Chapter 7
From Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries
UThink: Library Hosted Blogs for a University-Wide Community
Shane Nakerud
University of Minnesota
Contact: snackeru@tc.umn.edu
I have recently answered some questions that may give a good, short synopsis of the UThink project. So, if you aren't interested in the entire chapter read on for the Readers' Digest version!
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1. How many people worked on the project, what were their rough duties?
Really, we only had two people put this together. Me as the project lead and a programmer to do the work of configuring Movable Type to use our central authentication mechanism and create blogs on the fly without administrative intervention. That was it.
2. How much time did the initial setup take?
About two months. Of course, we weren't working on UThink exclusively during this time.
3. How much time does current maintenance take? How many people currently work on it and what are their duties?
It takes me about an hour a day to answer questions and help people with their blogs. Every once in a while I will ask the programmer to add a new plugin or reconfigure a problem area, but for the most part the only person that works on the system regularly is me.
4. How many templates do you provide and did you tweak any to make them look “corporate”.
We offer around 100 different looks that people can utilize through the MT StyleCatcher plugin. We have hesitated to offer U of M specific templates because the U of M is pretty jumpy about personal blogs looking like they are University affiliated. So, if someone wants to make a blog that really looks like the U of M we can make that happen outside of the StyleCatcher.
Blogs can be made to look like anything the blog owner wants them to look like. We give people complete freedom over their blog's design. Most people, however, don't have the HTML/CSS skills necessary to really go nuts, but some people do.
6. What do you do about spam?. Is there a management level plugin?
Spam is a huge, huge, huge problem. Do everything you can to set up mechanisms to fight it right from the beginning. We have the MT plugin SpamLookup installed, a CAPTCHA plugin people can use, and Akismet loaded and running for everyone automatically. It still gets through, and we still have to clear it out periodically.
7. How much training / support do you provide for your users?
Very little. I will answer every question I get, but we don't have any formal training we offer to users. They would probably like that, but since I am the only person that works on the system (plus all my other job responsibilities) I just don't have the time.
8. Do you have any blogs on the same server available only over your campus intranet?
No. By default new blogs are all completely publicly accessible. There are ways to password protect blogs, but UThink really isn't appropriate for a intranet.
9. Are there any issues with upgrading to new versions?
Yes. Since we have modified Movable Type to do things it wasn't originally coded for, upgrading is a bit more difficult than it should be.
10. What would you do differently if you were implementing it again?
I wouldn't do it alone. I had a vision for this project and I really rammed it through without any committee or oversight besides my own supervisor. As a result everything currently falls on me and staff buy in has been problematic. As successful as UThink is outside the library, inside the library it is still a fight to get librarians to consider it a worthwhile investment.
11. Why Movable Type?
We started planning for UThink in 2003. At this time there weren't many blogging platforms to choose from. WordPress didn't have its MU version. Movable Type was the only application that could host potentially thousands of blogs on one install. It was also open source (so we could modify the code) and free for educational institutions. Overall it has done a fantastic job.
12. It looks like anyone can get a blog – including all students. Has there been any problem / objection to this?
As I say in my chapter, libraries are the traditional defender of intellectual freedom on campus. UThink gave us a great way to demonstrate our commitment to this principle in a tangible way. The objections we have received have usually been answered with this commitment in mind first. Having said that, there are no anonymous blogs on the system. As a result, people really watch out what they say on UThink. We have had controversial content on the system, don't get me wrong, but because of the lack of anonymity the system is much more academic in nature than I thought it would be.
13. Is there any concern about “abandoned” blogs ? Are they ever pruned?
Nope. No real concern. UThink is a living archive that maintains the cultural memory of the institution. Again, Movable Type doesn't seem to have a problem with it, so we leave everything up.
14. How many blogs have been created?
As of January 25, 2008: 5,645 with 13,626 authors. These statistics are both located on the UThink home page: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ and are updated as the system is used.
15.What is the main use of blogs – which type of client and what are they using them for?
I detail this heavily in my chapter, but the heaviest use is for classes. Undergrads are the dominant user, but they usually only use it when it is required for a course (which again is most of the blogs). Personal blogging comes in second, but the people that do personal blogging on the system are usually grad students or staff.
16. Did you have an initial pilot project?
No. We unleashed this upon the unsuspecting public in April 2004 and we haven't looked back!
17. Anything else you’d like to add?
I've had fun with UThink. It has changed peoples' perceptions of what a library can offer on campus. It has also been relatively low cost and as you have read above it hasn't taken a lot of staff time (except mine).
Another interesting fact about UThink is that Google gives all blogs on the system an extremely high PageRank. This is probably because Google can tell the blogs come from a library domain. A lot of people have been impressed (and frightened) by this as it greatly increases the visibility of their writing.
That is about it! Let me know if you have questions!
