Is blogging the new black…?

Come along to the Scottish Information Networking – First Steps in Blogging Event and decide for yourself.  

I’ll be speaking about my own blogging experiences alongside Neil Infield from the British Library’s Business and Intellectual Property Centre.   We’ll be sharing tips, advice and insights to help you get the most out of blogging!  

"Blogging Montage"*

So, if you’re interested in starting up your own blog but you’re not sure how…or if you already publish your own blog and simply fancy meeting up with other bloggers, then this is the event for you! 

Details for your diary…

Event:     First steps in Blogging
When:     Tuesday 4th November at 6pm
Where:    Livingstone Tower (Level 5) University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. 

To reserve your space in advance contact John Coll
–  j.collATnls.uk OR 0131 623 3816

First Steps in Blogging event is sponsored by Bureau van Dijk.

*”Blogging Montage” courtesy of Blogging Librarian’s Photostream on Flickr.

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Using open source to build a user friendly library website that’s relevant to the lives of users…

Librarian in Black blogged about this a few weeks ago but this is the first chance I’ve had to check out the new Darien Library website. It’s the brainchild of self confessed library geek John Blyberg who, in a previous life was instrumental in the development of my other favourite library website – Ann Arbor Public Library.

But with Darien Library John has taken it to the next level, using SOPAC 2.0 and Drupal 6 to create a library website that looks cool, is a joy to navigate around and actually works!  Also, a big plus for those of us interested in the social networking aspects of public library life, the website also supports and encourages the creation, storage  and sharing of “local, community-driven social data” (Blyberg, 2008).   Brilliant! 🙂

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Important public library impact study published in Scotland…

It’s an exciting time for public libraries in Scotland as we take important steps towards recognising and communicating our impact and value to society, with the help of a timely quality assurance tool!

The Public Library Quality Improvement Matrix (PLQIM) was introduced by the Scottish Library and Information Council in 2007 to “provide a robust method for defining standards, developing evaluation criteria and a planning tool to ensure services meet public demand” (PLQIM, 2007).    It was adopted to measure the impact of eight projects awarded funding from the Scottish Executive’s Public Library Quality Improvement Fund (PLQIF) in 2006-2007 (full report available here).  The methodology incorporates a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures and highlights the importance of acknowledging the often overlooked social value of public library services by measuring outcomes alongside outputs.  

The results of an evaluation that I carried out during a student placement with Liz McGettigan at East Renfrewshire Library and Information Service during their Look at Libraries Festival are also included in the report, which adds to the excitement for me!  I’m referred to as ‘a placement student’ on p.79 of the report – fame at last, well sort of 🙂 .  If anyone’s interested in a more in-depth analysis of this project then check out this paper.  (You’ll need your Athens password to access it).

The results of Scotland’s first PLQIM are thought provoking and inspiring and I’d recommend setting aside enough time to read the full report to get a flavour of the potential impact and social value of public library services in Scotland.

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