Day 7: Reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

Hmmm. I will start out by saying this is a lot of work! All of it. Blogging, reading blogs, and providing meaningful comments. Luckily a wise person once told me to stop watching TV. I took her advice and I have lots of time for fun things like this.

I think the key to being successful in this community is you have to manage your time well. It’s so funny how often this world reflects the real world. In the real world I would not spend hours flipping through hundreds of magazines looking for interesting articles. Instead I would pick a few favorites, read them thoroughly, and occasionally try a new one out.

For me I think blogging needs to be the same. For the past year I have subscribed to almost every library or training blog I’ve come across. That might help explain my 611 feeds. I will admit I don’t read all of them. There are a few that I read daily. The rest I skim for information. I have this fear of missing out on something. But I’ve come to realize that as long as I subscribe to a few select blogs I won’t miss anything! The biblioblogosphere is good about sharing information!

So my task will be to pare down the feeds. I am not going to unsubscribe. Instead I am going to rearrange my folders so that my favorite blogs are in their own folder and focus my time on those. I’ll also work on narrowing down my search feeds. Do I really need to see every post that has the words library and training? Probably not.

So while my reflection has little to do with the comment challenge, it sets me on the path to being able to be a better commenter by focusing my attention.

I’d love to hear from some of the other bibliobloggers who I’m sure have massive amounts of feeds. How much time do you spend a day reading feeds? Do you read all of them? Do you filter feeds with searches? What other tips can you share with the rest of us who suffer from too many blogs, too little time?

Michael Stephens, Meredith Farkas, Helene Blowers, Sarah Houghton-Jan, Jenny Levine just to name a few. Anyone else please feel free to comment too!

I’m a bit behind in the comment challenge. I’m so excited that other library folks are joining in. Meredith, Lauren, Marianne. There may be other librarians who I haven’t found yet. There are over 100 bloggers participating!

Day 1: Self Audit

• How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week? It really depends. Normally I only comment when I have something of value to say. I rarely comment just to comment. I abhor comment spam! Sometimes I’ll do a short “nice job” comment to let someone know I am reading. I found when I first started blogging that small gesture helped motivate me to keep blogging. It’s important to let people know that you are reading. Blogging is a lot of work! Here it is 10:30pm and I could be asleep but I’m here blogging. It’s nice to know that someone reads this.
• Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking? This has been a huge frustration of mine. If I comment on a blog and want to see if I have a response I either subscribe to the comment RSS feed (if there is one), or tag the post in delicious to follow up (the challenge is remembering to check my follow up tags). I’m happy to be trying a new tool as part of this challenge coComment. It seems like a lot of extra work, but maybe it will get easier as I become more familiar with it.
• Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week? It varies. There is no rhyme or reason to it.
• Review Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments and ask yourself how well you’re doing in each of the different areas. Are there any specific areas where you think you need to do some work? What do you want to do to address these issues? Yeah I’m guilty of a few of these but for the most part I’m on track. My challenge is more in finding time! I have over 600 feeds and 784 unread posts in bloglines right now. Maybe it’s time to weed my feeds!

Day 2: Comment on a new blog

I commented on EdTech Workshop. Andrea wrote about her challenges with coComment and I replied to let her know I’d had the same challenges. Not the most exciting comment in the world but at least she knows she is not alone. It’s all about community! It’s also cool that she is a teacher in the area where I went to school. It’s a small world!

Day 3: Sign up for a comment tracking service

Signed up for coComment. You can find me here if you have an account. If you don’t have an account, it’s free.

Day 4: Ask a question

I asked a question on Michele’s site about getting coComment to work. It turned out that Marianne Lenox and I tested things among ourselves and we answered my question. This is the thing about comments on blogs. If you allow them, you need to read them and respond to them. I was in the habit of emailing each new commenter to thank him or her for commenting. I need to get back on track with that. It’s a good habit and helps build community!

Day 5: Comment on a post you disagree with

Ironically I commented on Meredith’s post about the comment challenge and what started out as a “hey cool your doing the comment challenge” turned into me sharing a different point of view about a comment Meredith made on another blog. Maybe this shouldn’t count. I don’t disagree with her, but I like to play devil’s advocate sometimes.

Day 6: Engage another commenter in a discussion

I’m still working on that. Originally I thought this was engage the blogger in a discussion via comments. But as I type this I realize it is engage another commenter. That’s more challenging because you don’t want to hijack a post. Here are two discussions that I have tried to generate in comments: Banning Babies from the Library, Staying Organized. If you have time, please join in!

With that I think I’m caught up for the week! p.s. It’s not too late to join the challenge and become a better blogger.

From one of my favorite bloggers Michele Martin comes the 31 day comment challenge. Michele writes,

Comments are the lifeblood of blogging and for new bloggers, they can be the difference between sticking it out for the long haul and throwing in the towel.

