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BEYOND BOOKS :
BLOGS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
LOGO
LOGO
Kristi Bergland, Mary Huismann, Stacie Traill
University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT
Special formats and music materials are two areas that
provide unique challenges—not the least being communication
among staff located in branch or other campus libraries. When
the University of Minnesota Libraries launched its blog
initiative titled “UThink” offering free blogs to the university
community, the Libraries Technical Services Department was
eager to take advantage. In addition to a general blog titled
“Tech Services Extra,” staff started two specialized blogs as
well. These blogs, titled “Beyond Books” (special formats), and
“Music Notes” (music materials), were formed with the intent of
easing communication difficulties among staff distributed
throughout a large campus library system. In our presentation
we will describe the process, desired outcomes, and feedback
from our blog initiatives.
PROCESS
UThink : Blogs at the University Libraries
The University of Minnesota was among the first university libraries to offer blogging to its community with
the launch of its UThink blog system in April 2004. Nearly 500 unique blogs have been created and used by
departments, faculty and students. The University Libraries Technical Services department currently has three
blogs.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Blogs can be created by any faculty, staff or student with an active U of M internet account. Creating and
editing blogs require the X.500 login and password.
The system is powered by Movable Type, a popular blogging package.
RESULTS
The goals of the University Libraries blog initiative are to “to promote intellectual freedom,
to help build communities of interest on campus, to investigate the connections between
blogging and the traditional academic enterprise, and to retain the cultural memory of the
institution.” Blogs serve as one way to connect the University community and allow opinions
to be heard.
We have a more specific goal for our departmental blogs: to improve communication
between Technical Services with branch libraries and staff residing outside Wilson Library,
and to disseminate information more quickly and consistently.
The initial feedback from our departmental blogs has been good. Here’s a sampling of
comments posted:
“Every time I check this blog, I find something worthwhile. Thanks. “
“...shows that academic units such as the library can also see the value of popular music.”
SETTING UP THE BLOGS
Blogs are easily created through the system’s template. There are three basic steps to setting up a blog:
BACKGROUND
What’s a blog?
Short for “weblog,” a blog is a webpage consisting of brief, frequently
updated postings. Blogs are usually arranged in reverse chronological order,
with the newest postings appearing first. Depending on the purpose, blogs
may contain anything from fiction to scholarly discourse.
Contact Information
Create the blog
The blog needs a name, a brief description (“tagline”), and a directory. Content and appearance
can be customized easily by editing CSS and HTML templates.
Post entries
To add entries, just click the “New Entry” link and the “Create New Entry” page will load.
Entries may be given a subject or title. The entry can be assigned a category from a pull-down
menu. The system allows a “preview” option before saving the entry.
Add authors
Additional contributors can be added to a blog. There are various levels of access or permissions
that each author can have.
BLOG FEATURES
A navigation pane includes a clickable calendar, search box, archives, and lists of recent entries, categories,
and links.
Beyond Books : http://blog.lib.umn.edu/trail001/beyondbooks
Music Notes : http://blog.lib.umn.edu/huism002/musicat
Kristi Bergland
Mary Huismann
Stacie Traill
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
University of Minnesota
160 Wilson Library
309 - 19th Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
A “comments” option allows readers to post comments and reactions to the blog entry.
CHART or
PICTURE - beyond books
CHART or
PICTURE - music notes
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