IBM Blogging Guidelines

Blogging has been on a bit of a slow pattern for the past few weeks. A couple of intensive projects have diverted my attention... I should be able to explain in a bit more detail later this summer.

One interesting tidbit that caught my eye recently... IBM's James Snell has blogged about & provided access to Big Blue's Blogging Policy & Guidelines. The guidelines are pretty much common sense, but add to the growing literature in this area. The part that did catch my eye, was IBM's published stance on its Intranet site "encouraging all 320,000+ employees world wide to consider engaging actively in the practice of "blogging".

If even a fraction of those employees take their employer's offer... Wowza! Talk about building the online brand. There won't be a product or topic in the IBM realm that won't be covered by an IBM Employee's spin. I guess it's a good thing they've got those guidelines. ;-)

On a less cynical note, I was just contacted via email by yet another legal KM'er. My informal network has now expanded to 4 continents in 6 months. Goes to show - when it comes to blogging, don't discount the value gained behind the scenes.

Holdin' Down the Fort

For those of us not in St. John's Nfld at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries conference, a big thanks to Connie Crosby for allowing us to keep up at home. If you haven't been following, Connie's been sharing her experiences this week at CALL. And a darn fine job she's doing ... Keep them photos coming Connie!

And for my fellow CALLeagues who are (like me) holding down the Fort... Boy it looks cold, cloudy & foggy in those photos. ;-)

Hey Law.com! - Remember When...

Remember when Law.com had an entire channel devoted to law librarians?

I was just going though some old bookmarks, and saw the link above. It's just a place holder now, and I'm a bit surprised that it still works.

So I was thinking... Maybe they've left it in place so they can revisit the idea! And maybe if we all click on the link, the huge traffic spike will make them realize what a great audience we are!

Hey Law.com! We want our channel back!! Or at the very least, how about a dedicated Law Librarians RSS feed?

Canadian Library Support Staff Survey Results

The results for the first ever Canadian Library Support Staff Survey are now available.

Published by the BCLA Library Technicians and Assistants Interest Group (LTAIG), the results were announced via LTAIG listserv this afternoon. 783 respondents took part in the survey.

Publication Credits:
Survey Development: Diane Walker, Kristine Shum, Sylvia Skene, Emma Wood, Courtney Walker, Jennifer Brown, Rob Golbeck,with editorial input from Andrea Andersen and Carol Fowler.
Technical Development: Jennifer Brown, Rob Golbeck.
Compiling of Results: Kristine Shum, Rob Golbeck
Statistical Analysis: Kristine Shum, Diane Walker
Web Format: Jennifer Brown, Rob Golbeck

Congratulations all!

Monday Morning with Matthew Homann

Well, Monday morning hits and I'm seriously sleep deprived (yup, kids fault...). I've got my cup of coffee in hand, and am ready to start the day with a tour of my RSS feeds.

I'm flipping through and nothing is really note worthy, but then I hit Matthew Homann's blog 'the [non]billable hour'. I've read this blog for a while now, but let me tell you, this guy is on for a monday morning!

He starts with a story about some MIT Students that created the ultimate academic paper writing software. Then he goes on to highlight a blog that makes the point that Managers Don't Have to Know How To Do Everything.

Next up, he blogs 'And if they are from St. Louis, Don't forget to ask where they went to High School'. Well I'm not from St. Louis, and have no clue, but he picks out a fantastic point about prospecting potential contacts - find out where they grew up & where they went to college. Nice!

And finally, he goes right off the map with 'What Would Vader Do?'. Matthew found Darth Vader's blog? Wow. Ok, I was impressed with the first three postings, but this takes the cake...

Anyone want a lesson in how to blog?

The first three postings are great because they didn't just redirect the user to something Matthew liked, they identified the valued information, and left it up to the reader to take it further. And the last post? It was completely filtered towards the selected audience, AND it was completely unexpected... Well sort of, Matthew has a reputation about town... ;-)

Happy Monday!