ASIST 2006 Beatrice R. Pulliam

Reference Librarian & Assistant ProfessorProvidence College

4 November 2006AIM/Yahoo: rhodylibrarian

bpulliam@providence.edu

use of blogs for conference communications:

a look @ the asist 2005 blog

why blog a conference?

•promote discussion of conference and session activities among attendees

•virtual broadcast of conference to non-attending members and larger

community of colleagues

•share personal reflections experiences and foster networking

•disseminate important conference announcements and updates

•provide professional development opportunities

•instant marketing for organization

sorting out technical issues

•investigate technology

• host v. install (asist server or external?)

•gauge learning curve

•troubleshooting any technical glitches once blog is up and running

january 2005 blogged for the inaugural PLA blog at ala midwinter in boston

february 2005 wondered why there was an ia summit blog but no asist blog

may 2005 skype chat with steve cohen (http://librarystuff.net) about what it might take to run a conference blog

june 2005 use pla model to write a set of goals for asist conference blog and submit a proposal to dick hill

june 2005 get the okay to run the conference blog!

july 2005 set up wordpress blog on neasist server and set a target date to go “live”

august 2005 put out call for bloggers and launch the blog

september 2005 hear there is also a wiki…coordinate joint promotion

the birth of a conference blog: a timeline

pimp your blog…the bells and whistles

•rss feeds (make it easy for them to keep up)

•capture candid conference moments in pictures…flickr

•categories or tags?

responses to the 2005 blog

•mostly positive

•expressions of lament about not looking at blog until after the

conference (lack of technology?)

•several comments about not being very familiar with blogs or wikis

asist 2005 blog in numbers…

cluster map of visits to blog

900+ visits between November ’05 and January ‘06

2100 visits to date..

# bloggers in 2005 ~8

# posts 51

#comments 85

#categories 23

#subscribers to feeds22 via

bloglines*

#hits per blog stats

#responses to call for feedback

3

#bloggers in 2006 8

#new bloggers in 2006

4

2005 asist blog stats

*11 public subscribers

some challenges

•competing with wiki for readers and posters?

• managing the blog and bloggers (aka keeping your core bloggers motivated)

•what do you do when your blog ‘disappears’…technology happens

•how much is too much technology…?(message board, flickr)

•no conference ‘internet café’ and non-ubiquitous wireless

•dealing with spam

looking ahead…

• continue to offer conference goers multiple communication options

• commit to how best the technology may be used and/or find a way to ‘keep the momentum’ going between conferences

• insist on top-level adoption of new technologies or hands-on pre-conf workshops (the asist wiki, etc.)

• blogging seems to work best as an organic and collaborative effort

• other associations’ blogs (sla, pla, acrl, ala techsource)

go forth and blog...(or wiki)