(Flickr)

And so in the 11th hour before my deadline date, I post one last post about Blogs. It may not be my finale forever, because I realize I have enjoyed posting in this post post-Modern world of web, one that I will never fully understand or enjoy.

But deep down

there seems to be a tiny place

where words race and lace

together with the tap of a key,

in a cyber-place that feels free to

implode explode reload

and find a space to be.

And so my blogs from here on in will

become the ‘real’ me,

the ‘virtual’ me and be

most likely – poetry.

But although I would like to go on

for eternity posting in verse

(I hope less rhyme than free!!),

this last one is for you, Susie…

because it is required of me!!

I want to share a quote with you from The Library At Night by Alberto Manguel:

“…every library is…an incomplete creation, a work in progress, and every empty shelf announces a book to come. And yet it is for those empty spaces that we hoard knowledge.”

These words embody the life struggle of the post-modern library as it attempts to go online and it sees the empty spots where the ‘virtual’ influences the ‘real’, and has begun to affect print collections world-wide. Now an international issue affecting libraries and archives, the digital world does not entirely threaten the physical library because digital options can be extremely costly, time-consuming and certain instituions are just better ‘live’! Let’s look at one of these libraries in relation to Library 2.0 and the Blog.

In the late hours of this dark night I stumble upon the Art Institute of Dallas Library Blog aka AI Dallas; and my first thought is: what do Dallas and Art and the Blog have in common; they seem a veritable mix of things that mesh and mash. And so I dig deeply….

Firstly, it is unfortunate that Dallas did not produce a Blog more similar to the Yale Art Blog – which is simple, functional, designed with an eye for spacing words with image and that situates itself within the its host university website in respect to these features, giving it authority and offering its viewers a reason to come back. Dallas chooses a gray color palette with black writing, a very unfortunate monochromatic color scheme that just does not inspire. Another misfortune is, that like other Blog sites which seem to be in the embryonic phase of development, links to this Blog can not be navigated to from the host institution’s homepage or at the AI Dallas Library aka Mildred M. Kelley Library. I searched everywhere, including the Virtual Newsroom in hopes of finding the Blog; but alas! To no avail! What I did notice is that on almost every page I visited, there is a different design, definitely creating anxiety on my part, in that I wanted to redesign their whole site; and I began to wonder: is there more than one AI Dallas? This needs to be amended. One thing I did like about the AI Dallas (institute) home page, is that there is a well-located button that visitors can push in order to have live chat re: the university. I thought that this was an innovative method of using Web 2.0 tools to attract interest and also a very efficient way for potential students to acquire information. But the library home page and Blog need a complete overhaul; and they need to begin to use Web 2.0 tools that exist in other places on the AI Dallas website, in order to attract their patrons. The site contains some interesting information; but each post needs work in order to find a homogeneous format that works. As far as usability, there was just not much to use, except for reading long lists of courses being offered, so in a way it was easy, but in another way it was not, as there was just no organization of information. Tables might be the answer here and a functional calendar with color coding, which is quite simple to do.

Suggestions: Locate the Library Blog in a prominent spot on the library homepage. A complete makeover design-wise and content-wise is necessary. Although I like that the Blog is catering to the student audience and announcing new programs and courses offered by the library, serious formatting issues exist. Utilization of some of the innovative Web 2.0 tools like RSS feeds, podcasts and vodcasts to help promote art works created at the institute, as well as special collections within the library, is necessary. Art goers and students of art love to interact with pieces and so, they too would like to interact with a well designed Blog site. As information institutions enter the Web 2.0 world, they need to find a design, a voice and innovative methods that reach their audience. Yale has definitely achieved this and Dallas needs to visit other Web 2.0 cyber spaces in order to find guidance and inspiration.

Rating: 5/10!!

CONCLUSIONS & SALUTATIONS!
(Dedicateed to Charlotte and Wibur who together transformed my life as a child!)

