Thanks to those of you who attended the class on February 27th.

Here are links to download the materials from today’s class.

• PowerPoint slide presentation blogclass_0208.ppt
• Steps to Blogging handout steps_outline_0208.doc
• Selected Resources handout selected_resources_0208.doc
• Helpful Terms handout helpful_terms_0208.doc

Happy blogging!

Thanks to those of you who attended the class today.  As promised, here are the handouts from today’s class.

PowerPoint slides blogclass_1207.ppt

Steps outline steps_outline_1207.doc

Selected Resources selected_resources_1207.doc

Helpful Terms helpful_terms_1207.doc

This is a non-class-related post, but just begged to be posted anyway.

Thankfully, this week, in honor of National Library Week (pdf schedule of events), the Sunnyvale Public Library does have cookies in the Library. Hopefully these cookies will help us to avoid tense customer service interactions such as this:

Thanks to Superpatron for the find.

This is a test post for the blogs and blogging class at sunnyvale public library.

for the 10 practical ways…

Personal

http://njuang.blogspot.com/

http://denverthelastdinosaur.blogspot.com/

Professional Interest

http://thebreakfastblog.blogspot.com/

Company

http://businesslogs.com/

Resume

http://www.mydemos.com/resume/

http://tony-gentile.blogspot.com/

Newsletter

http://www.elkevonfreudenberg.com/blog/

Communication Platform

http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/

http://www.technorati.com/weblog/

Project Development

http://wordpress.org/development/

Collaboration Project

hall of fame selection

http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/blog

Chatroom Creator

http://www.boundlessline.org/2007/03/friends_while_s.html

Hybrids

http://selmalee.blogspot.com/

another business blogging link

http://help.cnet.com/rss/9602-12576_39-0.html?messageID=2509533&kw=rss

Poking around the WordPress world, I was turned on the Lorelle on WordPress blog. Her blog is jam-packed with tips and tricks for improving your blog. Within minutes, I found two posts that are absolutely perfect for the class.

From Blogopreneur, Kian Ann Tan put together a really great list of 10 Practical Ways to Use a Blog. This is going to be a wonderful resource to share when I discuss about “what is a blog good for?”

Then, in a guest post on problogger, Tony Hung gives 41 ideas for How to Market Your Blog in 2007. Naturally, appearing on problogger, the ideas are right up the alley for those wishing to make serious money off their blogs, but even those without commercial aspirations should give serious thought into the ways they will promote their blogs and ideas to others. Think the old if a tree falls in a forest adage…

I’ve decided to create a new blog for this class on WordPress. There are a couple of reasons for this move:

I wanted to explore another blog platform, so I can speak more confidently about the differences between certain platforms, in this case, between Blogger and WordPress.

I wanted to try importing the old blog at blogger to another platform to see just how easy the transition and import feature is. The verdict: it is easy. Ultra easy.

I figured since the name of the class changed, it was appropriate to change the blog too.

So, I hope you enjoy this new blog! And remember, the first new Blogs & Blogging class will be held at 6pm tomorrow, Tuesday, April 3rd at the Sunnyvale Public Library.

It’s March, and that means it’s time for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament! It also means that I’m preparing for the second blog class here at the Sunnyvale Public Library, scheduled for Tuesday, April 3, from 6-8 p.m. The class will be entitled Blogs and Blogging.

I’m really excited about this go-around, because I got a lot of really great feedback and ideas after teaching the class the first time. Most notably, the class will be held in the evening this time, to accommodate those people who weren’t able to attend last time due to work or school restrictions. I’ve also blocked out 2 hours for the class this time, because I definitely want to be able to include a Q&A session which we weren’t able to include last time because I rambled too much and ran out of time. I’ve also completely re-worked the outline of the course to pare down the “me talking” portion and increase the “me showing” aspect. Finally, I expect to have more time to be able to discuss RSS and newsreader subscriptions. I recently came across some statistics that suggest that we might soon be hitting a ceiling in terms of growth in actual blogs created, while readership is expected to climb without an end in sight. This of course would put a premium on the finding and reading aspect of the blogosphere as opposed to the publishing and our courses should naturally reflect this shift. I’ll try to track down those numbers and include them in the course.

In the meantime, enjoy this post from the Dewey Blog, which informs us all that the complete DDC number for March Madness is 796.323630973.
025.431: The Dewey blog: March Madness

And incidentally, the class will be the day after the tournament ends, so you have no excuse not to be there!

Here’s another non-class-related post but newsworthy nonetheless. It’s also a nice illustration of the power of the blogosphere at work.

Flabbergasted!

That’s what I am after reading about John Blyberg’s launch of the so-called “SOPAC” or Social OPAC at Ann Arbor District Library. You might remember that I mentioned them previously for their radical use of blogs throughout their library web site.

The SOPAC basically takes some of the best features in social networking and applies them to the library catalog. Reviewing and tagging items in the catalog, searching across tags, users, and ratings…very, very cool.

I can’t do justice to the product, so here’s Blyberg’s blog post about his creation (beware of that screencast…the file is big!).

And of course, I came across the whole thing from Librarian in Black’s blog. She calls attention to what I would call the open-source smackdown of Innovative’s new Encore product.

I sense that the library world will feel the ripples out of Michigan for a time to come. Will the world ever be the same again? Or am I simply being over-dramatic? Time will tell…