, symbolic of everything wrong with the world and my place in it: it was a fun but largely pointless tool that all the cool kids were playing with and I was missing out on.

It’s funny how we’re all so different and yet so alike. We all (well, maybe not all - but pretend I’m right so I can make my point) want to be a part of the group - we all want to share our ideas with others and we want them to matter. Then something happens that makes us feel like we’re outside of the group and we feel downcast (just like Laura said).

I don’t know what I’m trying to say here - and I’m not sure what Laura wanted us to get from her post - but what she wrote made an impact on me and I wanted to share it with you all. Read the entire post and see what you get out of it.

I was tagged by Darlene in a meme started by The Liminal Librarian.

Here are five non-library blogs that I read:

• The Daily Puppy
  Not much reading here - just a lot of oooing and ahhhing. Now go ahead over and oo & ahhh at my baby.
• Lifehacker
  Tons of great tips for using technology.
• Kimbooktu
  Gadgets for book lovers.
• Gamecrafters’ Guild
  All kinds of game related stuff (disclaimer: this is my husband’s blog)
• The Stingy Scholar
  Tips on where to find free and cheap learning tools.

I tag Cliff Landis, Joshua Neff, Michael Stephens, Tom Ipri and anyone else who wants to contribute. Remember to tag your post fiveblogs.

Technorati Tags: fiveblogs, memes

Some of you have emailed me to share your problems with my spam protection - and in the past I have posted about my problems as well. I just want you all to know that if you leave a comment and get an error, your comment has been sent to me for approval. I’m going to play around with some options and see if I can perfect things here since it’s spring break and I finally have some time to poke.

I’ll keep you all posted - and thanks for your patience.

I opened my mailbox today to find my copy of American Libraries! Somehow I missed the part about my survey responses being published! Anyway, I was one of 10 librarian bloggers to answer a quick email survey about blogging. Like Rochelle already mentioned, they didn’t include the URLs to our blogs (which seems weird) so here they are (in alpha order):

• Blake Carver, LISNews
• Nicole Engard, What I Learned Today
• Rochelle Hartman, Tinfoil+Raccoon
• Sarah Houghton-Jan, Librarian in Black
• Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian
• Kathleen de la Pena McCook, Librarian at the Kitchen Table
• Mary Minow, Library Law
• Joshua Neff, Goblin in the Library
• Jack Stephens, Conservator
• Jessamyn West, Librarian.net

Since it looks like our answers were edited, here’s my complete survey - unedited (in fact I haven’t even read it in months - hope it’s okay).

What does it take for a blog to have an impact on the biblioblogosphere?

One post - that’s all it takes. One post where you voice your opinion in an honest, well thought-out way. After that, people will come to your blog to hear what you have to say on the newest hot topic.

What do the readers of your blog value about your posts (i.e., “voice” as an online columnist, value-added news coverage)?

Honesty is key. Your readers will know if you’re not being honest. A blog allows you to add your voice to the many others out there - if you’re not honest, people will stop reading. The other aspect my readers value are the tools I point them to. I am always getting thank-you notes for pointing out some new tool that people weren’t aware of.

How do you decide when to post””inspiration, obligation to keep the blog fresh and readers engaged, or what?

Inspiration - I never post out of obligation, if I did then people would become bored. I post when I find something that makes me say “Oh Wow!” or when I read something that makes me start talking to myself - that’s when it’s time to share my opinions in a blog post.

How do you determine what the right length is for a given post?

I write until my point has been made. I’ve had 2 word posts and 2000 word posts; it depends on how much I have to say on a given topic. Blogging isn’t something you set rules to - “Post X number of times a day”, “Never post more than X words”, these aren’t things I’ve ever thought and they’re another thing that will probably lose you readers.

What has surprised you most about the process of blogging?

How easy it was. When I first set up my blog, I thought it was going to be so hard to find my voice among the many others that were already out there, but it wasn’t. Once you let your guard down, you’ll find that you had more to say that you realized.

What lessons can libraries learn from your experiences as an individual blogger?

People are reading! By putting your voice out there you’re putting your name out there - your library’s name - and it makes more of a difference than you’d ever imagine. Don’t assume that no one wants to hear what you have to say - there’s always someone!

What’s missing from the LIS blogosphere that you’d like to see someone take on?

I can’t think of anything that hasn’t already been covered (Edit: which by the way - I was wrong about)

How will the blogs of today be regarded a decade from now? Should digital libraries collect them?

I don’t think you can lump all blogs together to answer that question. Like much of the web, there is a lot of garbage out there. I do think that the blogs with valuable information (politics, opinions, news, technology, world-views, library related) will be regarded highly and should be saved in some sort of archive for future generations to see. What will they think when they see all of our debates about Library 2.0? What other way will they be able to see what the people thought during the elections in 2008? So, yes, I do think some blogs should be saved in digital libraries and I do think they will provide a valuable resource for future generations studying culture and history. If nothing else it will give them a giggle.

