Monday 20 June 2011

Thing 2: Investigate some other blogs

(This is Thing 2 in the programme. If you've not done so already, start off at Thing 1, here.)

Now you've set off with your own blogging, it's time to meet the neighbours: see who else is taking part and what they're saying. 

First of all, you need to let other people know that you're taking part.  Do that by completing the 23 Things for Professional Development registration form.

Screenshot of the cpd23 Delicious bookmarks
At the time of writing we already have over 100 blogs signed up: you can see an alphabetical list on our participants page. You probably don't have time to visit them all, so you can refine your choices using the country and sector tags on our Delicious bookmarks. EDITED 29/9/11 After recent changes to Delicious, our participants are now also listed on Diigo, where they are currently easier to browse.

If you think you've signed up, but don't appear in the Delicious list after a day or two, leave a comment here and we'll check what's happened.

Now, make sure that people can comment on your blog. In Blogger, look in the 'settings' tab for the 'comments' option. It's a good idea to say yes to 'show word verification for comments', because that helps to stop spam comments. If you say yes to 'comment moderation', you will receive an email (to the address specified) when someone comments - and you will have to approve the comment before it appears publicly on your blog.

Lastly, go and visit some blogs, read some posts and leave some comments to let the authors know what you thought. What did you enjoy about their post? Do you have similar or contrasting experience to share?

Being able to comment and discuss ideas is what makes blogging - and social media in general - so useful and valuable as a tool for personal and professional development. Comments on your own blog can offer advice and support, they might point you towards useful resources, or they might challenge your opinions and help you refine your arguments. By commenting on other people's blog you're likely to think more deeply about what you've read and what you think about an issue, you'll also be able to share some of your expertise, and you'll get your face (or, at least your moniker) more widely known.  It can be daunting to comment on the blog of someone you may never have met, but do take the plunge, even if it's just to say hello, or to say that you enjoyed a post.

To finish Thing 2, once you've explored the cpd23 neighbourhood a little, write a post on your blog about what you've read and who you've met.

Further Reading:
If you'd like to investigate the wider world of library and librarian blogging, then why not investigate the UK Library Blogs/Bloggers Wiki, and if you know of similar sources from librarians elsewhere in the world, let us know in the comments.

EDITED 29 Sep. 2011: Delicious has implemented a lot of changes in the last few days which make it pretty hard to navigate the cpd23 blogs.  You can now browse the participants on Diigo, a different bookmarking site.

36 comments:

  1. Hi,
    your link "participants page" doesn't work. :)
    Great programme, by the way!

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  2. Hi learningdutch

    Thanks for spotting that, it should work now. And the participants' list has grown too: 350+!

    Enjoy the programme!

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  3. Wow, well done, what a brilliant start!

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  4. I have set up a blog, registered it on this site and then subsequently changed both the title and the URL - the consequences of an indecisive nature I'm afraid. Is there a way that I can change what I submitted when I registered?

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  5. I'm on the Delicious list (librarianoftomorrow.wordpress.com) but my sector isn't tagged. I work for the Guardian so I guess I'd be media and corporate? Thanks!

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  6. Can I be cheeky and ask for my blog (Palely Loitering) to be tagged with the HE tag? As my workplace is a law college as opposed to a law firm. Cheers :-D

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  7. I have created an account in www.blogger.com and posted a blog but I can't register for this course as I don't remember my URL! How can I access that information again?

    Pritpal

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  8. Hi Pritpal,

    Your blog URL will be visible in the address bar of your browser whenever you're looking at your blog (not at the Blogger pages, but at the actual blog as other people see it), If you remember your login information, log in to Blogger, and click on 'View blog'. Then copy the URL from the browser address bar, and then you can paste that into the form. Hope that helps.

    Katie

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  9. Hi,

    There are so many participants that it is hard to choose a few blogs to follow! Perhaps it would be a good idea to add more tags to the Delicious page? I would particularly like to find other Graduate Trainees and LIS students :)

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  10. Hi Amans Librorum,

    I know - there are a lot, aren't there? We weren't honestly expecting quite so many. Going through and tagging in more detail will be quite a task (we could yet recruit volunteers, I guess). At the moment we're just going with what people enter on the form: trying to group together similar types but reflect the variety, too. For the time being the 'researcher/student' tag will be your best bet - it's a shame we haven't tagged trainees separately. Sorry.

    Katie

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  11. Hi Katie,

    My original Blog title was just my name and although I changed it not long afterwards, it still remains on the participants list in it's previous form. I don't think this is a problem from an access point of view, but it's possible that I might appear more interesting if my revised name shows! (or perhaps not!)