I couldn’t agree more with this! Comments, linkbacks, and trackbacks are how I’ve “met” many of friends out in the biblioblogosphere. Most library systems are lucky to have one or even two dedicated trainers for staff. I remember being so frustrated a few years ago about not having anyone to bounce ideas around with. That’s why I am so thankful that I have been able to connect with other library trainers learning facilitators through all the cool Web 2.0 tools.

So I hope you will join Marianne and me in the challenge. Details about the 2008 31 Day Comment Challenge can be found here. There are a lot of educators and a few marketing professionals participating so this is a great chance to read about a variety of topics. There are even a few classes participating. I can’t wait to see what the students blog about.

Looks like May will be busy!

Dear “Friend” Who Posted a Naked Picture on my Facebook Wall,Sorry but I’ve had to delete your post on my wall. I appreciate the thought (even though you posted the same naked picture on all of your “friends” walls). It’s not that I have anything against nudity but it’s just not funny, and I can’t say it’s something I want my dad to see on my profile or my boss or my co-workers or a potential employer.
-Your “Friend” Lori

Have you ever thought about what all your social sites combined say about you? Do you care?

I am very aware that my online persona says a lot about me. With every blog post, every Bloglines subscription, every tweet, every del.icio.us tag I make a conscious choice. What does this say about me? Is this public or private? Which account does this belong to?

I’m glad that I’m not the only one who thinks before tweeting. Here’s a great post on Remarkablogger What Picture Do Your Social Media Activities Paint about You?

Does this sound like too much work? It’s really not. Both Bloglines and del.icio.us allow you to mark posts as private. There are also tools like Meebo and twhirl that let you manage multiple IM and Twitter accounts.

Many employers Google search candidates before hiring them and now many employers are going directly to social networking sites to perform searches as well. When you add up all your social networking sites it paints a permanent picture. What does your picture say about you?

I joined LinkedIn a few months ago at the invitation of a colleague. My first thought was, “Can I really manage another social networking site?” But I have been pleasantly surprised by LinkedIn. It seems to be geared to those looking for a job or making business contacts.

I’ve connected with a few librarians who I have never met (not in person anyway) like A-list blogging librarian Sarah Houghton-Jan. I’ve even been contacted by a few friends of friends who are applying for jobs at PLCMC.

Once you set up your profile and make some connections, it’s interesting to see how close we are all connected. Remember the six degrees of separation? LinkedIn works a little like that.

For instance Sarah is listed as a 1st level connection for me. I can browse her connections and see that she is connected to Stephen Abram. So now Abram is listed as a 2nd level connection for me through Sarah.

My favorite part of LinkedIn is the Q&A. You can throw a question out there about anything and get some really good responses from people all around the world in all different professions. Answers are ranked by the person who asked the question. Each question has a “best answer” selected.

I have selected the areas that interest me and subscribed to them via RSS feeds. I mostly just read the responses to questions that interest me, but occasionally a questions gets put out there that I can’t resist answering. It must be my inner-librarian! I made it a mini-goal for 2008 to have at least one answer selected as a best answer.

I was surprised to log in yesterday and see that I scored two best answers this week! One in the area of Occupational Training and one in the area of Professional Networking…and the year is only 1/12th of the way over!

So my question to you is, do you use LinkedIn and how do you use it?

I’ll admit it. I’m a total New Years Resolutions junkie. As far back as I can remember I’ve spent every New Year’s Eve journaling about the past year and setting goals for the new year. There’s something about the feeling of a clean slate that I like. I know that it’s just an arbitrary day on the calendar, but since we celebrate it I figure I may as well take full advantage of it.

Facebook has a cool app that lets you share your goals so your friends can give you some encouragement.

Yet another reason to love Facebook!

p.s. I’m already registered for that Spanish class!

Last year I developed a low-tech way to demonstrate commenting and tagging during a follow-up class on Learning 2.0. We found some funny pictures, taped them to a few flip charts, and gave everyone in the class some post it notes to write down their comments and labels for the pictures. On one of the flip charts we left the post it notes up for everyone to see (Web 2.0). On another flip chart we removed the post it notes as soon as they were posted (Web 1.0).It was fun and useful in a few ways. It was an easy way to get the concept across to the learners. It also gave everyone a chance to get up and move around–which is always good in after lunch training session.Today I came across this clip on YouTube that explains tagging. This is so well-done using just some scraps of paper that have been cut out! The first thing I thought was, “Why didn’t I think of that!” They’ve actually done a lot of clips like this, so it is worth checking out and seems like it would be a good way to introduce folks to some of the more intimidating 2.0 stuff.

A new Flickr group has been created for North Carolina Libraries. If you have any photos of NC Libraries add the tag “NC Libraries” and they will show up in the group. You can also join the group by clicking the “Join Group” link on the bottom right corner of the screen once you are logged in and viewing the group.

Michael Stephens at Tame the Web posted a link to a great training video put together by Allen County Public Library on using their new phone system.

Ironically in our 24th Thing workshops this week the tool most suggested by staff for implementation by PLCMC was YouTube! Ideas from participants included posting training videos for staff and patrons, story times, programs, speakers, etc.

Here’s a library that’s already done it and did a great job too!