I really had fun searching for library blogs - this assignment made me evaluate multiple factors that come into play to make a successful blog .
For example, the Waterboro Public Library has a nice blog with lots of information about local events, famous personalities, book reviews etc but it is updated infrequently and had no link to the library home page. That totally put me off the site - the least a library blog should have is a link to the library home page.
So, I decided to look father and I found another site where they had white text on a light blue background - need I say more - it was too much strain on eyes to even consider reading the blog.
Then I found the Marin Country Library Blog - really liked it - the background was nice and soothing to the eyes, information was current, archives were provided and the blog had a link to the purpose of the blog, allowed subscriptions to RSS and Atom XML feeds (more importantly explained what they were and how they could be used). Well!! before I could post my entry to the blog I decided to see what other people were doing - and I see Sharon's posting and she already reviewed this blog :-( - needless to say I decided not to view anymore postings before finished updating my blog .. and my pursuit of an interesting blog continued and I found...
Binghamton University Libraries Science Library Blog - Like the look of the blog - it is catering to a science clientele - the page is uncluttered, frequently updated with relevant topics, has a calendar on the right highlighting update dates for the month, allows search and sorting by categories, information about contributors, archives, RSS. I believe if I was a science student I would have frequently used the blog to get latest information which I guess fulfils the purpose the Science Library Blog - its users like it and want to visit it for information!!
3 comments:
Do you know, since you liked some things about it, I looked at Waterboro's blog and it had two very recent postings. I thought the "h2oboro" was cute; it took me a minuter to recall that H2O is water. Also I found the library's website's site map on the sidebar, after some scanning.
Exactly!! the link to the library's website should be prominent!!
I thought the Waterloo blog offered a good deal of information, but it makes a poor presentation. Better to use one of the full templates such as those in Blogger or WordPress. They offer a more professional look right 'out of the box.'
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