    Angie (AngleD)

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  12. Hi there
    I registered my blog with you but can't seem to see it on the delicious page yet? My blog is Librarians--Great Britain--Correspondence at http://durcan.blogspot.com/. Apologies if you are still working your way through backlog, as I can see you have quite a lot of participants!
    thanks
    Sophie

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  13. Angela,

    I've changed your listing to 'AngleD'.

    Sophie,

    You're definitely there. You're tagged with UK and the HE/University... tags.

    Katie

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  14. Hi

    I've registered, but I don't think I'm listed in the Delicious bookmarks.

    Laurel

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  15. Laurel,

    You are listed - tagged with UK, as you didn't leave any sector information on the form. I can add further tags if you'd like.

    Katie

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  16. Wow, I am so amazed at how many people are taking part - and from all over the world too. It's rather exciting! Just wanted to say thanks, and that I'm enjoying being a part of it :)

    http://jothelibrarian.tumblr.com

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  17. This was a fun exercise. It was good mix of people.
    http://theantiquarianlibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/06/thing-2-investigate-some-other-blogs.html

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  18. Thank you v much! sorry, must have managed to miss it

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  19. Hi CPD23ers!

    I've changed my blog name from 'The Mathom House' to 'Mathom Houser'. Blame Thing 3!

    Could you re-list my blog as 'Mathom Houser', under 'M'?

    Also make sure I'm tagged with 'HE', 'UK', 'Wales'.

    Thanks guys!

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  20. Mathom Houser is duly noted.

    Katie

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  21. Thanks Katie, that's great.

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  22. In found my link on the delicious page but the tags are slightly wrong. I work in both Public and HE, in the UK, Wales. Is this something I can change myself?

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  23. Hi Gem,

    I've added Wales to your tags - all the others were there OK. Owing to the number of people signing up we've only really had time to go with what people put on the registration form, whereas in an ideal world we'd have been gleaning all relevant and useful info from the blogs themselves.

    Katie

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  24. Yet another request to alter the delicious bookmarks please. I've changed Libraries social Care and Research which was at http://librariessocialcareandresearch.blogspot.com/ to The Archivarian at http://thearchivarian.blogspot.com
    Please could it have a "research library" tag too.
    Thanks very much

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  25. Hi,
    I keep having an error message when I try to post comments on other peoples blogs "Your current account does not have access to view this page" (Including this blog, which is why I'm anonymous).
    I thought I had successfully signed up to Blogger, and I'm using my Google sign in details, but it asks me to change to another account (which I don't have).

    Any ideas?

    Also, I haven't appeared on the Delicious bookmarks. My blog is called Emma's CPD23 and the URL is http://milnesies.blogspot.com/.

    Sorry!
    Emma

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  26. Hi Emma,

    You should be on the Delicious list now - sorry for the delay (I've just been away for a few days).

    I tried searching for that error message, and it seems that you're not the only one. There are some suggsted solutions here - http://www.google.bg/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=45b50900588be135&hl=en - which might help?

    Katie

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  27. I don't think I want to participate, how do I delete everything and remove my blog? MJB

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  28. I'm sorry the programme wasn't for you. We'd be interested in your feedback anyway, either by email (profdev23 at gmail dot com) or through a feedback form which will go up in October when the Things are all up.

    To delete a blog using the old Blogger interface (I think it was orange and blue?), log in to your blog, go to Settings - Basic and click 'Delete blog'.

    In the new look Blogger (mostly white screen, matching more with other Google services), go to Settings - Other and click 'Delete blog'.

    Thanks for trying it out!

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  29. Hi
    Have you seen what has happened to Delicious? I went to look at the other CPD23 participants and it's practically impossible to find anyone. The tags are all gone and you now have to go through each page individually to find participants.

    My own Delicious account is also in a mess. How much do we have to do to make our accounts usable again?

    http://nikki-musingsfromalibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/09/delicious-tasteless.html

    PS To help Anonymous (Emma) above, I encounter the same problem at work. I think it's something to do with cookies in IE. My gmail profile does not carry across to new tabs in IE on a work PC and so I become Anonymous (I hate it, such a common person and almost as common as Trad.!) My profile does carry across at home however and I consequently write most of my comments at home.

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  30. Hi Nikki,

    Yes - we've seen what's happened to Delicious. It's a lesson for us all about trusting online 'cloud' resources. It's not clear what's going to happen with Delicious - how much of the old functionality they'll add back, for example. Keep an eye on Phil Bradley's blog for tips, and advice about alternatives: http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2011/09/years-to-build-up-delicious-one-day-to-wreck-it.html

    Katie

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  31. I know I'm late to the party but I don't seem to have been added to Diigo - are you still adding people to this?

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  32. Hi Lady_Libris,

    I've not added people to Diigo for a bit - sorry. But I'm going to do a batch at the weekend. Apologies for the delay.

    Katie

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  33. No problem, I didn't know how much it would be updated after the 23 things had been put up.

    Thanks

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