http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

Blogging History:

What are the uses of blogs in academic

and archival settings?

Dr Matt Phillpott

(School of Advanced Study)

Matt.phillpott@sas.ac.uk

Archives and Society seminar

November 2013

Outline

• Social Media – what is it all about?

• My background

• What types of blogs are there?

• Do archives use blogs?

• Final thoughts

What is Social

Media?

social media n. web sites and applications which

enable users to create and share content or to

participate in social networking.

- Oxford English Dictionary

social media n. web sites and applications which

enable users to create and share content or to

participate in social networking.

- Oxford English Dictionary

What are blogs?

noun

plural noun: blogs

a personal website or web page on which an individual

records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular

basis.

What are blogs? Online notebook

Research hub

Promotional activity

Journal

News

Image store

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

Blog posts about blogs and social

media

A series of interviews either audio

or text based with experts already

using blogs for their own work

A toolkit or guide to blogging

developed especially for arts and

humanities scholars early in their

careers

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

Outputs of the Project

• A blog about blogs

•Six podcasted interviews with bloggers working in the field of History

(academic, archival, librarian)

• An online survey or questionnaire to investigate further the prevailing

thoughts about blogging

• A toolkit or guide to blogging developed especially for historians early

in their careers

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

“The project investigates the use of blogs by archives,

libraries and historians on both an individual and

organisational level. It seeks to exchange knowledge of the

working and usefulness of blogs between the History profession

and the archives and libraries sector through the

creation of an online resource designed to gain

an insight into why blogging is useful and what

is gained from the process.”

Podcasted interviews

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

Archives & Library blogs

• The National Archives blog – Ruth Ford

• Untold Lives (British Library) – Margaret Makepeace and Penny Brook

Individual research blog

• Historyonics blog – Professor Tim Hitchcock (Hertfordshire)

Collaborative research blogs

• The Russian History blog – Dr Miriam Dobson (Sheffield)

• History Matters blog– Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock (Sheffield)

Blog aggregator

• The Early Modern Commons – Sharon Howard (HRI)

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

What the bloggers had to say about best practice

Video

https://vimeo.com/69583387

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

SURVEY RESULTS

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

SURVEY RESULTS

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

SURVEY RESULTS

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

The Toolkit/Guide to Blogging

Categories

1. Uses of blogs for historians

2. Setting up a blog

3. Promoting your blog

4. Shared blogs

5. Creating content

6. Paying for enhanced features

7. Going further

What types of

blogs are there?

Research blog – talking about personal research Point of view blog – discussing thoughts and experiences as a lecturer, archivist or librarian. Institution shared blog – promotes a department and gives staff members a joint-forum To discuss their research interests Scholarly shared blog – around a specific theme or topic area shared between a small group of academics Events blog – designed to promote one or more events such as talks, workshops, conferences Project blog – updates about the project, things found out through the project etc.

General types of blogs

Historyonics by Professor Tim Hitchcock

RESEARCH BLOG

Why was it set up?

• Experiment – to see if blogs were useful

• Initially talking about holidays etc., but soon focused on mulling over future

direction in digital history, a place for random thinking pieces, a fun space to

write and think – often a good way to

put into prose something that would

otherwise just remain as random

thoughts in the head.

How the blog is managed

• Chaotic and undirected

• No scheduling, just posts when he

has something to say or something

that he has no other use for.

Early Modern Women – Culture of Knowledge

RESEARCH BLOG

This blog belongs to a Postgraduate researcher working towards

an MPhil in History.

“I'm new to blogging, but am hoping

to create blogs of interest,

reflection and/or casual ramblings

as well as generate a network of

feedback and related discussions.”

A Don’s Life: Mary Beard (Classicist)

Point of View blog

Book Description

• Publication Date: 5 Nov 2009

Mary Beard's by now famous blog

A Don's Life has been running on the

TLS website for nearly three years.

In it she has made her name as a wickedly subversive commentator on the world in which we

live. Her central themes are the classics,

universities and teaching - and much

else besides.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/

Department Shared blog

Why was it set up?

• To raise the profile of the departments research.

