Thing #2: create a blog

The chronology of my previous posts may indicate that I have got slightly ahead of the 23 thing game here but here it is, I have completed thing #2 and before your very eyes is the living proof.

As stated previously I write for two work-related blogs, one a collaborative one to support the Business school and one that I write for the Fashion Business courses I support.  They are still in their bubble-wrapping really as we haven't fully launched them, this will come when the new students arrive and we can hopefully sign up as many as possible to the blogs.  

The blogs allow us to disseminate useful bits of information and details of related resources really easily, and thus it provides a platform for us to focus on subject-specific material that is not necessarily covered by library webpages.  It is not always easy though; although they are very easy to edit and maintain, it is the finding something to say that can be something of a problem or keeping the rate at which you blog consistent so readers don't lose interest. I try to get inspiration from news stories (catching the BBC Breakfast business slot often helps....), other blogs, things from Twitter, resources on which I can write a feature, and most recently things I think of as FAQs.  I've added separate pages for these FAQs so that the information is only one click away.  These are questions that students have asked me or questions I think might come up. Because they are subject specific they are not necessarily answered on the library webpages.

As you may be able to tell from my thing #1 post I am a big fan of widgets, apps or whatever you want to call them.  I have added several to my blogs, including a Twitter widget which updates whenever I tweet something and a Librarything widget that displays a list of new books that I have bought for the library.  I have also used the full power of Feedburner which helps to promote my blog by sending automatic updates to my Twitter feed so that my Twitter followers can see when I post something new and can click a link to view the blog.  Feedburner also allows me to keep stats about how many people are subscribed to the blog. 

Without interaction and use of the comments feature by readers of the blog there is a danger that blogs move out of the Web 2.0 realm and back into the realm of static webpages where information is posted to be consumed and that is all.  I recently read an interesting article about using the full force of blogs' collaborative powers to support an information literacy course, the  blog here supporting self- and peer-learning. (Chan & Cmor, 2009).  I hope to do something similar in the near future.

This evolutio blog in turn has a slightly different function, it allows me to reflect and write my thoughts while creating an archive of these highly interesting ruminations.  This reflection is a skill I need to practise for my chartership process and it may well be that I will keep this blog and expand it from just 23 things to my chartership reflection blog.  It also means that I won't have another blog to add to my ever increasing portfolio......

Thing #2 summary: useful for pushing out subject-related information, as a reflective diary and as a tool for collaboration and learning.  It is this latter function that I think is the most interesting and the one which I hope to explore further. 

Reference: 

Chan, Christopher & Cmor, Dianne, (2009). Blogging toward information literacy: engaging students and facilitating peer learning.  Reference Services Review.  37 (4), 395-407. [online]  Available from: Emerald <www.emeraldinsight.com> [Accessed 27 August 2010].

Photo: Chiswick House and Gardens taken by Ellie