Web 2.0 Training @ University of Waterloo Library

Learning objectives

At the end of this module you will:

• Understand what a blog is
• Know how to create a blog and post to the blog
• Understand why people/institutions have blogs
• Have ideas on what blogs you may want to read

What is a blog?
A weblog (or “blog”) is a format for publishing content on the web. Blogs are, quite simply, web-based logs of information that have the following features in common:

• content that is organized in reverse chronological order, with the most recent entry appearing at the top of the Web page;
• a date and timestamp to indicate when the content was published to the blog;
• archives that are automatically generated by the blog software

For examples of a blog see:
Digital reference
Library of Congress blog

The blog format began with the simple “What’s New” pages that littered the Web in the early days of web publishing. The blog format was formalized when web/tech savvy individuals began writing their own programs to make it easier and quicker to publish these sorts of pages, where it was important that current content appeared at the top of the page. Once these programmers made this software freely available online, the now widely-used blog format was born.

Blogging Software

There are 2 types of blogging software tools out there: hosted and installed.

Hosted blogs allow users to sign up for an account and a free blog. The company providing the software usually takes care of everything for you, and all you have to do is choose a name for your blog and write! To introduce you to blogging in a quick and easy way we will be using a hosted service, Blogger, for this module.

Installed blogging services provide you with software that you can download to your Web server. Installed software tends to be more powerful and gives you more control over the functionality and look & feel of your blog. The University of Waterloo Library has installed Wordpress which is the software used to design the site for this training program.

Why blogs?

Why should I care about blogs?
Millions of people are blogging and more are reading blogs. Blogs are a quick and easy way to publish to the web without knowing HTML programming or waiting on a webmaster to post information for you. They are simple to create and maintain. As an added bonus your readers can subscribe to your blog so that you don’t even need to alert people when you add new content! (you will learn about subscribing to blogs in Module 2)

Blogs are ideal for current awareness, news items and commentary. They can be fairly informal and can handle text, hyperlinks, photos, videos and other multimedia files.

How can I use blogs in the library?

Library staff can use blogs to promote library events, services and resources, to invite comments from library users and to exchange ideas with each other or with library users. Blogs can provide a forum for communicating project updates. Of course, you can also create personal blogs on any subject imaginable!

Library staff can read blogs written by others to keep up to date with trends in the library world.

Examples of academic library blogs:
Georgia State University Library
SciTech Library News
Gov Docs on the Bayou
Lakehead University - Orillia Campus Library

Examples of blogs that may be of interest to information desk staff:
Association of College & Research Libraries blog
The Kept-Up Academic Librarian
Confessions of a Science Librarian
Information Literacy Weblog

Accessibility in a Web 2.0 World

If you decide to create a library blog, don’t forget to think about accessibility issues, for example, including alternative text for images. See Accessibility Resources at the end of this module for tips on making your blog accessible.

Activities:

Ready to start blogging? Good, because Activity 1 is to set up your own blog and add your first post!

Activity 1: (video of activity 1)

In this exercise you will be using the website Blogger to create your own blog.

• Use Blogger to set up your own blog. It is a free, hosted blogging tool where you can set up an account and start a blog.
Click the “create your own blog now” link.
• Your blog address will be http://nameyouchoose.blogpost.com.
• If you already have a blog and would like to use it to track your progress during this programme, feel free to do so!
• How you choose to identify yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself.
• Once you’ve set up your blog, go ahead and add your first post!

The content of your first post can be anything you’d like; one idea would be to simply introduce yourself!

If you want to receive a certificate at the end of the Web 2.0 training, please send the URL for your blog to libweb20@library…

Activity 2 (optional)

Post a comment to the Web 2.0 blog on what you thought of this activity.

Accessibility Resources

8 tips for accessible blogging

How to make your blog accessible to blind readers

WCAG 2.0 Checklist

Information on the coming Accesibility standards for Ontario

Other resources (optional):

List of library-related blogs

Blogs in Plain English video

• Anatomy of a Blog
• Blog, Wikipedia article
• The Ethical Blogger - Karen Schneider
• Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library’s Services - Darlene Fichter
• 7 Things you should know about blogs

Acknowledgments
This post is based on The Learning 2.0@Mac program.