I have come to realize throughout my Blog research that there are as many hybrids of Blogs out there as there are hybrids of the human mind. Although my research particularly focused on the arrival of the Blog in Library 2.0. I would like to mention two fascinating tools that I have found in serendipitous searching this week. The first is a brand new hybrid of reference service at Douglas College where a patron can now book out a ‘living” specialist (no, not an avatar!) in the area of research he or she is focusing on and have coffee at a remote location for up to one half hour, discussing the topic. This is a wonderful and revolutionary reaction to the world of 2.0. An intriguing cutting-edge Library 2.0 service is The British Libraries Turning of Page (Window’s Vista Software), offering virtual patrons the opportunity to view Special Collections and Rare Books online with the virtual experience of actually turning the pages of a book.

As I have made many conclusions, ponderings and wonderings about the Blog in previous posts, my last thought on this dark night will be: could the Blog somehow be a manuscript in motion, a new page added each day in the formation of an electronic transcript? Could one write a book via Blog? A Collaboration that is not aborration. It would be an interesting experiment. And what about that aching little pain that stabs me in the side as I write, echoing within me from poetry and fiction teachers gone by: What about Copyright? How do other writers out there feel? I’d love to hear from you – an issue to definitely continue with in a future posts, when I go poetry. I invite you into my world.

I hope you have all enjoyed this mixed blog of poetic and academic thought so far; strangely, I have!!! Writing a Blog that contains originality and quality and that will hold its audience is no easy feat; and I can commiserate with libraries out there who have attempted to post in the ‘post’ post modern Library 2.0. Blog on! And eventually you will find your inner Blog creature! I seem to have in one short week!

Last thought (I promise!!!): We must remember in creating the Blog: we must not invade or even parade but serenade and invite our audience to come in and play on common ground in an adult multimedia playground that awakens the child in us all, if only for a moment, giving meaning that transpires the ‘virtual’ and begins to resonate in the ‘real’!

Here ends my tenth and final ‘post’ post-modern Awakening 10.0!

Cheers!
cyberfin

Copyright P. Fairfield 2007 (Is this the answer?)

I listened to a podcast this site about Charles Bernstein’s his latest creations, which icluded his live poery reading. When would I ever get to hear such a wonderful event? This is an exciting discovery for me and one I highly recommend other Noth American poetry officianados.

Okay, now that you all know I am a closet poetry Geek, I’d like to recommend the Poetry Foundation Poetry Blog (located in my Blogroll).

A final note on the Rare BooksBlog site at Yale, I have no suggestions. The design is clear, easy to use, with navigation to the Blogs easily located on the library Home Page. It fits in well with the the Library 2.0 toolbox that the library is offering, such as podcasts, RSS and other special topic Blogs. This is the first Blog I have visited that has maintained the host Institution’s design, creating absolutely no anxiety as to whether or not I had navigated myself into a distant cousin’s Blog in outer-cyber-space! And so, I can only say Thank you Yale!!! For blogging so well about Poetry and Rare Books! Very cool!!!!

Rating: 9.5!

Here ends my ninth Awakening!

The issues here do not come from usability, as the site is easy to use, well written and compelling enough. But I do need to note here, that it was impossible to find the Blog from the Beverly High Library’s home page aka Beverly High Library Media Center. It is crucial that libraries attempting to attract their teen audience, especially in school libraries place the Blog high on the Table of Contents List if they are to entice and maintain the youth voice of the present and the future.

Suggestions: Rank the Blog high on The BHS Library Home Page Table of Contents and provide a Navigation button to the Blog; and even include it on the Beverly High School Home Page for a period of time to see if it helps. Implement review tools to understand how to attract the teen Blog audience. In short, interaction seems to be the essential key to a successful Blog. Book Splat is Blogging at teens not with them. Library Blog’s must ask teens what they think, include them in your discussion, give value to their opinions and intelligence. They also need to induce the ‘cool factor’. I did look up the “Born to Rock” page to see what comes up – Bob Dylan Chronicles! Now come on! What teen is going to read about Bob Dylan? I think the librarian needs to research popular teen music of today!! Don’t get me wrong I love Bob Dylan but after all, I am a thirty somethin’ teen!!!! Perhaps links to Fluxblog and Kerpoof would help attract teens (see my Blogroll to link). Also, the library needs to review DVD’s for teens and add a music RSS feed of some kind.

Rating: 7/10!

I will have to conclude that host information institutions need to respond to the needs of teens, or else they will lose an important audience that goes elsewhere to find the social interaction that teens crave. Perhaps a teen Blog suggestion box online to find out what teens are looking for is a necessity if they are to entice and maintain the post-modern teen!!

