Beth Tribe
Coordinator of Software Support and Training
Howard County Library

PECHA KUCHA 2.0h no! Maryland Library Association 2009 Conference

The Case of the Library Blog

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsome1/537493706

In the broken luminance of my office, the downpour rapped against the window as my fingers incessantly tapped the keys. I was entering another entry into my blog. Sure I had a blog but what about my library? Howard County Library was my library and I was on the case.

I pulled the file on this Library. Howard County Library consisted of 1 main library in Columbia and 6 branches spread around the rest of the County. They employed over 400 hundred employees and have over 320,000 registered borrowers.

With numbers like this how could they not have a blog? I needed to dig deeper. I draped my overcoat over my shoulders, threw on my Fedora, and headed over to Central Library to rattle the story loose.

As the cab pulled up to the Central Library the rain was falling down faster than dot com stock. I trudged upstairs to the Information Technology department. If anyone would have any information about blogs these people would.

First on the list to grill was the person in charge of the librarys Staff Intranet. A perky brunette with a mouth on her. But would she spill the beans? Could I find out what was going on with blogs at Howard County Library?

Boy, could that canary sing. Turns out she was on the same track I was. Had someone tipped her off about me coming over? Or was she just that up on technology, Web 2.0 and the social web. This remained to be seen.

She told me about when she first constructed their Intranet she wanted it to be more Web 2.0 so she had included a section on blogs. This Intranet was controlled by a boss called Joomla. I jotted down in my book Joomla, open source content management system. These words all seemed foreign to me. Maybe the Maltese government behind this.

This dame went on to explain that she took dictation at a meeting called Computers in Libraries. This dictation made its way onto their Staff Intranet in the form of a blog. Her notes, her thoughts, her impressions of this meeting were recorded for all to read.

True to blog form other staff members left their thoughts, impressions or ideas on each of the blog entries.

She had to leave the office for a moment. She conveniently left the Intranet up on her computer screen. Far be it from me to miss a chance to poke around a bit.

I found a case file on something called Koha. Her library wanted to keep their staff informed about all the aspects of this project. Each section of this project had its own blog.

Hmm, staff was certainly blogging here but only staff were able to read this. What about the public?

Soon as she got back I grilled her So you use blogs to communicate amongst your staff but what about communicating with your public? Your customers?

Her green eyes flashed for a moment as if I had insulted her. I instinctively reached for my piece but she calmed down.

She went onto to put me wise about Highly Recommended which had been on their web site since April 15 2008. This blog used open source software called Wordpress.

She pointed me to the front of her librarys web site. Right there in the rotating box of special events was the information about Highly Recommended.

This was no ordinary blog. They billed it as a readers advisory blog. It contained all kinds of skinny on books, music, movies and even the classes and events being held at this joint. I tightened the screws to get more out of this broad.

okay doll, thats just the front page but I want to see the real blog.

She clicked on the view details button and I was immediately taken to the Highly Recommended blog. I spent some time reading some of the posts. These people really knew their stuff. These were no ringers, they were the real McCoy. The passionate, dedicated staff seemed to know what they were writing about.

She didnt need anymore encouragement as she continued to jaw on about this blog. She took me to the very first post by Lisa Bankman, the mastermind and first editor behind Highly Recommended.

Looks like their customers enjoyed it too from all the comments they left nice to see that staff got back to them as well.

So who actually writes this stuff? Are we talking one big Kahuna here or a whole lot of little fishes?

She took me to the Contributors page. I was surprised to see a motley crew. Not just a bunch of dolls but some guys too. Some even had a rap sheet listing their accomplishments.

That was all well and good they had a blog, they had the usual suspects writing for it but something was missing. Where were some of the web 2.0 features I associated with blogs.

She scrolled to the tag cloud there it was a plain as a bagel without cream cheese and lox. Quickly I could see the more frequently used tags because they were bigger and bolder type face.

There was also a small blog roll linking to 2 other blogs that linked back to Highly Recommended.

As she continued to sing she mentioned that her library had just signed up with this micro-blogging service called Twitter. Seems that hatchetmen, head doctors, flatfoots, hoods, punks and even your average Joe was using this application. But how did it work with the librarys blog?

You dont know much do ya? you big Palooka she said to me. My face light up redder than the flashing neon on Baltimore Street. So explain it me, Sister!

Simple, she said, you register your blogs RSS feed with TwitterFeed. Each time an authors post is published Twitterfeed automatically sends out a Tweet on Twitter for you. Then those cats and chicks following you get the message with a link back to the blog.

Then she logged into this Twitter and showed me what these tweets looked like. So I was wrong, this library did have a blog. So I started to close my notebook thinking my job was done here.

Wait ya big lug. That isnt the half of it. Theres more. she said as she clicked on the About Us link at the top of the librarys web site.

She went on to show me that the Information Technology department even had its own blog called Open Source. Different hombres from the department took turns writing about the topic of open source. They even had comments from fans and detractors alike pretty rate in my book. I jotted down the address in my book. Again I started to close it but she kept on going.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photopia/455572466/

Some girlie named Katie George who was the Teen Program Coordinator at Howard County Library even had a blog Teachers Notes. It was a way for her to communicate with the teachers of the county. They would subscribe to the RSSfeed so they wouldnt be behind the eight ball when it came to knowing what was going on.

Turns out the same doll who did Teachers Notes also had a Teen Blog going. This time it was written by the youths for the youths. Teen Zine had used an open source software known as Mambo but they switched over to a blog format so they could be part of the Howard County Library brand.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmason/1849207047/

I closed my notebook. This case wasnt really a case after all. My library not only had internal blogs but external ones. These blogs communicated with the average Joe as well as specialized groups such as educators and teens. I was done. This one was for the record books. I filed this case under SOLVED.

Name: Beth TribeLibrary: Howard County LibraryEmail: beth.tribe@hclibrary.org

Twitter/Friendfeed: mlibrarianus

Blog: http://notatech.wordpress.com

Feeling the letdown that always comes after a case has been solved. I peered out the window of my office waiting for the next bloger to walk in. That was the life of a gum-shoe always waiting for the next big case to break.