Learning objectives

• Understand what RSS is
• Know what an RSS aggregator is
• Know how to find RSS feeds
• Understand how RSS feeds can be used in the library

Last week we looked at blogs, and since most of you have already set up your own blogs, you might have encountered the term “RSS”. Or perhaps you’ve seen one of these icons during your web travels:

Well, this week is all about demystifying RSS! Read on for an introduction to the technology, some ideas on how you can use it, a few links to RSS search engines and directories, an explanation of this week’s activities, and finally some optional readings for those who would like to explore a little further!

What is RSS?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is an XML file format for delivering content on the web. You will also find RSS referred to as “web feeds” or just “feeds”. A good way to understand RSS feeds is to think about them as magazine subscriptions: rather than having to frequently visit the newsstand to check for a new issue of your favourite magazine, you can just subscribe to it and sit back & wait for the new issues to come to you. RSS works the same way. If your favourite website publishes an RSS feed, you don’t have to keep visiting it to find fresh content; you can just subscribe to the RSS feed and wait for that fresh content to come to you. And, unlike magazine subscriptions, RSS is free!

If you’re feeling brave and would like to have a look at what an RSS file looks like, click here. Yes, that looks like a bunch of scary code, but the good news is, you shouldn’t ever have to look at that code (unless you want to!), because that’s what RSS aggregators do.

What are RSS aggregators?
RSS aggregators are applications that read RSS feeds. An aggregator will take an RSS feed (like the one linked above) and convert all that coding into something that is readable, with a defined title, formatting, and hypertext links that you can click on. The other important feature of an aggregator is the built-in update function that checks the feeds you’ve subscribed to for fresh, new content. If new content is found, your aggregator delivers that to you.

Example of an aggregator

Aggregators come in a few different flavours:

• Desktop: these are software applications that required downloading and installation on a computer.
• Web-based: online aggregators live on the web and require users to set up a username and password to access them. To access a web-based aggregator, you go to the site, login, and read your feeds online. The advantage of web-based aggregators is that you can access them from multiple computers (home, work, service desks, etc.). Two popular web-based aggregators are Bloglines and Google Reader.
• Browser-based: the latest versions of many browsers (like Firefox and Internet Explorer 7) include the ability to subscribe to and read RSS feeds right in the browser.

So, how does it work, exactly?
If a website publishes a feed, it is usually indicated on the site in at least one of the following ways:

• a hyperlinked orange icon (three examples are included at the beginning of this post);
• a link called “RSS” or “XML” or “Subscribe” (or some variation thereof);

Most often, when you want to subscribe to a feed, you have to right-click the link to the feed (which, again, can be indicated by either an orange icon or a text link), select “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut”, and add the link to your aggregator. Specific instructions for subscribing to feeds in Bloglines and Google Reader are included below under Activity #2.

Finding Feeds

• Directories & Search Engines: yes, there are search engines and subject directories devoted JUST to RSS feeds! Check out RSS Compendium for a list of sites. These types of sites allow you to do a keyword search and bring up results with easy-to-grab links to RSS feeds that you can subscribe to. Also, most web-based aggregators include an RSS search engine, so when you set up an account in Bloglines/Google Reader (this week’s Activity #1), you can use either of their search engines to find feeds.
• Serendipity: chances are, you probably won’t remember how you found most of the feeds that end up in your aggregator because most of your subscriptions will probably result from your general web meanderings! When you’re on a web site and you’re wondering if they publish an RSS feed, remember to look for the orange RSS icons or for a link labeled “RSS”, “XML” or “Subscribe”.

How can I use RSS feeds in the library?

