Thing 3: Blogs

What are blogs?

Blogs are a web tool for sharing ideas, experiences and information on a regular basis

You may already have enjoyed reading a friend’s travel blog or following a blog on a topic of interest. 


Read some of the blogs listed below:

Gardening

Library news from the Wellcome Library

Library news from Oxford Health NHSFT Library service

East Dorset NHS Library Service

Nursing Times student blog
Lisainthehealthlibrary

melonthelibrarian

If you find yourself reading a blog you really enjoy, you can add comments and questions at the end of a story. In fact, most authors want readers to respond.

Read  one of the posts on the NHS England news blog; NHS Chief Executive Sir  David Nicholson is blogging about Time to think about the whole person and, if you scroll down below the "Leave a reply" section,  you can read  7 peoples comments on Sir David's post.

On the 19thingsTVW programme we are going to use blogs to reflect on our experiences of using the web tools we are exploring: 

• were the tools easy to use?
• where have you seen them being used at work or at home?  
• might you use them in your library service in the the future?
• might you use them to manage your personal information?

When you have created your blog and emailed the link to be posted on the 19thingsTVW blog,  colleagues will be able to read your posts, and possibly comment with extra ideas on using a particular web tool, and you will be able to learn from, and comment on other participants' blogs.

We are providing instructions for creating blogs using Wordpress or Blogger. If you are using Internet Explorer as your browser you will need to use Wordpress, if you use Google Chrome as your browser you can use either Wordpress or Blogger.

Creating a blog using Wordpress-use if your browser is Internet Explorer

Go to Wordpress  http://learn.wordpress.com/get-started/

Follow the link to "Create your Wordpress" account and then pick your web address.

Have a bit of fun when choosing a Username eg Dorsetdaisy or Stressedalready or Stridingahead  (remember those Hotmail addresses you had as a teenager!)

Scroll down to click on the Create Blog button (we’re not planning to spend any money!)

Go to the Get personality link and choose a free theme for your blog

Congratulations your blog exists! You are now ready to write your first reflective post.
If you want to further customize your blog follow the get configured instructions.

Creating a blog using Blogger-use if your browser is Internet Explorer or Google Chrome

Go to Blogger www.blogger.com

You will need to create a Google account if you haven't aleady got one.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a Blog using blogger
1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and sign in at the top right-hand corner with your Google account username and password. This will bring you to a sign up for Blogger screen. Some of the information may already be filled in for you (depending on what you told Google when you signed up for your account) but you will need to choose a display name and to accept the Blogger terms of service.

2. You now need to name your blog.  Have a bit of fun when choosing a Username eg Dorsetdaisy or Stressedalready or Stridingahead  (remember those Hotmail addresses you had as a teenager!)

Then choose a web address (URL) for your blog. The address has to be unique so your first choice may not be available.

3. Now choose your preferred layout template for your blog. You can change this at any point for a different one.

4. Congratulations your blog exists. You are now ready to write your first reflective post.