Now that I have had time to sift through Blog usage in information institutions, I have come to realize that there is a strong possibility that the key words ‘Blog’ and ‘Library’ do not mesh and perhaps less so when the final keyword in the chain – ‘teen’ – is added.

There is hope , however, for perhaps teens are reading books and not just not blogging about them. If literacy in North America is on the increase, as writers of Reading Matters ( 2003) suggest, then perhaps the balance of a reading life and a web life will increase circuitry in both sides of the brain. For more information on the improvement of reading and brain function , read this exciting Lyon and Fletcher article on the Hoover Institution Website (2007)!

Here ends my eighth Awakening!

I know that there are good teen blogs out there that students and youth are interacting with, but these are occurring mostly in private spaces on the web. So, I am looking at the School Library Blog as a source for information to see what is happening with teens. I had really thought the Teen Library Blog would be popular, due to the vast rate of web 2.0 tools used by teens, such as Myspace, and particularly, Facebook. I am wondering if Library 2.0 will suffer the same ends of the fad phenomena of social software we are now beginning to see on the web, with dozens of people dropping off Facebook , due to I would suspect privacy issues? Many friends I have talked to have regretted their Facebook presence and I wondered at the time of its cyber-birth: what is wrong with good ol’ fashioned group e-mail or just singular e-mails, where you are protected, for the most part? I do understand the issues about memory, etc, but… are we not inviting in trouble trouble as we invite more and more friends?

In order to figure out what might be happening to teens I have sampled a number of sites in North America. Most had no comments posted by the teens and I haven’t found one yet that has posted more than 3 comments per post, but when I found this site, it was like a posting rainstorm compared to others so, I decided to review it and ponder what excites teens and is provocative for them.

The most commented upon site out there for school library Blogs is: Book Break : BHS’ Own Reading Rants and Raves . Why is this? Well the author does not Blog at them, she blogs with them; she invites teens to take part; she asks conversational questions about books i.e. what is your favorite book? What is the scariest book you ever read? What is the best book you read over reading break? This tells me that what youth are craving is to be asked their opinion, to participate in life, to be a part of a reading community without being alienated.

One of the anonymous responders said that Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was the best book she had read because it made her feel like being different was okay. This is a massively important concept in communicating and interacting with teens. They do not want to be excluded by society, but as they grow into young adults and experience all the pain of puberty , adolescents and finally young adulthood, society continually throws at them, at us, images of the perfect man and woman that are absolutely impossible to live up to. If someone can inspire in them a sense of confidence in themselves, be it a writer or a blogger then so be it so…blog on, read on, rage on!! Teenagers need a public forum of acceptance and obviously this Berkeley High Blog is beginning to reach some of the youth out there who love to read.

So, why is this Blog reaching teens and Not Beverly High School ‘s Book Splat with a much more compelling title and design. Perhaps web savvy kids do not just judge a blog by its cover? The key is in the questioning conversation of this Blog. They are engaging to youth, as I have described above. The design? Not for me… but perhaps for you… I much prefer the more simply designed Beverly Hills Book Splat, sporting lusciously designed teen book covers – I now want to read them all!!! This review is coming soon to a Blog Screen near you! But this is not about me, it is about teens and these teens did not choose Book Splat! Hmmm!

The Berkley (Michigan, that is!) Book Break Blog design is distracting but perhaps, more post-modern! In a wonderful book on children and learning on the web called The Flickering Mind, Oppenheimer writes about the reprogramming of the circuitry of a child’s brain due to the web-technology now being implemented as learning tools for literacy in this post-modern world (2006). And so I wonder if this particular design is more pleasing to the eye of the contemporary teen due to a different circuitry patterns and even new ways they perceive and view screens. One thing I did notice is that I just could not find the Blog link on the main institution’s web site. Very strange indeed!! These kids must be compelled to this Blog because it is super impossible to find. Perhaps you can find it and if anyone does, please comment!!!! Check out the home page for Berkley High Library aka BHS LMC

Suggestions: Although this site is relatively easy to use, and obviously more popular than most, the author needs to clean it up, post regularly and take off the double image from the front page. Also, the Blog needs to be high in the ranking on the Table of Contents at Both BHS main Site and the BHS LMC (library home page) as it is impossible for patrons to find. I myself would not use this site, but obviously students have enjoyed and so…. a good clean up is overdue.