You can use your knowledge of RSS feeds to:

• Teach students & faculty how to use the RSS feed functionality in Primo and other databases to receive updates on their research topics
• Subscribe to blogs related to your work or your interests, for example the academic library blogs from Module 1
• Subscribe to news feeds such as the Daily Bulletin

Activities

Are you ready to try things out? Work through the activities below to set up your own account with either Bloglines or Google Reader and get started on adding some RSS feeds! But before beginning, view this short video to see what’s ahead!

#1 The first activity for the week is to set up an account on either Bloglines or Google Reader.

Both aggregators offer similar features and functionality and the choice between the two usually comes down to personal preference. If you need some help deciding between the two, take a look at this article or contact your the Web 2.0 training team for guidance. Or, if you feel like exploring, set up accounts on both sites, play around in them (once you’ve added some feeds, which is Activity #2 for this week), get a feel for the interfaces, and decide for yourself!

#2 Once you’ve set yourself up with an aggregator (Activity #1), you’re going to need some feeds to subscribe to!

Start by subscribing to the feed for this blog. The feed for this blog is located at http://blogs.uwaterloo.ca/web20/feed/. To subscribe to it, right-click the feed URL, select “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut”, open up your aggregator, and subscribe to the feed using one of these methods:

If you know the URLs for any of your colleagues’ blogs subscribe to their feeds! To find their feed addresses, you will have to visit the blog and look for one of those RSS icons or an RSS/Subscribe link.

Still looking for more feeds to subscribe to? Check out one or two of the RSS search engines or directories described above to find feeds of interest to you & subscribe to a few of those feeds.
Make sure to visit your aggregator at least a couple of times this week to check for new content in the feeds you’ve subscribed to! (you’ll be surprised at how addictive RSS feed-reading can become!) And don’t forget to blog about your experiences using these tools!

If you want to receive a certificate at the end of the Web 2.0 training, please send a screen shot of your feed reader to libweb20@library… To create a screen shot either use the program “Snag it” or you can use your keyboard command ALT + Print Screen to capture the image.

Further Readings (optional)
• RSS for Non-Techie Librarians, Steven M. Cohen
• Blogging and RSS: The “What’s It” and “How To” of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators, Will Richardson
• Keeping Up by Using RSS, Roy Tennant
• RSS in Plain English, Common Craft Video
• 7 Things You Should Know About RSS, Educause

Acknowledgments
This post is based on The Learning 2.0@Mac program.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, you will:

• understand the basic features of social bookmarking
• know how to create your own social bookmarking account
• know how to upload bookmarks from your computer to the social bookmarking site
• understand some of the uses of social bookmarking
• understand the social aspect of social bookmarking
• have developed ideas about the usefulness of social bookmarking in the library and for your own personal use

What is a Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is a web based version of your own “favorites” or “bookmarks” section of your web browser. Instead of being computer based, these are web based. This allows you access to your bookmarks from anywhere with an internet connection and browser. A major advantage is that you do not have to remember which computer you saved your bookmarks. They are all always available (from any computer in the library and also at home or while travelling).

Another aspect of social bookmarking is the manner in which you may organize your bookmarks. You can assign “Tags” to your bookmarks. This allows you to sort your bookmarks and also share them with others using the same social bookmarking software. For example, if you are interested in library instruction, you could do a search within del.ic.ious. and get a listing of web sites that have been given the tags of “library instruction”. For this section we will look at individuals that have tagged the University of Waterloo Library Homepage.

What’s the difference? Choosing the right social bookmarking site

Del.ic.ious is one of the more popular sites and the one that we will be using for this section. A larger (though not comprehensive list) follows. If you are interested, try out several of the social bookmarking sites.

• del.icio.us - popular social bookmarking site. User tagged (search without quote marks).
• Connotea - “Free online reference management for all researchers, clinicians and scientists”. User tagged .
• CiteULike - “a free online source to organise your academic papers”. User tagged.
• google - Keyworded.
• dogpile - compiles searches from many search engines. Keyworded.
• zuula - compiles searches from many search engines. Keyworded.
• kartoo - outputs sites visually as a series of “maps”. Keyworded with interelationship of terms shown.

How can I use social bookmarking in the library?

