Category: Blogging

I am not a genius author

And, as many of my posts can prove, I’m no insightful writer, or awesome, world-shaking thinker. I know my level, and it’s kinda low 🙂

But I do write this blog, and it is all the product of my own, random mind. I don’t blog on legalish/bookish/techiesh stuff anywhere else, and I’ve never done a guest blog post elsewhere either: anything I write as “Jennie Law” is here, and only here. It may not be of any great intellectual value, I get no financial benefit from it, but it is mine, all mine.
So when I found that someone had come to my blog recently via a link on another site, to an old post from 2008 about ebooks, I wondered why they were looking at such old stuff, and who was referring to it.
I followed the link back, and I found that the entirety of the 2008 post on ebooks is available on the site where the visitor originated from, with a link at the bottom to my blog post. The company is SGD Networks, which appears to be based in India, and has nothing to do with libraries, or law, but a lot to do with web development, graphic design, and web hosting. There was no sign that I was the author of that post other than the link: it had just been copied and pasted onto this site. Along with, it would appear, lots of other articles from various sources, all from 2008 as well.
Now, my memory may not be razor sharp, but I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I’d been asked for permission for my work to be used elsewhere. And I wasn’t.
My blog is not under a Creative Commons license, so I certainly haven’t given freedom to reuse the content I create – it is up to me to decide where that content may appear.
So, I’ve sent a polite “you did not ask for permission to use my content, please remove it immediately” email today. Let’s see what happens, shall we?

It’s aliiiiiiiiive!

So, we unleashed the UK Library Bloggers wiki into the wild back in March, and crossed our fingers that it would be ok, out there in the Scary World, all on its own.

And so far, it seems to be doing just fine, yay! There are of course the regular spammer attempts to “subtly” insert adverts for dissertation work, and all sorts of less…erm…wholesome products within the entries, but the email alerts about text amendments that go to the administrators of the wiki (Phil, Jo and I) means that the first person online and able to, goes in and removes that material and blocks the creator. This has worked really well so far, and unwanted content doesn’t stay on the wiki for any real length of time.
And the best bit is the librarians and info professionals who’ve been adding themselves to the wiki! I created a backup in March before we “unlocked” the wiki, and at that point there were 115 institutional / professional group blogs, 83 librarian blogs, 5 Chartership blogs, 8 information professionals blogs and 8 industry supplier blogs.
There are now (as of 5th July 2010) 135 institutional library blogs, 90 librarian blogs, and still 5 Chartership blogs, 8 information professionals, and 8 industry supplier blogs.
So, the biggest increase has been in institutional blogs, with a small increase in personal library bloggers.
I will (at some point in the near future) be going through the wiki and checking all the links of the ones added prior to the unlocking off the wiki, and removing the “dead” ones. I’m planning on moving those entries into a “dead blogs” section – I think it’s worth keeping the links available, for interest.
So: if you haven’t added yourself, go do it now – you’ll be in good company!

Council blogging

So, The Improvement Service (which sounds faintly menacing, and makes me imagine the staff all walk around the office with straight backs, books balanced on their heads and have perfect pronunciation) have issued a guide for Scottish Councillors about blogging and tweeting.

Now, is it just me, or is this a bit silly? If you’re tweeting or blogging, then you’re at least mildly tech savvy. And if you’re a Councillor, then you’re probably pretty smart, and also reasonably aware about confidentiality, public image etc. You know what people will be interested in hearing about from you, what your constituents concerns are.
So, does it really need an 11 page guide to tell you how to do that?
I think that 3 sentences on page 7 about what not to do should perhaps be given a bit more prominence, else Councillors are going to blunder into trouble….
So, some top tips for Councillors on blogging and tweeting, from moi:
  • Don’t talk about confidential stuff.
  • Don’t be abusive or racist.
  • Don’t say anything about someone you wouldn’t say to them in person.
  • Don’t forget that, once something’s on the internet, it’s there for good, even if you delete it.
In other words: Don’t be dumb.

The blogging bard

It’s a busy time for Rabbie Burns. As the National Year of Homecoming is centred around the 250th anniversary of his birth, he’s got a lot of people looking closely at him and his work. So, he’s been reanimated, and popped up on Twitter, tweeting poems, line by line. After the initial news reports, NTS actually posted the essential information needed for following him on Twitter: his username – ayrshirebard. They might however want to note that Twitter updates to your phone haven’t been possible in the UK for many months.

And now, the revived poet has also taken to blogging!

Robert Burns’ Letters will be posting the letters of the bard, on the anniversary of the day they were actually written. He’s currently in full love-letter flow, writing to his ‘Clarinda’. The content of 91 letters will be being posted, concluding in 2010, when it is hoped the National Trust for Scotland will be able to open the doors of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. Funds are still needed for this (about £4 million), so if you can donate, please do!

Although one plea – pleeease take off the SnapShots thing on links to sites outside the blog, it’s the most annoying popup in the whole entire world…ever!

Now….time to try and find a good ceilidh in town for Burns Night….