A Weblog, or Blog, is a journal entry system that displays postings on a Web site managed by a lightweight content management system. Public comments can be submitted in response to each message, thereby generating topical discussions. Blog software can offer a number of useful features. In addition, many blogs can be distributed as RSS feeds.

Actually, a blog is a Web site. It is a particular type of site formatted to manage postings and (if activated) their comments, and to archive this material for future reference. You have probably been on blog sites already, and perhaps haven't realized. In fact, you are looking at a blog right now! As another example of a blog, see Access Denied, a blog from the University of Minnesota Libraries about scholarly communication.

Movable Type is the software we're using to manage our blogs. It is a self-contained content management system dedicated to the management of blogs. It maintains everything from the blog design to the archiving of its content. It utilizes the MySQL database to store and serve blog content. Movable Type is currently the most evolved blogging tool on the market.

Any member of the University Libraries staff may have a blog, with your supervisor's approval.

1. Obtain your supervisor's approval to start a blog.
2. Fill out the online form, Apply for a Blog.
3. After you submit the form, your blog will be configured behind the scenes. Once that is done, Laura will notify you about your Movable Type account so you can access your blog.

Yes. There is a handful of guidelines that we ask blog administrators to follow. They are listed on the form, Apply for a Blog.

Follow the steps in the Quick Start Guide.

Bottom line, your blog must be relevant to work-related topics or activities. Your blog may be an internal one for library staff, or it may be one that you will make available to the public.

Here are a few ideas.

For library staff

• Discussions on topics of interest
• Publishing medium for committee proceedings and minutes
• Departmental communication tool
• Management of content related to particular activities
• Management of general interest content as an alternative to listservs, e.g., LIBALL, Refprob solutions
• Anouncements, e.g., Aleph bulletins
• Sharing of research ideas and progress

For the public

• Class pages and discussions maintained by instruction librarians
• News and information about new resources from bibliographers to their departments
• News to users about our public service points
• Publishing medium for newsletters, e.g., semi-annual faculty newsletter News from the Libraries
• Blogs on research projects or topics of general interest, e.g., scholarly communication, copyright
• Source of RSS feeds for tracking updated content

Yes. As long as you have your supervisor's permission, you may maintain multiple blogs.

Yes, you can share administrative responsibilities with other staff.

You can make a request for blog administrators when you fill out the form Apply for a Blog. There is a text entry box at the bottom of the form for adding "Any other information you want to pass along, e.g., you want multiple administrators for the blog." Please supply the NetID of each person.

If you decide later on to add administrators, contact Laura and she'll add them. In most cases, she will need to do this for you.

Keep in mind that you don't need any new accounts if you just want people to use the comments feature of your blog. As the administrator, you create the postings, but others can contribute comments on your postings without a Movable Type account. As long as your blog is configured to allow open comments (this is configured by default), anyone can participate in a discussion.

Out of the box, your blog is a professional product. If you are just getting started with Movable Type and with blogging, keep things simple. You can move on to blog customizations once you gain some expertise.

Having said that, it's also the case that Movable Type blogs are as customizable as any Web site. If you're ready to give things a try, we provide some limited instruction on a few basic options for customizing your blog. See Customize Your Blog. We ask that you take responsibility for any customizations you make to your blog.

Movable Type blogs comply with the XHTML 1.0 transitional coding standard and are designed with a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS). If you know how to use CSS, you can manually edit your stylesheet to change your blog's layout, colors, fonts, tables, lists, etc.

In addition, there are several customizations you can apply to your blog using Movable Type's own programming language. Check out the Movable Type User Manual or the site Learning Movable Type for ideas and techniques. Keep in mind that we cannot provide support for this level of customization.

You probably forgot to rebuild your template or site. (If you do the latter, it will take care of the former.)

Whenever you modify a template, be sure to rebuild either the revised template or your entire site. The rebuild will update the Movable Type database that stores the content of your blog. Once the database is updated, the changes will show up on your blog.

This depends on the nature of your blog. A blog is a Web site like any other and has its own address. You may choose to have it linked from somewhere on the Staff Intranet. It may also be appropriate to be linked from our public site. Your blog may be meant for a specific group of people, and you can send them the address.

First, be sure to set up your blog by following the Quick Start Guide.

If you run into problems, or if there is something unclear in the instructions, ask the blog program's administrator for help. We expect to add additional support staff as this project evolves.