Okay, I’m open for any suggestions. I have Akismet and SpamKarma installed on this blog. SpamKarma alone used to be enough and then I thought I’d add Akismet because SpamKarma wasn’t catching 100% of my spam (even though I have very strick settings on). I’m still getting about 3 comment spam posts getting through per day. Any other suggestions? I don’t want to have to turn on comment moderation - but I also don’t want these annoying posts coming up and ruining your experience - and mine.

Someone recently asked me if there were any library-related blogs I’d like to see - topics that weren’t out there already - and I said, “Nope, I think we have it all covered.” And then I found Library Videos.

Looking to find the best videos about libraries on the web? They are here. Submit your favorite or rate ours!

Very neat!

I missed an amazing discussion this week at Information wants to be Free - no time to post about it now - but I wanted to point you to it if you didn’t catch it.

According to the Gartner Group, blogging is set to peak at 100 million blogs in 2007.

The analysts said that during the middle of next year the number of blogs will level out at about 100 million.

The firm has said that 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs.

Don’t our politicians have something better do with their time?

John McCain has made clear that he doesn't like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles.

Found Via LISNews which found it via Think Progress.

Thanks Steven for pointing me to Marshall Kirkpatrick’s post on keeping up.

RSS feeds make it possible to consume far more information at a faster pace than would otherwise be possible for the human brain. That said, many people experience a new level of information overload once they begin reading feeds. Here’s an overview of how I read thousands of RSS feeds without breaking a sweat.

Give it a read if you’re interested in how the Marshall kept up in order to write for TechCrunch. I can’t imagine having thousands of feeds in my reader!

That’s right - I have no new posts in Bloglines - that will last 2 minutes

I just found this list of 56 services you can ping with your new blog posts - I’m not going to ping them all, but I did find a few I didn’t know about.

I’m wondering what everyone searches for and watches in their ego search feed. My search (blended by FeedBlendr) reads:

Blogdigger search for nicole engard, Technorati Search for: http://web2learning.net, Yahoo! Search: “nicole engard” or “nicole c. engard” or “nicole c engard”, Technorati Search for: “what i learned today” AND (nicole OR engard), Technorati Search for: nicole engard, BlogPulse Search Results for: nicole engard and Bloglines Search: “Bcite:web2learning.net”.

I’m wondering what other people search for and if I’m missing something important

Martin Cleaver makes an interesting connection based on David Weinberger’s keynote at KMWorld & Intranets last week.

Dave Weinberger's analog of a pile of fallen leaves for folksonomy stirred my thought that the nature of the world is for old things to fade and disintergrate, and for new things to stem from the old.

Well, blogs certainly do spur on new content, but the mass of old content that pile up in their wake is quite phenomenal. What if an author changes their mind but a newcomer finds an old post? Should the author have deleted that thought?

Wikis grow old and die gracefully. From their ashes spring a (hopefully) wiser and more profound set of content. Anyone can clean up a wiki. Blogs are just making a mess.

Now… what shall I write for my next blog post? And should I throw out some of those old clothes or shall I just buy more?

My answer to Martin?

David also said that part of the value of the Wikipedia is the discussion that will be archived for years to come. This way we'll be able to see what people thought on a particular topic at the time - isn't this very like a blog? I think the answer to your question is that you should just buy more (using the clothes analogy). Your ideas at the time are still your ideas - and you shouldn't delete them.

David said that we want complexity - we want to find the answers - that means if someone is reading an old post of yours they will (if they want complexity) pay attention to the date as well as the content and then maybe explore some of your newer ideas as well as the old.

This is a very interesting question - and one that I think we’ve all thought about after posting something that maybe was written in the heat of the moment - what do you do?

Technorati Tags: km2006, km06

LISZEN is here - and it lets you search over 500 library blogs - give it a whirl!

That’s right, What I Learned Today… was started right after Internet Librarian 2005 - so my first birthday has come and went (not sure the exact date - cause I remember fudging the date on my first post )

Some first year stats:

• 628 posts
• 468 comments
• 51 categories
• 445 subscribers (if feedburner can be trusted)
• an average of 50 posts per month

Thanks to everyone who commented over the last year - maybe next year’s stats will be even more impressive!!

I missed this announcement because I’ve been so busy just trying to write up my summaries - I’ll be upgrading when I get back home - but I wanted to make sure everyone else knew about the new update.

What's new? We have about 50 or so bugfixes, which you can review on our dev tracker here, mostly minor bug fixes around feeds, custom fields, and internationalization. If you'd like a nitty-gritty view, check out Mark's blog post on the changes.

Technorati Tags: wordpress

I just want to post a quick sorry to everyone who tried to get to my blog the last couple of days. I got a few emails and IMs asking what the deal was - turns out a spammer was hitting the server through my site and so they suspended my account. I have put some more filters up and it shouldn’t happen again. Thanks for bearing with me.