Potentially reviving the Marshall Library Bloghttp://www.marshlib.blogspot.co.uk/

Why should we blog?Part of a drive to promote our collections and

services with our users/readers.Increase our profile and visibility amongst

librarians in CB and beyond.Promote our subject area.Gives forum to talk about professional issues

(i.e. Librarian working on archival materials?).

It can be fun!

Why a team blog?Present us as a team.Make use of each of our expertise and

what we observe.Different bloggers write differently ->

more interesting blog.Shared blog-load.It can be fun!

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But, erm, I might have nothing to write about?

• It would be great if all members of the Marshall Crew felt they wanted to contribute.

• No pressure! Not all of us have to blog to make this work!

• But the following might make considering it easier:

1. posts could be short (max. 500 words)

2. Could be about treasures or ephemera in the collection (including bindings or illustrations).

3. Daily discoveries or enquiries.

4. Other reflections.

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Do think

• that you can contribute and that what you are thinking is of interest to others (at least: I want to know what you are discovering, doing, what you are wondering about!)

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Don’t think

• even a fairly factual blog post is boring.

• this is about being witty and being an accomplished writer (if you are, that’s fine too, of course).

• this is meant to be scholarly or present your deepest personal perspective (unless you want to, or feel that you can!)

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Name and various fixed elements of a Marshall team blog

• The following slides give you a couple of suggestions, and ideas I have had, please let me know if you have other ideas, and maybe we can find a result which most of us think is ‘okay’.

• Do we just want to continue the old blog at

http://www.marshlib.blogspot.co.uk/ , or maybe start from fresh?

Alternative/new start?

• We could move to Wordpress, or change the banner of our blog...

• I’m struggling to come up with anything better than “Marshall Library Blog”, as we don’t want to reduce the blog by name to “Economics”... If anyone has a brilliant idea... Maybe DevEconCam blog? Or DECam blog ?

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How we could organise a team blog

If we are moving to another layout, the blog needs a tag line (for another example see http://gregmankiw.blogspot.co.uk/?expref=next-blog):

[TITLE of blog]- about Economics, Development Studies and more...

Is that good enough? Better wording?

How to organise the blog

Suggestion for ‘mission statement’ (the “About” bit of the blog):

[TITLE of blog] is primarily a blog about Economics and Development Studies at Cambridge’s Marshall Library, In addition we hope to touch on wider issues which are on the minds of the librarians and members of the Faculties we serve.

How to organise the blog

We could make a preliminary list of potential topics -> Can we as a team sustain writing a blog?

If those who want to participate send me a couple of topics or items the would like to write about (3-5 topics please), we could take it from there.

Examples for topics (nb: I couldn’t necessarily write about these!): 1. recent Hagelberg or Jones donation (1. an overview post with link to all items catalogued,

but then 2. also about specific items in these donations)2. A post about a specific rare book/a group of books/ephemera from our collections3. Marking the birthday of famous econonimsts/academics/industrialist/social reformer (e.g.

Anthony Barnes Atkinson (b. 1944)); for ‘inspiration’ see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_economists !

4. Odd bits and bobs which might tie in with a call for “help” / support (e.g. the Austin Robinson archive on microfilm)

5. New eresources/ebooks or about new/existing services (e.g. Bankscope when it starts, Scanning requests)

6. Explaining policies, or procedures (e.g. 50 Shades of Renewals)7. Newly-processed books which justify a post (e.g. Mishkin books hitting 40, if we go that

far!)

How to organise the blog

Write a couple of test posts to see how it could work.

Once first drafts/posts ready, have “production database” to see how long that would last us.

Launch & first few weeks?

At launch 6-8 posts readyAfter launch:We should promote this on various

mailing lists, our web page and via twitter via Faculty mailinglists

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Previously, I had added a link to the blog and tag line in my Thunderbird signature file, i.e. every one of my emails promoted the MusiCB3 blog!

have at least 1 or 2 posts on “back burner” for a rainy day

But keep on writing.

Getting inspired to write by New acquisitions Stumbled-upon items/discoveries Enquiries / reader’s work current affairs / events (i.e. death of a economist;

change of a library, such as if/when LE will move out of Mill Lane, etc.)

experiences of daily work Treasured collection items Newly discovered economics web pages or e-resources,

or standard but neglected sources we come across in our work

Other -related blogs

Getting inspired to write bydescribing specific tasks/issues in your

areainteracting with each other’s posts by

linking to other posts of our team blog

What works?General:–1 idea -> go straight for it–Aim for 500 words max (shorter is

better)–Aim for a sprinkling of links (to

people, institutions, resources)–Link to existing blog posts (own or

other, including those at CUL!)

What works?General:–Add at least 1 copyright-free (I can

advise) photo -> visual focus–1 person (me?) manages production

“pipeline”– at least 1 or 2 people to be able to

add blog posts (I’m happy to do/share this); everyone could learn this (it’s dead easy – even I can do it!)

What doesn’t work?• General

– Posts which are too long (anything nearing 1,000 words should be split across two posts)

– Not enough links

– Too many links

– Too long paragraphs!

– Trying to be current, and it’s not (it’s fine to be non-current, a blog is not a news channel!)

Known UnknownsWill the Blog be read? Will we get

comments?– My experience is that some comments

are made in person/by email– It’s rarer to have comments on Blog

itself

• Readership?– Outreach -> who cares if no-one reads

it?

Questions? Comments?

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