Networth:
Blogs: Is the New Online Culture a Fad or the Future?
From the Internet’s inception, the most popular tools have always been those that provided ways to communicate. Thus, it should come as no surprise that instant communication dominates your desktop, laptop, iPod, pager, and cell phone in the form of e-mail, text-messaging, instant messaging, chat rooms, and bulletin boards.
Weblogs, or blogs for short, exploit this need for rapid, fresh communication. A typical blog is a theme-centered Web site with short, frequent, dated entries listed in reverse chronological order. Blogs are meant for immediate public consumption, and many are updated daily. Most entries either have links to other sites or express the thoughts or comments of the person posting. Blogs vary greatly: personal (diaries, photos, poetry, post news about a hobby, keeping in touch with family members, gossip, celebrity fan mail), technical (project updates, develop ideas collaboratively, platforms for uncensored ideas) or news (breaking news stories, rumors) A blog posting is like instant messaging on the Web and often invites readers to express their thoughts on the topic.
Blogs have many uses for different groups. General blogs apprise readers of what the author has been reading, doing, and thinking. They may also post listings for interesting Web sites and conversations, or function as independent platforms for writers to share ideas. Adolescents use blogs as personal soapboxes, vehicles for expressing feelings and events to online friends. Blogs can be used in academia to develop ideas collaboratively, as a form of student journal or in free-form writing. Teachers can make use of blogs to keep their students informed about time changes, projects, resources, tools, and other course information as well to maintain student logs and portfolios. Thus, blogs serve as both as collaborative tool and a method of information flow. Blogs can also provide a platform of communication between schools that share a common project or program.
Potentially, blogs have applications in school library media centers: as a current awareness service; to highlight news or resources of interest; to post book reviews from students, faculty, and staff members; to list new acquisitions; to announce library news and events; and to post homework resources. Media center blogs can ease the burden of maintaining your media center Web pages by shifting some of the everchanging information to the media center blog.
Want to Know More? The following sites are as varied as the postings on a blog:
About Blogs
BlogRoots, <www.blogroots.com>
At this site you will find reviews of blogging tools and services and the latest news and happenings in the world of Weblogging. The site accompanies the book "We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs."
Blog Software
Blogger, <www.blogger.com>
Blogger gives you a quick way to automate the blog publishing process without writing any code or worrying about installing any sort of server software or scripts while maintaining control over the look and location of your blog.
Greymatter, <http://noahgrey.com/greysoft>
Greymatter is a pioneer in Weblogging and journal software.
Finding a Blog
Blog-city.com, <www.blog-city.com>
A plethora of blogs groups into categories. You can also sign up for your free blog.
Blogarama, <http://blogarama.com>
This directory of blogs allows you to search and enjoy blogs from around the globe.
Daypop, <www.daypop.com>
This specialty search engine indexes more than thirty-five thousand of the best blogs and news sites other than the traditional media. Daypop’s "Top 40" and "Top News" show the most-linked-to blogs.
Open Directory, <www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs>
Locate other blogs through the Open Directory Project, maintained by a global community of volunteers, is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory on the Web.
Weblogs.com, <www.weblogs.com>
The core function of Weblogs.Com is a list of blogs that have changed in the last three hours.
Library Blogs
Filters and Rogue Librarians: Weblogs in the Library World, <www.stanford.edu/~gskinner/mlis/289/weblog>
Along with a history of blogs, this site examines the creation of blogs among libraries and librarians. In addition, it provides a framework for planning for a library-created blog using a standard planning process, including needs assessment, budgeting, and evaluation.
Library Stuff, <http://librarystuff.net>
Steven Cohen maintains this library blog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development.
Library Weblogs, <http://libdex.com/weblogs.html>
This is a list of library-related Weblogs arranged by countries.
LISNews.com, <http://lisnews.com>
The Librarian and Information Science News blog allows users to search by topic and also to browse. There are "Site Links" to the most popular stories, a three-year archive, and usually an opinion poll that asks you to vote. A good starting point to get your feet wet.
The Shifted Librarian, <www.theshiftedlibrarian.com>
Check this site out and learn about "theshiftedlibrarian."
The Resource Shelf, <http://resourceshelf.blogspot.com>
Gary Price uses Blogger software to publish The Resource Shelf. A wealth of information and archives back to March 2001 make this site a good starting point for getting into blogging.
And just when you think you may have blogging down pact, there is now aud[io]blog[ging], <http://audblog.com>, which enables audio posting to your blog site with any phone at any time from anywhere for a nominal fee.
Finally, an excellent resource book: Todd Stauffer, Blog On: The Essential Guide to Building Dynamic Weblogs (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002); ISBN 0-07-222712-5; $29.99.
© 2003 Terrence E. Young, Jr.
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