Blogging:
You have just one week left to apply to be an Official MLA Blogger for the Annual Meeting in Hawaii. If you are going to the meeting and are interested in blogging, please consider applying. Your colleagues who are unable to attend will benefit from your experiences. Being an Official Blogger is a great way to get free wifi courtesy of MLA for the duration of the conference. Not traveling with a laptop? Don't worry, you can still be an Official Blogger if you don't have your own laptop. Hurry, the deadline is April 24th!


Follow the blog using the following RSS feed http://feeds2.feedburner.com/mla2009


Twitter:
The Official Blog is just one way to follow the events at MLA. A Twitter account has been set up for the meeting as well. The MLA 2009 Twitter account is mla2009. Following MLA 2009 on Twitter is very easy.

You can follow without signing up for a Twitter account. You can either go to the website http://www.twitter.com/mla2009 and watch the posts, or you can subscribe to the RSS feed at http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/15206900.rss.

If you want to interact with people, comment, or pose questions then you will need to create your own Twitter account. Simply go to http://www.twitter.com and join. Once you have joined and created a username go to Find People and type in mla2009. Click on the icon and then click Follow.

Just a few days before meeting mla2009 will "follow" all of its followers. That will allow everybody following on mla2009 to see each others posts and to view what is going on at the convention. If you plan to post about the convention please try and remember to use the hashtag #mla09 before you type. The hashtags index the thread so that it can be found and easier to follow.

Note: The Twitter website does not automatically refresh, so you will either need to hit the browser's refresh button every once and a while or you might want to look at some Twitter clients like twhril or TweetDeck which make managing your Twitter account a little easier.

Flickr:
Are you going to the meeting and are you planning on taking a lot of pictures? Please consider uploading to the MLA 2009 group on flickr. This will allow us to pool all of our photos into one group so everybody can see them.

Anybody can view the photos if they go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/mla2009/

If you want to post your photos to the group here's how:

• You must have a flickr account
• Once you have a flickr account and logged in you must join the group
• Click the Groups tab and then Search for a Group. Search for MLA 2009
• Click on the MLA 2009 Group and then click "Join?"

Once you have joined the group it is very easy to post your photos to the group. The easiest way to add a photo to a group is to go to your account home page and click on your photo stream. Then click on the photo you want to send to the group. Next, click the "Send to Group" button (located above the photo, between the photo title and the photo). Then choose the group you want to send it to, and you're done!

If you are sharing photos on the MLA 2009 Group please remember to tag them all with the term mla2009.

If you aren't going to the meeting this year, we will miss you. But at least you have some options for staying in touch and following some of the activities and staying up to date. Additionally if there is anybody else on the NPC or any of the Section Programs who is doing something online that will allow folks at home to follow along to, please leave a comment.

Labels: Annual Meeting, Blogs, Hawaii, Social Software, Tagging, Technology

Are you going to Honolulu for MLA’s 2009 Annual Meeting? If so then consider becoming an Official Blogger for the 2009 meeting. While we can’t offer an “Official Blogger” t-shirt you will receive 3 AHIP points for officially blogging on the annual meeting.
In order to provide the most coverage MLA is looking for all types of people interested in writing about the events and activities occurring at the MLA. Potential bloggers do not need to be current authors of a blog, but must have experience using and posting with blogging software such as WordPress. Those selected as Official Bloggers will be asked to commit to authoring a specific number of posts per day.
MLA members traveling with laptops can apply to be an Official “Wireless” Blogger. Official “Wireless” Bloggers will be given a wireless card which will enable them to receive wireless access for the duration of the conference. There are eleven openings to be an Official “Wireless” Blogger. Bloggers with laptops and MLA sponsored wireless cards will be asked to author at least two posts per day. Since the number of wireless cards is limited the process will be competitive. A panel of judges will consider the blogger’s experience and previous online writing work (blog posts, newsletters, wiki entries, etc.).
Those who are traveling light and are not taking a laptop to the convention or those who already have a laptop and have their own wifi solution can also be Official Bloggers. These Official Bloggers may post their entries in the Internet Café or by other means such as by cell phone or by using their own wifi provider. These bloggers will be asked to author at least one post per day.
Both types of bloggers are eligible for 3 AHIP points. Bloggers will be posting to the central MLA 2009 Blog site http://npc.mlanet.org/mla09/. Bloggers will have the opportunity to sign up on a calendar http://npc.mlanet.org/mla09/?page_id=6 to blog about specific activities. This will serve as an aid to help bloggers and members know who plans on covering what aspects of the meeting and what areas might need additional coverage. Multiple people can blog about the same event (different perspectives are always welcome) but bloggers can use the calendar to view opportunities to post on something else. Bloggers are encouraged to post on items and events related to the meeting. This can be information from vendors in the exhibit hall, a new product, poster and paper sessions, section programs, lectures, continuing education, dinners and parties, discussions, etc.

Deadline is April 24, 2009. Results will be announced May 1, 2009.

Application to be an Official Blogger can be found at http://tinyurl.com/b74lbm, for more information please or questions please contact Michelle Kraft at kraftm[at]ccf[dot]org.

Labels: Annual Meeting, Blogs, Hawaii, MLA

Walt at Random is conducting a study on library blogs, The Liblog Landscape, 2007-2008: A Lateral View (may or may not be the final title). He is just finishing up Phase 1 of the study which is to identify liblogs that should be a part of the study and doing blog level metrics for those blogs.

If you know of a blog or blogs (perhaps your own) that meet the criteria for the study and aren't currently on his list you can send him an email and request it to be included. Deadline for submission is this Friday, September 12, 2008.

For more information check out his blog post New libr* blogs? A one-week limited-time request. Let's make sure the medical librarian blogs are represented. :)

Labels: Blogs, Social Software, Technology