Rating: 7.0 !

Here ends my seventh awakening!

w.e.b.?

we explode blog

in post modern fog

hoping to communicate relevate interpollate

to become one with a web universe in order to converse

in a land filled with semantics now defined by webs

but no longer lives the spider – where has she gone?

that living creature that sat down be side her, and
taught Wilbur the meaning of life, of words?

she has died amongst the cyber-filled mash

where we trip on cables disconnected from life and our walls as

our world goes wireless

and our brains disconnect reconnect redirect

where Kafka-esque dreams dance in our heads as

Xmas draws nigh and we shop online

where a Second Life marches towards us

taking our money for things not yet born, never born

only ‘alive’ in a virtual world where the unreal becomes real

and the unreal- reel

a B film of our once loved life

where daffodils rise with the first bird in spring

and a bee is born

unrestrained by commerce

and a child laughs as his dog licks his lips

remembering

the simplicity of what we once knew….

Unfortunately, this is about the only good thing I have to say about the Blog. Albeit, they may be financially less sufficient than Berkeley; and well, the library is in Erie County, Buffalo, but the site, when thinking about teens, is…um… ah…borinnnggg! The library Teen Space Page itself, is much more interesting and has obviously been designed by someone who is in touch with its target population. It is interactive, has a gallery of Harry Potter images (among other interesting features) and it is something I can relate to, being a grown up teen and a very mature adolescent, myself!!! I actually went in and clicked about to see what was happening. But in contrast, the Teen Blog site with a title that has more mileage than Erie county itself, just wouldn’t grab anyone, other than a cyber-recluse (and even they would be bored)!

The design of the site is simple and clear at first glance; but the color palette is not particularly striking for teens. Also, if a user wants to interact with the site, it is virtually impossible. There is just not a lot to interact with. It took me quite a while to figure out that the “comments” link, where users can post, is at the bottom of each post in yellow. The number located beside the “comments” link, convolutes the ability to find the place where one can post a response. Confused? Me too. Now, this may be because I am a Blog newbie and also because I am sleep deprived trying to do several 1000-character blogs per day in the attempt to meet my deadline for this master’s project by December 3rd at noon; but, the post function is just not obvious, not like the Berkeley site, in any case!

There is a New Book section at the top of the Blog Roll, announcing Jeannine Garsee’s’ Before, After and Somebody in Between which is relevant to the audience, but there should be many more teen book announcements available on site. As you click on this, it takes you to a page, where you can access the library catalogue, but I had hoped it would take me to other teen books or reviews? Unfortunately, this Blog site is just not up to scratch with the rest of the teen or Library 2.o tools. The problems over-shadow important content like for the Teen Advisory Group involved in developing Teen Space.

Definitely, there is much work to be done on this site. New teen initiatives are just beginning at this library; and so I will take into consideration that the site will improve. Also, I was wondering if it was designed by a teen with less experience (which would actually be kind of cool) or if it is that the use of this Blog to communicate information is in an embryonic stage and that ideas will grow with age.

Suggestions: A whole new makeover! Run a contest for teen Blog designers and publish the best design as the new Teen Space Blog Create a space for Great books for teens and a place where teens can create their own 100 word reviews. Have an annual contest for the best book review. Create a space for favorite teen films and a place where teens can interact. Have a teen poetry Blog, with perhaps a poetry contest. Incorporate teen music into the space so that teens can share their interests. Perhaps a teen chat-line would be an interesting way for youth to explore ideas about literature of all kinds including comics, magazines, the graphic novel, e-zines, e-books and of course, great fiction!!!!

Rating for Teen Blog: 5/10

Rating for Teen Space: 7.5/10

As we all know, teenage-hood can be a very painful place and it is important to generate inclusiveness into a sub-culture that is often exclusive of the shy and easily intimidated members of society. It is important that the library does not alienate youth and continues to grow, respond to and reach the needs of the younger population. They must not Blog at teens but blog with them. However, with teens being one of the largest users of the new phenomenon of Library 2.0, (Librarian Barbara May Jo, SLAIS Tour Burnaby Library, 2007), it is admirable that the Buffaflo Erie County Library has begun such initiatives and invites teens to include themselves in the planning of the new teen Space.

