Dissertation of Sarah Hammond

Sarah Hammond has released the results of her masters degree here. The title of the theses being How are public libraries engaging with Library 2.0?. Really interesting read if you have time. Hope you get a good result Sarah for all your hard work.

My own wetpaint wiki

I decided to centralise all my social media information into one wiki, that can be found here. I've put my dissertation up there, which I previously said was on my website (but is no more). Anyhow, hope to add more features before long.

Congratulations to Michael Stephens

Michael Stephens of Taming the Web fame has his Dissertation Bound. The dissertation is entitled modelling the role of blogging in librarianship. Looks a really good read. I wish mine was still online, I have to sort this out.

Public library survey for masters degree

Sarah Hammond has a questionaire for any public librarians. If you got the time to assist this Masters student please do.

I have a degree.....

Needing just 50% on my dissertation, I finally discovered I have passed my masters degree. Ok, 53% was not great, but it is a pass. But then, for those who have read this blog my spelling got a real good telling off.....oh well.

Good news

Having finished my dissertation and job as a carer, I will start a new job on thursday at a library. As is usual, pre-first day nerves are setting in, but i'm glad to be back at work.

Dissertation is now freely available at my website

After constantly talking about my dissertation entitled Blogging and its impact on libraries and librarians I have published it here on my personal website. It has both my dissertations, but the blogging one is at the bottom. It is yet to be marked, so please don't inform me it not very good. Also my lecturer said wait for it to be marked, but I wanted to put it up. Anyhow, thanks again for all those who answered by questionaire and a special thanks again to Sarah Houghton and Meredith Farkas (the first for helping me get people to know about the questionaire, and the second for her research).
Anyhow, for those who want to read 80 pages of a pdf, enjoy.

At last.....the dissertation is done

I finally completed my dissertation today. I just have to hand it in. Its been a hard slog, but thankfully its done. I know how some other library bloggers have felt when jobs on top course work have made for a lot of work (1 & 2). I have sent this out to the people who took part before I put it up on my website for others to read (if reading 80 pages on blogging is your interest).
Anyhow, I would like to give a huge thank you to some people's whose research certainly helped. They are Michael Sauers and Meredith Farkas. I would also like to thank Sarah Houghton again for getting people to answer my questionaire.
That means I can start blogging more regularly. On top of looking for a job.

New book on the way

Seeing I have started my dissertation on blogging (and it going very well, thanks very much), I have needed to find some anti-bloggers or at least anti-social networks. So whilst reading Information world review, I noted Andrew Keen's new book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture and assualting our economy. Looks a fun read from the usual web 2.0 love in. If I hear one more feature has been added to facebook I might just scream.

What I have learnt as a blogger

Having reached 1 year and promised to write about my experiences as a blogger over that period I thought I would do that now as I've been relatively quite lately (I blame my dissertation).
1. The first thing I learnt in this year is to read before you speak. Having read Rebecca Blood's book, it gave me a basic idea and history of the subject. After that I needed to gain some people I enjoyed reading. Bloglines has really helped.
2. Always answer comments. Obvious. But many people do not. Its polite and keeps the conversation going.
3. Try and keep your post regular, but only if have something to talk about. Also, look at other blogs and extend or trim your your remit. Although my blog started off as predominantly as a predominantly library 2.0, but the remit has changed to looking at my job and dissertation.

This is just part of a series of short idea. My next post will be how to gain users to your site. This is no that i'm oh so popular, just some idea's I have learnt from other blogs and bloggers.

a quick thanks

To Sarah Houghton (aka Librarian in black) for point out my questionaire. Ning I thought might have helped, but Sarah's comments meant I got some feedback on the questinaire itself already from New Zealand.

Questionaire for Librarians with blogs in Libraries

As i've said many times before, I am presently doing a dissertation on blogging in libraries. I have therefore set up a questionaire online, as I was unsure how to set it up on my Ning account. Therefore, if you have a blog at your library, please answer the questions below as it would be really appreciated.


Click here to take our Online Survey

libraries and blogging

As I have said so many times before (1 & 2). As the dissertation is about libraries,librarians and blogging, I thought I would do some interviews to get some idea's etc. But, what I found disconcerting (and I should've known this), was the lack of library blogs, in comparison to librarians who blog.
Is it me, or wouldn't a libraries advocacy be better placed by allowing libraries and customers to interface by this technology (and others)? I mean I'm not trying to sound like an old sour puss (which I can be), but I then came accross an a forum discussion on librarian blogger ning entitled Working our way around the red tape, in which Kirsten was trying to set up a blog but all blog entries would have to go through there PR department. Please. How ineffective is that? It seems weird as library professionals w can talk to ourselves through blogs but not our users.
Anyhow, thankful I sent a request to for libraries that blog and got inundated with offers of assistance. Thanks for that.

Master's dissertation on library 2.O

After going through library 2.0 ning, I noted Mike Habib blog, and his masters dissertation titled 'Toward Academic Library 2.0: Development and Application of a Library 2.0 Methodology. Its well worth a look for those who do (and don't) know much on the subject.