Social bookmarking will allow you to have all of your selected bookmarks travel with you. It will also allow you to share bookmarks with students and co-workers easily and efficiently. You no longer need to e-mail links, you can just let people discover ones in your profile.

Activities:

Activity #1 Create your account on del.ic.ious (video of activity 1)

Register at del.icio.us . (Pay attention to the password requirements)

Activity #2 install the Firefox extension or toolbar buttons (video of activity 2)

Install the Firefox extension, or the buttons on your toolbar.

If you are using Internet Explorer in the library then you may need to call the Help Desk to install the buttons for you. However, Firefox should allow you to install without administrative rights.

Activity #3 import/add a bookmark and tag it (video of activity 3)

Select one of the bookmarks on your computer (or library home page www.lib.uwaterloo.ca ) using one of these options

• Right clicking on the link to the page and selecting “tag this link”
• Going to the page and then going to the top of your browser and selecting the “deli.cio.us” menu and choosing “tag this page”
• Going to the page and then choosing the “post to del.icio.us” button at the top of the page
• Going to your account at del.icio.us and selecting “post” and pasting in the URL

Add a description. Often cutting and pasting a paragraph from the page saved is useful.

Add tag(s) and save.

Next time you are on a webpage you would like to save for later or find again, save it to del.icio.us.

Activity #4 add this page as a bookmark

If you want to receive a certificate at the end of the Web 2.0 training, please send a screen shot of your Delicious page to libweb20@library… To create a screen shot either use the program “Snag it” or you can use your keyboard command ALT + Print Screen to capture the image.

IF YOU WANT MORE:
1. Check out the items saved under other accounts
2. Check out who else has saved the University of Waterloo library homepage and click on their profiles to see what else they have saved.

Other resources:

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Acknowledgments

This post is based on The Learning 2.0@Mac program.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, you will:

• understand the basic features of a wiki
• know how to create your own wiki and how to add content to an existing wiki
• understand when and why you would want to use a wiki
• understand when a wiki is a more suitable tool to use than any other Web 2.0 application
• have developed ideas about the usefulness of wikis in a library

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, and otherwise collaboratively edit and change content that can be quickly published to the web. This ease of interaction and use makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring. You do not need to know HTML to edit a wiki (although many allow for the use of HTML editing) and all you need to edit a wiki is an internet connection and a web browser.

There are numerous kinds of “wiki software” or “wiki engines”; these can vary widely in look and functionality. Features common to most wiki software include: Recent activity display, discussion or comment features, and varying degrees of access / edit permissions for users, WYSIWYG [What You See Is What You Get] editing and edit history.

Wiki software can be downloaded and installed on a private network; you can even get your own personal desktop wiki! (Such as MoinMoin Desktop), but most wiki users go to a Wiki farm. A Wiki Farm is a server or a collection of servers that provides wiki hosting. Wiki farms allow users to quickly sign-up and establish their own wiki with no software downloads either for free or for a nominal change (free wikis are supported by revenue from advertising).

What’s the difference? Choosing the right wiki

TWiki, WetPaint, Stikipad, PHPWiki, SeedWiki, PBWiki, Wikispaces, MoinMoin, Netcipia… with all these different wikis to choose from you might have a difficult time deciding which wiki is most suited to your project. A tool you might find useful for comparing the features of various wikis is Wikimatrix. The Wikimatrix website has several useful features for comparing any number of more than 80 wiki engines listed.

So what are some of the features common to Wikis & what are some differences?

• Wikis allow you to assign different access permissions to different users. The site creator (Administrator) can assign other Administrators or Moderators to the Wiki.
• Many wikis are tiered with both free accounts and ‘premium memberships’ that often have added features such as a higher page limits or greater storage capacity.
• Pages edit history & Revert. Wikis allow users to view the history of specific pages. Wikis typically have a revert feature that allows those with sufficient access permissions to rollback a page to an earlier edit.
• WYSIWYG. Wikis have “What You See Is What You Get” editors that make it easy for anyone to contribute!

Why Wikis?