Here ends my Teen Blog Awakening!

But for now, I will just address the the Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog (found at http://bhplnjbookgroup.blogspot.com/).

This library uses the Blog platform to communicate library news and book reviews, including upcoming events of author readings and special speakers and a short review of present and past events. The design is comprehensive with an easy-to-read font, highlighting important information, such as author’s names and book, in red. Links to user sections, such as “comments,” “links,” and “posts” are also highlighted in red, creating an easy to use interface that is also pleasing to the eye. When hitting the links to the “comments” page, a user is immediately taken to a separate page where they can easily comment on the ready- to-use comment tool. This keeps the original blog page, clean and crisp , giving the Blog front page a professional look that contains relevant information about books and authors they might be looking for. There are also interesting links for users to surf such as “New York Time Books Online.” Again, these are highlighted in red for easy use. There is also an easy list of button links to Technorati and other sites where users can subscribe to the Berkeley Book bBog.

The Blog definitely fits into the toolbox of Web 2.0 tools that Berkeley is presenting to its audience. It is easy to use, easy to find, being the third tab in the Navigation bar at the top of the home page found at http://www.youseemore.com/BerkeleyHeights/default.asp and it is a tool I would use because of its relevancy and interesting information.

Criticisms and Suggestions: I think I would have made the links a different color from links to Contributors, Book Blogs and Author Blog Sites, just to make things a little faster for the user to find. Also, the comments page is a completely different design and color set from the Blog Front page and so I wasn’t certain as a first time user if I was in the correct section. I did notice that there were very few comments by patrons and this may be because the user needs to go through a sign -in process in order to comment, which might deter the user from wanting to post due to time constraints. Having said this, now that I have visited other Blogs this is often the case due ti privacy issues, and libraries do have a responsibility to protect the patron’s privacy.

Rating: 8.5/10 !!

Interestingly, this Blog site seems to be a site that conveys information about books, but due to its authoritative voice, might discourage interactivity; and so it seems to deflate the original purpose of the Blog as a web 2.o tool. In fact, it could just be a linked site within the Berkeley homepage instead. In a way it is not really a Blog at all, in the traditional sense, telling me that libraries are still in the experimentation stage with the platform, creating different hybrids of the blog and still testing their use!!! Also, patrons may still be getting use to the idea of the Blog as a Library tool; and so, it may take time to encourage interactivity in a culture of readers who may often want to be left alone in a room with the light of a fire an an old fashion reading lamp to just read!!!

More on the Invasion of the Blog in my conclusion!!!

Here ends my fourth Awakening!!!

Casey and Savstinuk write in “Service for the next generation library “: “At the most basic level, the Library 2.0 model gives library users a participatory role in the services libraries offer, and the way they are used. Customers, should they desire, will be able to tailor library services to meet their own needs” (2006).

For more on this article have a look at the following website:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html

And so, Library 2.0, can come to your home, much like a take out service – delivery with a virtual smile! Second Life could have fun with this; and most likely, there are already virtual librarians coming into homes around the world, via the computer screen!

But where does this leave Blogging?

The Blog is now one of the most commonly used Web 2.0 platforms for 2007 and is being used in information institutions throughout the world. If contemporary libraries do not ride the wave, they will be left behind as the key purveyors of information. Savvy web users will just continue to find the most accessible and free (free, being a key word here) way to acquire information. Many libraries are currently adopting the popular form of the Blog to draw in their patrons and create a fun learning virtual space. In fact, the Blog is a form of the running monologue (enter Hamlet!), in the written form (enter Shakespeare!), and provides a safe and fun learning environment in which people can “speak” without being heard. In fact, it may be the perfect forum for the library, where patrons can express themselves without the embarrassing experience of being publicly “shushed!!!” The Blog is a silent form of write-speak, where ideas can be shared and information can be conveyed in silence!

Now for something not so silent!! Here is a short video on making your WordPress Blog more search engine friendly! I dedicate this to LIBR 500 students 2007!

Here ends my third Awakening!

