1. Libraries and weblogs: The Role of new phenomenon Blogs in library services, research and learning. Tahereh Karami Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Iran tkarami@gmail.com Tahereh Oloumi Tehran University, Iran tahere_oloumi@yahoo.com

2. Overview What are blogs? Blog/ Weblog is  A web page containing brief entries arranged chronologically  An online community, ‘ What ’ s New ’ page or links to other web sites,  That are built using specially designed software

3. From the viewpoint of the user or visitor A blog is a Web site with:  Content arranged as entries of text and hyperlinks, posted in reverse chronological order,  A timestamp for each entry so the reader knows when it was posted,  And an archive of previously posted content that can be easily accessed by visitors

4. Library weblogs: professional literature Blogs with an emphasis on library and information science  Crawford, 2001  Fichter,2001  Clyde, 2002a, 2002b and 2003  Cohen, 2003

5. Library weblogs: professional literature The potential of weblogs in libraries  Block (2001)  Embrey (2002)  Balas (2003)  Carver (2003)  Doug Goans and Teri Vogel (2003)  Bar-llan (2004)  Blair and Cranston (2006)

6. Library weblogs: professional literature weblogs in knowledge management  Fichter (2003)  Roell (2003)  Alcock (2003)  Ojala (2005)

7. Library weblogs: professional literature RSS and its use in libraries  Wusteman (2004)  Winsh (2004)  Miller (2004)  Jacobs (2004)  Celikbas (2004)

8. Weblogs in libraries  Blogs are a natural for librarians Paula J. Hane (2001)  A weblog could be used as a tool for communication with library users Blinda weaver (2003)  A weblog could be used as a tool for communication with library users

9. How libraries can utilize weblogs for their profession? blogs applications in libraries  as a current awareness service;  to highlight news or resources of interest;  to post book reviews from students, faculty, and staff members;  to list new acquisitions;  to announce library news and events  for selective dissemination of information

10. Blog is easy for librarians A Blog is:  Web-based forms  Easy to create  Easy to publish  Does not need to know HTML

11. How libraries are using Blogs? Blogs as a  library newsletter  Reference Desk  New Acquisitions  libraries consortia  marketing tools in libraries

12. and library BlogResearch  Communicating information about resources  Starting conversations about books and literacy  Use Weblogs as digital portfolios (by Students)  Use blogs as classroom portals (by Teachers)  Identify, organize, and make information accessible (In school libraries)  Encourage students to access the Internet for useful information (by Educators)

13. The relevance of blogging to libraries  weblogs are an excellent way to stay current  Librarians are great filters of information  Weblogs are ideal for disseminating all types of information  Weblogs are ideal for commenting, expressing opinions and  Weblogs are ideal for discussing implications  And to provide local information

14. Library Blogs purposes Libraries can use Blog to:  Provide up-to-date information on local events,  Provide library news,  Provide announcements of new library acquisitions,  promoting the services Contact with users  Information provision  Marketing of services  knowledge management

15. Number of library Blogs Table1: Number of library weblogs between 2003-2005 Karami & Oloumi, 2005 Clyde,2004Clyde,2003Type of library 1388225Public library 1568323Academic library (university or college) 55175Special / research library 1962Multi-type library network/consortium 431National/state library 2071School library 39819857TOTAL

16. Syndicate your content: RSS What is RSS? RSS is a simple XML syntax for describing a channel or feed of recent additions to a webpage such as weblogs, and usually showby these icons:

17. Two ways to manage RSS  use a feedreader : fine to only one or two blogs; IE6 will enable RSS feeds on the desk top  use an aggregator : to manage feeds such as: RSSFeeds.com (www.rssfeeds.com) Syndic8 (www.syndic8.com) NewsIsFree (www.newsisfree.com) Lisfeeds.com (www.lisfeeds.com)

18. RSS in Libraries Here are some RSS utilizations in libraries that have been introduced by Celikbas:  Activities, Event Announcements,...  Book Lists  Current Awareness Service

19. Conclusion Blogging could be an efficient and effective alternative for information and knowledge transfer, resulting in a more productive workforcein libraries.

20. Thank you! Tahereh Karami Faculty of the School of Public Health and Institute of Public Health Researches Library, Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Iran tkarami@gmail.com Dr. Tahereh Oloumi Associate Professor, Department of Library Science, School of Psychology and Education, Tehran University, Iran tahere_oloumi@yahoo.com