• To engage with a wider audience and to demonstrate the

relevance of academic history in today’s world.

• A theme in which a department with diverse interests can all participate

How the blog is managed

• A schedule is maintained with

important events noted and staff

expertise called upon where relevant

• Entirely voluntary but a growing

interest from staff – some regularly

take part, others occasionally.

The History Matters Blog (Dept. of History, Sheffield)

The Russian History Blog (various authors, mainly US)

Why was it set up? Topic Shared-blog

• Frustrated with book reviews taking too long to be published – the blog allowed

for an immediate forum of discussion that could even include the author.

• A means to maintain an online presence without the additional pressure of

regularly writing posts – with c. 10 people collaborating only need to provide a

few posts a year

• Acts as a focus for discussion around the subject matter

• Good for networking – becoming recognised

for being one of the Russian History bloggers

How the blog is managed

• More informal – one person in charge, but

only to nudge when a post hasn’t gone up

for a while.

• Each contributor uploads their own posts

• Occasional email conversations re. blog.

Events Blog

SAS Blogs

SAS Blogs is the blog hosting service

for the School of Advanced Study

and its institutes, research projects and staff.

• News/events items

• Research posts from the Institutes

• Social Media/Digital opinions

Uses categories as part of navigation options

http://blogs.sas.ac.uk/

Commonwealth Oral History Project

Project Blog

“The aim of this AHRC funded project is to produce a unique

digital research resource on the oral history of the

Commonwealth since 1965.”

http://www.commonwealthoralhistories.org/

What about blogs

by Archives?

Surveyed 113 archives (on 1 November 2013)

Blog 26

Twitter 39 (not incl. generic council account)

Facebook 43 (not incl. generic council account)

Other social media commonly used:

Flickr

YouTube

Social Media usage by type of Archive

Type Total blog Facebook Twitter

Church 2 1 (50%) 1 (50%) 1 (50%)

Local/regional 87 13 (15%) 31 (35%) 26 (30 %)

National 19 8 (42%) 10 (52%) 9 (47%)

University 6 5 (83%) 3 (50%) 4 (66%)

Archives with Blogs

Blog system used

Blogger 5

Wordpress 16

Typepad 2

Own Design 3

Archive Blog Name

Angus Archives Baptist History: Hidden treasure

Archives of the University of Glasgow University of Glasgow Library

Archive Services, University of Dundee Archives, Records, and Artefacts

Birmingham City Archives The Iron Room

Borthwick Institute for Archives, York Borthwick Institute blog

British Library archives various

BT Archives, London New Connections: the BT e-archive project

Cheshire Record Office Curiouser and Curiouser

City of Westminster Archives Centre The Cookbook of unknown Ladies

Denbighshire Record Office Denbighshire Archives

Derbyshire Record Office Derbyshire Record Office

Essex Record Office Essex Record Office

George Padmore Institute George Padmore Institute

Hull History Centre Hull History Centre

Lambeth Palace Library A Monument of Fame

Lebrecht Photo Library Music + Arts Pictures at Lehrecht

Media Archive for Central England MACE Blog

The National Archives The National Archives blog

National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales

Nottingham University, Manuscripts and Special Collections Manuscripts and Special Collections

Royal Mail Archive The British Postal Museum and Archive

Surrey History Centre Exploring Surrey's Past

Tyne and Wear Archives Service Tyne and Wear Archives blog

West Yorkshire Archive Service Catablogue: Collecting archives for West Yorkshire

Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre

York City Archive York: A City Making history

Archives using Twitter

Archive Twitter Twitter followers

British Library archives britishlibrary 501,639

The National Archives UKNatArchives 29965

National Library of Wales NLWales 5468

Royal Mail Archive postalheritage 4231

West Yorkshire Archive Service wyorksarchives 3175

Tyne and Wear Archives Service TWArchives 3139

Hull History Centre Hullhistorynews 2754

Archives of the University of Glasgow uofglibrary 2254

Surrey History Centre SurreyHeritage 2043

Media Archive for Central England MACEarchive 1972

York City Archive YorkLibrariesUK 1763

Essex Record Office essexarchive 1070

Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office heritagewshc 1023

Birmingham City Archives TheIronRoom 997

Archive Services, University of Dundee CAIS_Archives 953

Lambeth Palace Library lampallib 915

Cheshire Record Office CheshireRO 750

Borthwick Institute for Archives, York UoY Borthwick 668

Lebrecht Photo Library Lebrecht_Photos 243

Angus Archives RPCLibrary 136

BT Archives, London

City of Westminster Archives Centre

Denbighshire Record Office

Derbyshire Record Office

George Padmore Institute

Nottingham University, Manuscripts and Special Collections

Archives with Facebook

Archive FB likes

British Library archives 121,644

The National Archives 8030

Archives of the University of Glasgow 5367

National Library of Wales 3199

Royal Mail Archive 2581

Derbyshire Record Office 995

Hull History Centre 803

Media Archive for Central England 732

Tyne and Wear Archives Service 629

York City Archive 583

City of Westminster Archives Centre 532

Surrey History Centre 330

Lebrecht Photo Library 278

Essex Record Office 223

Birmingham City Archives 170

West Yorkshire Archive Service 157

George Padmore Institute 143

Lambeth Palace Library 125

Borthwick Institute for Archives, York 104

Angus Archives 96

Archive Services, University of Dundee

BT Archives, London

Cheshire Record Office

Denbighshire Record Office

Nottingham University, Manuscripts and Special Collections

Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office

Blogs: frequency of posts (per month)

Archive Freqency (max per month)

British Library archives 30

Archives of the University of Glasgow 25

Lebrecht Photo Library 20

The National Archives 20

City of Westminster Archives Centre 16

Royal Mail Archive 12

Media Archive for Central England 10

Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office 10

Surrey History Centre 9

Essex Record Office 8

National Library of Wales 8

Derbyshire Record Office 6

Archive Services, University of Dundee 5

Birmingham City Archives 5

Tyne and Wear Archives Service 5

Angus Archives 3

Borthwick Institute for Archives, York 3

George Padmore Institute 3

Hull History Centre 3

Nottingham University, Manuscripts and Special Collections 3

West Yorkshire Archive Service 3

Denbighshire Record Office 2

Lambeth Palace Library 2

York City Archive 2

BT Archives, London 1

Cheshire Record Office 1

Archive Blogs: Date created

Archive Date begun

Media Archive for Central England Sep-05

Lebrecht Photo Library Sep-07

George Padmore Institute Feb-08

Archives of the University of Glasgow Feb-09

Royal Mail Archive Mar-09

Archive Services, University of Dundee Aug-09

West Yorkshire Archive Service Aug-09

National Library of Wales Dec-09

British Library archives Feb-10

Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office Mar-10

Tyne and Wear Archives Service Jul-10

Denbighshire Record Office Feb-11

Derbyshire Record Office Apr-11

Nottingham University, Manuscripts and Special Collections Jun-11

Birmingham City Archives Oct-11

Cheshire Record Office Oct-11

BT Archives, London Dec-11

The National Archives Feb-12

Surrey History Centre Feb-12

Essex Record Office Mar-12

Angus Archives Mar-12

York City Archive Jun-12

Lambeth Palace Library Jan-13

City of Westminster Archives Centre Feb-13

Borthwick Institute for Archives, York Mar-13

Hull History Centre Jul-13

Angus Library & Archive

Started: March 2013

Posts: 3 per month

Purpose: Started as part of HLF Funding enabling the archive

to catalogue, conserve and provide opportunities

for more people to learn from the heritage

contained in collections. Blog is part of this

outreach

Content: News items; exhibitions job vacancies

Started: October 2011

Posts: 4-5 per month

Purpose: “to help you find out more about the workings of our service and the collections we look after” “We hope it will be a place where you can discover information, images and stories about our work collecting, preserving and making records accessible. You can read about our local studies and archival collections and new material we receive as well as learn about cataloguing, public service, digitization and outreach projects in which we are involved. You’ll get a chance to find out what goes on behind the scenes and we’ll keep you up-to-date with events we are running, exhibitions we are involved in and our preparations for the move to the Library of Birmingham in 2013.”