Getting back to Hamlet and the “2 B or not 2 B?”question…

Blogging becomes a question of identity and freedom. The public Blog is a space freely created by you, the author. As Paul Anderson writes in his lengthy document, “What is Web 2.0? Ideas, Technologies and Implications for Education?“: “At the end of 2006, Time Magazine’s person of the year award was ‘You’. On the cover of the magazine, underneath the title of the award, was a picture of a PC with a mirror in place of the screen, reflecting…the reader…[and] the feeling that 2006 was the year of the Web.” Anderson asks an important question with regards to Web 2.0, ” Is it a publishing revolution or is it a social revolution?” I have to say the latter. Web 2.0 seems to be all about the people, you the people, me the people, and in a way, power to the people. Even the smallest , most inhibited person in the world can become bigger than life with a quality blog on topics that people want to read, listen to and blog about. With the difficulty people find in the print world, trying to locate a venue to publish, the common person can push a key on his/ her pc and begin to write and publish within moments, knowing that some day, someone might see them and listen to his / her point of view and find common ground, maybe even a kindred spirit. This is an incredibly satisfying notion in a world where freedom of speech is meant to to be a human right but where terrorism and the harassment of people from differing nationalities seems to be an inherent right of the powers that be, infusing fear into every move we make publicly. Going to the airport is just never going to be the same in a post 9/11 world.

Emerging 2.0 technologies provide a place that can be safe, anonymous and fun, one in which freedom of expression can exist in a forum where others feel the same pressures of the contemporary world and one where we can unveil the inner avatar and let the words flow….

As you can see, I have almost acclimatized to my new cyber persona; and I am nearly ready to dissect Blog sites of information institutions around the world!!

Here ends my second Awakening!

I used to live within a world of reality where creativity was expressed openly, coming directly from the body of a human, where poetry and plays were spoken to an audience of people who crave human presence and an artist’s voice emerging on stage, live, only a millisecond from us, only meters before us, the sound of vocal chords reaching into our souls. A lament? Yes, for what I once knew to be my reality. This is not to say that live theater has disappeared, but certainly the funding for arts in Canada is rapidly disappearing with the wave of conservatism that now sweeps our nation, our world. My hope for theater is that it remains one of the irreplaceable joys of life that we turn to–like the monograph–in solace from the world of technology on the dark evenings of winter when we just CAN NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!

However, I seem to be metamorphosing from a Luddite who once enjoyed the simple beauties and aesthetic pleasures in life like: live theater, art shows, the first edition of a monograph, the opening of a magnolia in spring and the first shy appearance of a purple crocus pushing through the frosty dew webs of late winter, to a Cyborg Library Student who now goes through life with a laptop attached to her head, where Kafka-esque dreams dance, filled with half-human mutations cluttered with hubs, screens, antennae, mice and endless cable cords aimlessly waiving in the air as everything goes wireless!!!! This personal metamorphosis is essential, if I am to keep up in a world with ever-shifting technologies that seem without boundary and continually invade personal spaces within the post post-modern world.

And so I dive in with my life jacket tied tightly attempting to become one with my computer. I now surf the net searching for the perfect website for me (yet to be found), the perfect blog that I can sit and enjoy (again, yet to be found), the perfect media site to watch the latest film and TV RSS feeds (finally something found!). All this has just happened in 5 short months, while in that time at least 70,000 new blogs have been created generating hundreds of thousands of posts Web-wide. I will never catch up!!! I have never posted to a blog of any kind. This will be my first. It is mine, all mine. I feel as I type a sense of freedom, knowing that no one knows me, that I can be whoever I want, say whatever I want, be as opinionated as I want and maybe even write a little poetry or create a lick of humor that might brighten someone’s day. I believe that freedom of speech is behind the inspiration the Blog has provided to humankind, with over 1.5 million Blogs on the web (Anderson, 2007) and more being born daily; after all, mine is taking birth today! Like the emotions of a new mother, I enter the Web with trepidation: will anyone ever respond to this rubbish? will people hate this thing I have bore? what will the future hold for my new cyber creation? Perhaps it will have a short life, just for the purpose of my project. But….

Perhaps one day some person in outer-Web-space will see it and feel compelled to respond; and, with the tap of his/her key I am hooked into a life of “Posting in a Post Post-Modern world.”

More about 2.0 tools for libraries to come in future posts….!

Here ends my first “2.0 Awakening!”