What is a blog?
Who can set up blogs?
Why is the library hosting blogs?
What’s the benefit in using this service over a free service like blogger?
What sort of support does the library offer?
How long do I have access to my blog ?
Why would I want to use blogs in my teaching/research?
Why did the library choose WordPress to power the blogs on the site?
Can I install modules and themes for my blog?
How do I request a blog?
What is a blog?
We’re glad you asked! If you’re just starting out, you might enjoy these quick and super-informative online videos:
- Blogs in Plain English (3 minutes, 1 second)
- Writing a Compelling Blog Post ( 44 minutes, LinkedIn Learning Course)
Who can set up blogs?
Currently the service is available to faculty and staff at McMaster University. We’re investigating the possibility of opening it up to students as well, but we’re not quite there yet.
Why is the library hosting blogs?
It’s the library’s core mission to provide and manage access to the university’s academic resources and scholarly information. In a world where web technologies are changing the face of scholarly communication and the creation of the scholarly artifact, we feel that providing a platform for faculty to harness new technologies to facilitate their teaching & research makes a lot of sense for the library. It allows us to continue our role as stewards of that scholarly content. In addition, we see our provision of these tools as an extension of our role in upholding and advocating for intellectual and academic freedom.
What’s the benefit in using this service over a free service like blogger?
It’s true, there are all sorts of freely hosted blogging tools out there. But we feel that we have a little something extra to offer the McMaster community!
- No ads on your blog.
- Everything is hosted on a library server. That is, not just your content, but the software you use to publish that content as well. Which we think is a big advantage over having your content on an unknown server in some unknown place!
- If anything goes wrong with your blog, we’re a quick phone call/email message away!
What sort of support does the library offer?
Since these services are pretty-much self-serve, we don’t anticipate that you’ll need a lot of help from us. But in case you do, we’ve put together a list of Help Resources that you might find useful. Also, depending on the adoption of these tools, we plan to hold some training sessions during the course of the year (depending on demand). Finally, there’s always email for those times when you’re really stuck!
How long do I have access to my blog?
You can use your blog for as long as you’re affiliated with McMaster University. Blogs inactive for 2 years will be archived.
Why would I want to use blogs in my teaching/research?Teaching
Blogs provide an excellent platform for students to communicate their ideas with their peers. Faculty members have reported that writing for a broad, public audience encourages students to be more thoughtful in their posts, and since blogging tends to be a reflective activity, it encourages students to reflect upon the learning process in which they are engaged. Blogs are also a great tool for extending in-class discussions, thanks to features like blog comments.
Research
When it comes to research, blogs are a great platform from which researchers can flesh out ideas and engage with their communities of interest and practice.
Why did the library choose WordPress to power the blogs on the site?
We chose WordPress because we believe in using open source software whenever possible, and both of these platforms are open source. As well, both tools have large and thriving development and support communities, which was an important consideration for us.
Can I install modules and themes for my blog?
You can enable modules and themes that have been installed on macblog. If there is a module and/or theme that you would like to use but isn’t available on macblog then email libweb@mcmaster.ca.
How do I request a blog?
You can request a blog by completing the Request a Blog form.