1. Blogging @ NSUBA Library Using Blogs to Instruct and Communicate Within & Beyond

2. Our first blog:  NSUBA Library Blog

3. A little bit about our blog:  Started as a SLIS student project  Linked from our home page  Goal: to provide information to our patrons and others in the community  Now has five authors – have met to plan the ‘future’ of the blog  Challenges: what do we blog about?  Most popular posts are flags @ half staff

4. Another look: Our sidebar provides a search function, library tips, RSS feed option, library photos…

5. Sidebar cont.: …general information, links to blogs, websites…

6. Sidebar cont.: …more blogs and helpful educational links!

7. Our internal blog:  Librariantics

8. About this blog:  Met a need for communication internally  Desktop shortcut from circ computers (private blog – log in with generic or personal email)  Goal: to inform staff without cluttering email boxes (auto archived, searchable)  Challenges: notification problems  Desk shift conflicts, student worker issues, general U info, technology solutions, project discussions

10. Instruction Blog:  Library Suvivor

11. Details:  Came from an idea to teach IL in game format – still a work in progress  Allows students to ‘complete’ library tasks that are place as challenges in the blog post  It’s interactive: Students record their ‘answers’ or results as comments  Links to a wiki that provides info, images, tutorials about library resources

12. Lessons learned:  I used to think: I don’t have time for another ‘thing’  Now I think: How can this ‘thing’ help improve our library services?  Make the technology work for you – if it doesn’t work for you, don’t force it