Exercise 2

The five mandatory blogs:

1. "In the Library with the lead pipe"
This Blog would fall under the category of Knowledge Logs. It is intended to disseminate information to the reader through long essays. Each post is intended to be taken as academic and further strengthening the library community and organizations. This blog could be considered a mixture of reference/community building. It invites the reader to comment and at the same time lists all the references in certain blog uses.

2. "The Librarian's Commute"
The Librarian's commute is written in a personal journal format,but also carries the characteristics of knowledge logs. The author writes about her everyday thoughts and happenings, but also looks to post knowledgable content. The blog posts are mannered in the style of short essays. Olivia Nellums, the author, summarizes her blog topics as :
"I am one of many figuring out what a librarian is as the information world changes, and libraries, technology, and higher education are the topics I try and stick to."


3. "The Distant Librarian"
This blog consists of reviews and links to book reviews, applications, and anything else the author deems interesting. I would categorize this blog as a filter. This blog also keeps its blogs short, but is closer to the style of "brief remark". That is, it gives some commentary and provides links. Because it refers sites and links, I would mostly think of this site as a reference tool.

4. "Librarian by day"
Librarian by day is a knowledge log that is dedicated to helping librarians jump the digital gap.
This blog has a lot going on. It offers various ways for you to stay in contact with the author. The blog's postings are series type and sticks close to its subject; teaching technology for librarians. Because she tries to teach people a trade, I would consider this a workshop blog.

5. "Davidleeking"
This blog is used to talk about library technologies. Although it appears to be a Filter blog, it also contains original information by the author. I would say it is a cross between both Filter and Knowledge. David King posting tactics combine the efforts of the brief remark and short essay. Each post contains links, but he also can be long-winded. The blog is close to a workshop blog (because he also instructs on it), but it is more of a market blog. Mr. King encourages readers to use the items he's promoting.

So in summation, these five blogs have one underlying subject; There all librarians. But they each have different ways of promoting their trade:

Name - Type - Post - Use

In the Library with a lead pipe - Knowledge Log - Long Article - Reference/Community

The Librarian's Commute - Personal Journal - Short Essay - Subject

The Distant Librarian - Filter Brief - Remark - Reference

Librarian by Day - Knowledge - Log Series - Workshop

Davidleeking - Filter/Knowledge - Brief Remark/Short Article - Marketing

All these blogs seem quite successful, but I have to say I prefer the blogs that injected multiple ways to access their site. Also, sites that incorporated different aspects of media. I would have to say that "librarian by day" and "davidleeking" both were successful at doing this. "the distant librarian" also incorporated these tools, but seem to lack the overall enthusiasm that the others put into their site. They both also included bullets, listings, and numerals. I love these in blogs, because it lets the reader get to the point. The user usually reads in a "F". That is, once across, once across briefly, than scales down. Including numbers, bolds, bullets, etc. is a good way to catch the reader's eye as they skim.

3 Library Sites:

1. "What's new @ the ASIJ HS Library"
ASIJ stands for American Students in Japan. It is a News blog for the school. The blogs appear once a month or so updating the community on the happenings at their school.

2. "Shelf Talk"
Shelf talk is a Seattle Public Library Blog that posts by subject. The site lets you browse their topics by category. It also couples as a book review site.

3. "Ohio University Libraries News and Events"
This blog updates the readers on what is going on with the library, much like the ASIJ site. It also updates you on tweets and offers a meebo chat to a librarian.

I purposely chose a library from High School, Public, and Academic domain to see the differences. The High School blog only blogged when it had information to do it with. The public library had a large demographic and dealt with it by giving multiple links and options. While the academic library also aided students. What I mainly liked from the sites:

The ASIJ High School site not only updated information for the student, but also pandered to the parent. In some of there blogs, they offered scholarship and grant information.

Shelf Talk had something for everyone. If you were a teen, it offered another blog that had teenage book reviews. It also provided several links that where like their blog. Such as libraries close to them, bookish, and sites that were affiliated with them.

Ohio Universities had a library on "meebo me" you could talk to. It also boasted a schedule of upcoming events. thus it served as a blog and as an information site.