Content: research; news items; behind the scenes; events; projects; user advice

The Iron Room (Birmingham City Archives)

The National Archives Blog

Why was it set up?

• Goal of transparency and openness

• An attempt to emphasis a human element to the archives - As staff at the TNA are civil

servants they operate under a strict set of guidelines and their public relations are usually a

‘we’ rather than an ‘I’.

• Blogs allow staff to use an informal and ‘personal’ voice for a change

How the blog is managed

• A long-term plan in place to ensure

the content continues

• Staff asked to agree to provide posts for

at least 6 months

• Centrally managed by web team

• Posts scheduled 1 month in advance

with 3-4 posts per week

http://blogs.sas.ac.uk/

The Untold Lives blog (British Library)

Why was it set up?

• One of many blogs operated by the BL – initial set up considerations already

in place, but similar to those considered by TNA.

• Also shared goal of transparency and openness

• Also interested in emphasising the human voice through a storytelling approach

• An approval process was required and the theme needed to be flexible enough

for collaborative blogging.

How the blog is managed

• 2 editors acting as gatekeepers

• Schedule which includes key

dates in the year – an attempt

to tailor posts to events

that are current.

• 5-10 posts as back up

Tips for research

blogging

Be Trendy or be exterminated!

• Try to relate to something happening in the news or

which is ‘trending’

This is a great example from the Wiltshire & Swindon

History Centre. On Friday 22 Nov 2013 they posted by

An article about Dr Who being filmed in the region.

Getting your message out there!

• Start with a news item – i.e. blog post

• Talk about it on Twitter

• Link to the news item

• use hashtags (i.e. #bloomsburyfest)

• Mention other tweeters involved

i.e.

• Engage with other tweeters

• Do the same on other social media

Mark Carrigan’s blogs

Building up a profile online

• Using blogs as a enhanced profile page

• Using blogs as a research notebook

• Shared/group blogging around a specific subject

area

http://sociologicalimagination.org/ http://markcarrigan.net/

Novel Approaches: from academic history to historical fiction

Virtual Conference

• Visitors encouraged to comment

• Posts go up at scheduled times

each day for a week, including – Podcasted talks

– Reviews

– Articles

– Opinion pieces

http://ihrconference.wordpress.com/

The Early Modern Commons (blog aggregator)

Why was it set up?

• To be a blogroll + - i.e. a more useful blog roll

• Includes over 260 early modern blogs with details

and RSS feeds plus aggregates their posts

A possible way

forward for

Blogging?

www.sas.ac.uk

The Social Scholar

seminar

www.sas.ac.uk

The Social Scholar

New lunchtime public seminar series

• To discuss all forms of social media in research and academic-related work

• 20 minute talks by experts already using social media in their work, followed by discussion and Q&A

• Opportunity to learn more about social media, how you might use it, why it can be useful.

Website: http://blogs.sas.ac.uk/category/the-social-scholar/

www.sas.ac.uk

The Social Scholar

New lunchtime public seminar series

1pm-2pm each month

All sessions will be held in Senate House room 246.

23 October

Julian Harrison (British Library)

The Anti-Social Scholar (and how not to become one)

13 November

Mark Carrigan (Warwick/LSE)

Getting Started as a Research Blogger: Single Authored or Multi Authored Blogs?

4 December

Anne Alexander (CRASSH, University of Cambridge)

The ethics of social media publishing: a brief introduction for researchers

All Social Scholar seminars are free to attend and open to all including

Researchers and research related staff from the University of London and elsewhere.

Please feel free to bring your lunch along. Tea and Coffee will be provided.

Conclusions

1. If you want to start a blog think seriously about what you want to get out of

it. You need to be enthusiastic about what you are blogging about.

2. Despite common wisdom it is not always necessary to blog regularly and

there is no definitive word limit – although under 1000 words is generally

considered plenty.

3. Consider shared blogs – they offer a more collaborative approach that

can be inspiring and bring new opportunities.

4. But individual blogging is good as well.

http://bloggingforhistorians.wordpress.com/

Thank you for listening!

Dr Matt Phillpott

Matt.phillpott@sas.ac.uk