Thing 4: Registering the blog

I've now registered my blog at http://23thingsoxford.blogspot.com/, where you can find all the other bloggers taking part in this project. I'm off now to read a couple of their pages and leave a few comments (at least that's what I hope - readers will keep coming to the desk!).

Things 1 and 2: Start pages

Before even getting to the blog, the first thing I had to do for this programme was to customise my iGoogle start page as follows:



I was surprised by the amount of gadgets that could be added and chose to include one that featured a new Italian word to learn every day. Unfortunately, however, I must report that I haven't been to my iGoogle page very often as I prefer to go direct to News sites such as the BBC or Times Online: I can get the weather and news there, which is basically what I tend to look at over my lunch break. When I have a bit more time, I'll look and see what else I could add that would entice me back more often.

1st Post of 23: Blogging

Welcome to my ’23 Things Oxford’ blog – over the coming 10 weeks or so you will find here posts about my experience of the 23 Things programme, an Oxford University Libraries project to introduce its staff to Web 2.0 technologies. I’m not a complete fresher to web 2.0 as it has already featured to some extent in the library MSc which I’m currently studying for – clearly it’s becoming an integral part of librarianship these days. Certainly, Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs provide new ways of publishing information and cannot be ignored, although like many I do approach them with some doubts: are they perhaps only good for publishing current, time-specific information like service updates, rather than more substantial pieces?

Whilst I’m not new to blogging, other parts of the 23 things course will be new: Flickr accounts, Wikis, Office 2.0, Widgets. It should prove interesting to see what these tools may have to offer, particularly in a library-specific context.