Presented by Karen Schneider, director of Librarians' Index to the Internet and author of Free Range Librarian; one of my favorite blogs. She already has blogged her own talk = vg. I thought this would be a great one to attend considering that advocating for a blog at UNH is my new cause and I expect this will be a concern for my colleagues- as it should be and I want to be able to answer their concerns.

We're not about books - we're about people… You know what this is, right? Core services, mission statements, and goals… they don't change digitally. (Where have I heard this before?)

Okay, so, this is a good session for me - I need to clean up my poor blogging habits. I need to cite more -

Blog rules:

1. Transparency - Be sure you're a real person on the blog… give a bio. “Who you are and where you're coming from.” (Karen) People are there to read your thoughts, meaning they're interested - so tell them who you are too. Ooo, that was good… we have to be aware of how you're represented to the outside world. Especially if you're writing as a profession and also representing the profession.

2. Cite It - See above… this is *really* important and I promise to go back and add a bunch of links and references. In my defense, I usually, at the least, give the name of my sources and inspiration… even if not a link. But I'll try to give more complete citations and links - hold me to that, will you?

This is going to become even more important - absolutely crucial, actually, in a library hosted blog. I wonder what could be done to facilitate citations… as in provide a special form in the entry space that will list footnotes. This might be another reason for me to try and write my own blog facility instead of buying one.

Ask your souces if you can quote them… this is an excellent tip.

“Blogging turns information into a conversation.” THAT is a brilliant quote… and so relevant for libraries trying to move into the social realms of which blogs are already a part.

I'm not sure I got all the rules… surely there's more than two… I'll post back later.

3.

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