#5 (Week 3) Litlovers

ACL has a number of bookclubs for adults, teens and kids at various locations. One of the hardest parts of coordinating or being involved in a book club is deciding what books to read and finding the resources to back up the choices.

For this thing, we take a look at Litlovers which can help to makes those decisions about what to read a bit easier. Litlovers is an online community dedicated to books and book clubs. Here’s how they describe theselves:

"An online community dedicated to books and book clubs—because both enrich our lives. We've got great resources to enhance your book club experience. Whether you're selecting books, or thinking & talking about them, LitLovers is the place to come. What can you do on LitLovers? What can't you do! Find a book. Find a review. Find a discussion guide. Take a course. Whip up a recipe (to match your book, of course)! There's so much to do—and so much fun—you won't want to leave"

The site is divided into four main areas:

• LitClub
• LitCourse
• LitBlog
• LitFun

and there is also a site for LitKids, where you can find ideas for starting bookclubs for school kids and toddlers. This could be a great idea for those of you building relationships with schools in your area.

Discovery exercise

1. Explore the Litlovers site.
   


2. Think of a book that would be a good one to discuss in a book club. Check out the Litlovers site for resources about the title and tell us what you found.
   

Optional discovery exercise

1. Check out LitCourses and complete at least one that appeals to you. What course did you do, and do you think customers will find this of benefit?
   

#3 (week 1) Register your blog with the administrator

We hope you are enjoying the adventure so far and having fun. If you get stuck you can always ask a colleague who participated in our last program or someone that is finding this easy to do.

Once your manager has approved your registration, the next step is to register your blog with the administrator s0 team so we can verify and track your progress. We will comment on your blogs within 48 hours and update the tracking log every day at 1pm so you can watch your progress.

Discovery resources

Take a look at some of these discovery resources to see how other librarians are using blogs to communicate to staff and customers. Can you think of useful ways to use blogs in your role?

• Internal communication
• Blogs for libraries
• Why and How to use blogs to promote your library services
• What's all the fuss about blogs?

Discovery exercise:

1. Find the URL address on your blog located in the same place as the example below. Copy the address by clicking once on the URL address with the right hand button of the mouse. The URL is the unique address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet. URL is an abbreviation of "Uniform Resource Locator"
   
   
2. Send an email to aclweb2.1@gmail.com and make sure to include your
   * real name (this is kept confidential)
   * location
   * blogger name
   * and paste the URL blog address
   
3. Don't forget you need to create a Post on your Blog. For those participating in this programme for the first time, you will have done this as part of thing 2. If you are resurrecting your blog, tell us in approximately 50 words, if you are still using your blog, what it took to find it....did old memories come flooding back etc. As with the last program you will be asked to do this each week and the ACL learning admin team will check your blog when new posts appear and post comments on your progress.
   

That's it for week one. <:)

#2 (week 1) Setting up a Blog & add your first post

Blog is short for weblog. It is an online journal for news, reviews and events or can be a personal diary. A blog can be whatever you want it to be and there are no real rules. The blog author writes commentary or news on a particular subject for readers to view. Blogs can also include links to other websites, pictures or videos. Readers are often attracted to blogs because they enjoy the style and content of a particular author and readers can interact by adding comments to postings.

The newest information in a blog appears at the top of the page with older information below. When the page gets too long the blog will archive older posts usually on the right hand side. A post is a single entry on a blog.

For thing #2 you will be setting up a Gmail account and creating your very own personal Blog. Each week you will be asked to write at least a 50 word post on your blog of to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries and exercises. If you participated in our last program, feel free to reuse the original blog you set up.

Throughout the program you will be asked to set up a number of accounts. We recommend that you remain anonymous and use the same username and passwords throughout the program so you don't forget them.


Discovery resources
ACL has some Blogs on their website which we use to interact with online customer and talk about topical issues, promote some of our services and encourage our customers to participate by commenting. Check out some of the Blogs.

• Books in the City - for people who can't live without reading: news, opinions and special features from the world of books.
• Kintalk for famliy history and genealogy - Kintalk is a family history and genealogy blog to let you know what's happening here at Auckland City Libraries and beyond. We will introduce new resources and revisit a selection of the old
• Rare thoughts - blog by the Special Collections department at Auckland City Libraries to keep you up to date with our collection and make our rare books and manuscripts accessible to the public
• Scooper on libraries - A New Zealand blog on current and future trends in public libraries and how they are being impacted by the internet and technology.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Create a Gmail account. Gmail is a free webmail service that combines traditional email with Google's search techology. Complete the form and choose a fictitious login and password. Ensure you check the availability of your login name. Note your login name becomes your username.
   
   
2. Create a Blogger account, and once again we encourage you to create an anonymous usename. Save the URL address in your favourites.
   
   
3. Play around with your blog, select a template and add a test post or two (different colours on your template).
   
   
4. Create a Post on your Blog. In approximately 50 words, reflect on what you did.....how you could use this in your role....what worked for you...and what didn't....what surprised you....and what amazed you etc. You will be asked to do this each week and the ACL learning admin team will check your blog when new posts appear and post comments on your progress.

Optional discovery exercise

1. Upload some images on your Blog, or play around with the title.