Use of Blog in C U T Library

In this blog ,I will be discussing on the the effectiveness of Blog in the Library of Curtin University of Technology, Australia.

 Michael Stephens  writing in the July/August 2006 issue of Library Technology Reports, “Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software” characterized blogs this way:

A blog is a Web site that:

·     is organized chronologically by date (newest entries are usually at the top):

·     self-archives by date (done by software);

·     is updated somewhat regularly with relatively short entries:

·     includes links, more links, and still more links;

·     uses a unique URL (called a “permalink”) for each individual post;

·     provides an RSS feed that syndicates the blog’s content:

·     does all the dirty work of creating pages and archives

 

Darlene Fichter has underlined the importance of blogs in university libraries in promoting and marketing library services. According to Fitcher, university libraries can make maximum benefit by using blogs in the following areas.

·        Promote Library Events:

·        Support Your Dedicated Users:

·        Engage Your Community:

·        Support Your Community

·        Building New Ties

 These interesting and interactive attributes are embeded in to the blog of Curtin University of Technology Library , Australia. It can be seen that the vey design  of this library blog is attractive.There are several categories in that blog that permits readers to know more about library services .

They are listed below.

·        All

·        Book reviews (9)

·        EndNote (18)

·        Information Literacy (49)

·        Library News (75)

·        Library Services (57)

·        New or trial resources (36)

·        Opinion@Curtin University Library (5)

·        Suggestions (21)

Additionally, this blog has an archive of blogs for the several months and this permits readers to browse through these archived blogs. Different features of this blog helps library users to feel that they are in the library and the personalized style of content make them feel that some of the library staff is talking to them.

I am just citing an example of one of the entries in the latest blog, which depicts the user friendliness of the blog.

Reference Collection Favourites: Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands

Bacardi, Bic, Levi, Speedo, Cover Girl, Nivea, Gucci, Mighty Dog, Spam, Jif, Doritos, Gillette, Swatch, M & M’s, Twinkies, Velcro, Wrigley’s, Dom Perignon, WD-40, ChapStick, Fruit of the Loom, Yoplait and Zippo. How did these brands originate? How were they developed and marketed? How were the products innovative? Why were they successful?

You’ll find such basic background information about these and other well-known brands in this two volume encyclopaedia (Volume 1: Consumable Products and Volume II: Personal products). Each volume has indexes of Companies and People, Advertising Agencies and Brand Categories.

Marketing students will find this historical information useful but will also need to find more up-to-date information from the brand or company’s website and recent journal, newspaper articles and company data from searching databases such as Business Source Premier, ABI Inform and Factiva.

Shelf Number: R 658.834303 ENC

The print Reference Collection is located on the low shelves on Level Two of the Robertson Library.

Contributed by the Business Librarians, Research and Learning Services.

Posted by Constance Wiebrands

Library users are informed about the location of the new volumes reviewed and even the shelf number of the volume.

 I will just cite one more entry in the blog to show that how it is useful to users.

11 March 08

 

02:06:09 pm, Categories: New or trial resources

Science & Engineering New Resources – March 2008

See our weekly lists of new resources in the Library collection

Mining, Geology and Spatial Sciences	Agriculture and Environment
March 7 March 14	March 7 March 14
Science, Mathematics and Computing	Engineering
March 7 March 14	March 7 March 14

contributed by Kate Conway.

Posted by Kate

This type of blogs really help users in several ways as noted by Fitcher. 

  

williams and Jacobs have observed that the key to the popularity of blogs, it seems, is the scope for interactivity. While, initially, a blog may be treated by its maintainer as little more than a ‘news space’, it is not uncommon, over a period of time, for a distinctive style to emerge, in the course of writing entries and responding to feedback, that reflects the personal character of the blog’s creator. Significantly, rather than alienate a readership by exposing one’s personal traits and idiosyncrasies, this adds to the very popularity of a blog. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation of Web.2.0 services

As a part of this assignment, I have selected the website of Curtin University of Technology library, Australia. I made a survey of the interface of this library website and I really liked the announcement “The Library is Going Green”.

 

I have noted that  Curtin University of Technology,Australia is a leading university in that country and liked the  interface of the university website. This interface is very attractive and interactive. I also the special features of this website, which I feel has some features of a blog too. Please visit of Technology Library
http://library.curtin.edu.au/index.html

 

 Another attraction is the index. This Index helps patrons know about various items that can be indexed and retrieved. Different resources available are indexed alphabetically.

 

I have noticed under the use of a host of social networking technologies under the heading  service link. Most of these services are either related to social networking tools or interactive tools to expedite communication between library staff and patrons.