Why do I care about wikis?
A wiki is the best tool to use when individuals want to collaborate on a project or document. Wikis are also very easy to use. Anyone who can create a Word document, can quickly and easily create, contribute to, or edit a wiki.

How can I use wikis in the library?
There are numerous examples of ways in which wikis have been used in libraries to foster collaborative writing projects.

• Wetpaint has been used to create a quick reference tool named “Digital Reference Shelf” which allows reference staff to add links to online reference sources that can be quickly accessed at the desk.
• PBWiki has been used assist in the development process of the new catalogue (Endeca Information Access Platform).

What wikis are most applicable to my work?
Of particular interest to those in the library field is the comprehensive list of library-related wikis at LISWiki. Especially useful for library staff is Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki . Another great wiki is the Blogging Libraries Wiki, which provides a comprehensive list of library blogs.

What wikis may be of interest to information desk staff?
Our own At the Info Desk Wiki is filled with useful information. For reviews of Reference Sources, see Butler University’s Butler WikiRef

What wikis may be of interest to students?
WikiIndex is a wiki that identifies and describes wikis on a variety of topics. Students looking for leisure reading suggestions can consult IRead Wiki, and those looking for readalike authors can go to Readalike Wiki. And, of course, students should consult the most famous wiki of them all — Wikipedia – for background information on topics.

Accessibility in a Web 2.0 World

If you decide to create a library wiki, don’t forget to think about accessibility issues, for example, including alternative text for images. See Accessibility Resources at the end of this module for tips on making your wiki accessible.

How do I add content to a wiki or create my own wiki?:

Click here for a three-minute video on how to use a wiki.

Activities

Activity 1
The first activity is to add a list of your favourite books to a wiki. A test wiki called “My Favourite Books” has already been created in PBWiki. You can access it by clicking on the link: http://libstafffavouritebooks.pbwiki.com/

Anyone can read the wiki I created, but only individuals who log in can edit it. To log in, type pdewan@library.uwaterloo.ca for the email address, and library2 for the password. (The “log in” link is located in the top right corner of the wiki.)

Add a page, listing a few of your favourite books. How? Create a new page in the wiki by clicking on the “create a page” link (top right area of the page). Name your page, click “create page,” and start typing (or copy and paste anything from your computer). Click save. Yes, it is that easy!

To add your page name to the table of contents, just click “edit” on the front page, and click on the name of your page (look over to the right for it). Click save. Voila!

Try changing the font size and colour.

Activity 2
This time try creating your own wiki from scratch. Go to https://secure.pbwiki.com/signup.wiki and follow the online instructions. As the name PBWiki indicates, the creation of a wiki is as easy as peanut butter. In the comments section, let me what you think about wikis.

Activity 3 (totally optional for those who would like to work with a second type of wiki)
Try using another no-cost wiki engine — Wetpaint. Click on the test wiki: http://libstafffavouritemovies.wetpaint.com To add a page with your favourite movies, click on the link “add page” (it’s at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar). Name your page; click “easy edit” and add your movies. (A pop-up box appears that allows you to add an edit note if you wish. I chose “skip edit note.”) Try adding a picture by clicking on the picture icon.

If you wish to receive a certificate for completing the Web 2.0 training, please send the a screen shot of the favourite book page you created in activity 1 to libweb20@library…

Accessibility Resources

WCAG 2.0 Checklist

Information on the coming Accesibility standards for Ontario

Other Resources (optional):

Video (4 minutes)
LeFever, L. (2007). Wikis in Plain English.

Articles
7 things you should know about wikis (2005, July). Educause.

Chawner, B., & Lewis, P.H. (2006). Wiki wiki webs? New ways to communicate in a web environment. Information Technology and Libraries, 25(1), 33-43.

Clyde, L. (2005). Wikis. Teacher Librarian, 32(4), 54–56.

Farkas, M. G. (2005). Using wikis to create online communities. Web Junction.

Singel, R. (2006). Veni, vidi, wiki. Wired News.

Acknowledgments

This post is based on The Learning 2.0@Mac program.