Internet Librarian notes: Blogs 2004 November 17
I felt that this year Internet Librarian had a diverse among of topics of interest to librarians who use the Internet in their daily duties – however there was not a lot of presentations with the “nuts and bolts” for those on the systems side of things. That said, I still think it was a very useful conference for myself, and I have learned a few things and I will be bringing back some ideas that I think will be very useful for RUL. In particular I like the ideas of using a blog as a backend tool for various uses in the library.
A list of possibilities for blogs in the library could include, but are not limited to:
Library News Blogs
Committee meeting notes
Reference desk blog (upcoming class assignments, new resources, etc.)
Subject Specialist/Information resources blogs (librarians find new info
on various subjects including suggested readings)
Systems staff blog (news for librarians/staff from the systems people, or just a
blog for the systems people to use themselves instead of writing down
on paper)
Remodeling/Construction blogs
These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Also, the Library news blog, in particular, can also be syndicated as a RSS feed to be included on our libraries website and on Blackboard.
The U of Minnesota Libraries Uthink project runs blogs for classes, students, professors, etc. I’m not sure that would be something Rider would want to do, but I think for some internal programs.
It is going to require some more investigation and need to talk to library faculty/staff and see what they think of the ideas and if they can think of any other uses for blogs.
I think that perhaps a “blog” is not really the proper way to go. A blog is just a web log, and it’s really quite a specific thing. A blog tends to have a linear/single user aspect to it. I get a sense that people are looking at them because they are the popular thing to look at these days. Like they say “Hey, this blog thing is kind of nice, what else can I use this for”. That is in fact a very dangerous way to go about software implementation. I see it far too many times where I work. People see an application, and they think… “Hey, I like this… How can I use it”. This almost inevitably leads to one of two problems: 1.) The “Square Peg in a Round Hole” effect, or 2.) The “Cram 8 lbs of manure into a 5 lbs bag” effect. The proper way to go about software implementation is to first ask yourself “What is it that I want to do?” and then proceed to “What application lets me do that?”
Indeed, in looking at your list of possibilities for blogs above, I would venture to say that you’re looking more for a team room or collaboration tool than anything else. There’s all manner of applications that do these things, e.g. eGroupWare.
Summary: Rather than try to force your needs into a particular tool, focus on finding the proper tool to fit your needs.
Gregory, I think you have some good points about trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. As you probably know I was kind of thinking out loud, so your feedback is more then welcome.
I just looked at eGroupware and it seems really interesting. The idea of “all-in-one” shopping for a solution to all of the tasks that eGroupware does has its advantages. However, it also has disadvantages. I am not sure that the different modules offer the features I need, and there are also a lot of things to worry about that I don’t need. I do plan on looking at the groupware type solutions more before I do anything.
That said, the more I think about it, a blog-type solution may still to be the way to go for at least some of these. This is especially true for library news. In the case of Rider, I would probably be the only one updating it anyway. Most blogging software already has RSS feeds, which I need in order to post the news to our campus BlackBoard system auto-magically. Since only a few people will be updating it, some of the other limitations won’t be so noticeable or non-existent.
Ed, you might be on to something. There is the square peg/round hole argument, but then there is also a chance to go way overboard as you say. Using eGroupWare might be like trying to insert a thumbtack with a sledgehammer.
Still, it’s worth looking into. It might be possible to only install or activate pieces of the group ware solution. Although I didn’t see any RSS type stuff, which you indicated was a priority. You might want to also look at phpGroupWare.