 

The following is the list of service links

 

Suggest a book
Submit a document delivery request
Submit an email query
Send an SMS query
Chat online with a librarian
Place, review or cancel a booking for a library workshop
Deposit a paper in espace@Curtin
Renew items on loan, cancel requests/recalls, change your Library password

 

 I have observed that this library uses three important Web.2.0 tools.They are Blogs, Instant messaging and social networking.I will discuss about  these  tools in my next blogs. 

 

Web2.0 tools and services

The following is the list of Web2.0 tools and services that are used in libraries now  a days to reach more patrons and improve quality of library services.

 

 Blogs:The term web-log, or blog, was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and refers to a simple webpage consisting of brief paragraphs of opinion, information, personal diary entries, or links, called posts, arranged chronologically with the most recent first, in the style of an online journal. Most blogs also allow visitors to add a comment below a blog entry.(Paul Anderson).

 

RSS :RSS  is a family of formats which allow users to find out about updates to the content of RSS-enabled websites, blogs or podcasts without actually having to go and visit the site. Instead, information from the website (typically, a new story’s title and synopsis, along with the originating website’s name) is collected within a feed (which uses the RSS format) and ‘piped’ to the user in a process known as syndication. In order to be able to use a feed a prospective user must install a software tool known as an aggregator or feed reader, onto their computer desktop. Once this has been done, the user must decide which RSS feeds they want to receive and then subscribe to them. The client software will then periodically check for updates to the RSS feed and keep the user informed of any changes…( Paul Anderson).

 

Wikis: A wiki is a website where every page can be edited in a web browser, by whomever happens to be reading it. It’s so terrifically easy for people to jump in and revise pages that wikis are becoming known as the tool of choice for large, multiple-participant projects. This tutorial is about how to effectively use a wiki to keep notes and share ideas amongst a group of people, and how to organize that wiki to avoid lost thoughts and encourage serendipity.

Instant messaging, often shortened to simply “IM” or “IMing,” is the exchange of text messages through a a software application in real-time. Generally included in the IM software is the ability to easily see whether a chosen friend, co-worker or “buddy” is online and connected through the selected service. Instant messaging differs from ordinary e-mail in the immediacy of the message exchange and also makes a continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth.

Social bookmarking tools allow users to store their bookmarks or Internet Favourites remotely on a site so they can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet, rather than being stored within your browser. Sites such as del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) allow you to store, organise and share your internet resources.(Jane Secker )

Podcasting is a simple means of distributing audio content over the Internet, taking advantage of the power of RSS. Content consumers (end-users) can subscribe to a feed of a producer’s audio content and receive automatic downloads of new content as it is made available online. A more comprehensive discussion of podcasting can be found in the Wikipedia entry on podcasting. For the library that works hard to produce audio content such as recordings of programs or library tours, podcasting can be an effective means of making that content more widely available.

Widget: In computer programming, a widget (or control) is an interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs). [http://tinyurl.com/nzwjp –

 Virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible^[1] (auditory^[2] and touch sensations for example). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users. 

 

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

Introduction:Library 2.0[1] is based on the Web 2.0[2] idea, but applied and related to the library environment. It encourages participation and interaction by the user with the library in an internet environment. However, Library 2.0 is fundamentally about a change in how library services are offered to patrons.  This report is intended as an information document.  It will briefly explain what Library 2.0 is, as well as provide a ‘real-life’ scenario that illustrates how Library 2.0/Web 2.0 could apply to a library patron on a daily basis.

Library 2.0:

Many people are already using Web 2.0 items, like blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and podcasts. What Library 2.0 does is create specific applications (or mold existing Web 2.0 ones) that are related to library resources and services.  An example of this could be a library setting up an RSS (automatic information feed) service for latest news (as the University of Otago Library has done)[3].  Offering podcasts of library instruction (or audio-guided tours of the library) could be another example. The selective dissemination of information (SDIs) service that is already available in some integrated library systems could also be considered a Library 2.0 tool  Below is a list of items that are considered as part of the Library 2.0/Web 2.0 family:* RSS feeds* Wikis* Blogs and blogging* Personalization and “My Profile” features* Podcasting and MP3 files* Streaming media audio and video formats* Personalized alerts* Instant messaging and virtual reference including co-browsing.* Folksonomies, tagging and tag clouds* Photos (e.g. Flickr, Picasa)* Social networking software – Bebo* Socially driven.

I will discuss on the comparative aspects of Web.2.0 and Library2.0 later on.