Library Blogs of Selected Kendriya Vidyalayas  of Kerala Region : a State–of–the–Art Study of  School Library Blogs in Terms of Theme, Content,  Structure and Web 2.0 Tools Used

Ramasamy; K; Padma; P

Volume : III, Issue : II, February - 2014

Library Blogs of Selected Kendriya Vidyalayas of Kerala Region : a State–of–the–Art Study of School Library Blogs in Terms of Theme, Content, Structure and Web 2.0 Tools Used

Ramasamy, K, Padma, P

Abstract :

Purpose: The study reports the URLs and domain of seven KV Liary blogs, themes and column structure, the variety of widgets used, the link categories provided, the online viewer statistics, the list of web 2.0 tools used, the multi-language readability, special taglines and the �liary information� made available in these blogs Methodology: Google and KV Liarians Group were owsed and each and every KV Liary blog was visited to collect the required data. Findings: All the 7 liary blogs were created in the Wordpress domain. Only three blog addresses start with KV and other 4 blog addresses start with the term �liary�. Six liary blogs have created interesting taglines. KV Pattom liary blog has 27,79,638 hits followed by KV No.2 Calicut liary blog with 12,24,980 hits. three blogs use two column structure and the remaining four blogs use three column structure to present the contents. While four liary blogs have sufficient information about the school liary concerned, the remaining blogs have got only limited information about school liaries. the liary blogs of KV Pattom, No.2 Calicut and Port Trust Cochin have used a good number of widgets while the remaining four blogs have used limited number of widgets. Out of 7 blogs, only four of them have used web 2.0 tools therein. While twitter is used by two blogs, RSS tool has been employed by all the four blogs using web 2.0 tools. KV Pattom and No.2 Calicut liaries have incorporated facebook tool in their blogs. only KV Pattom liary has made available their OPAC through their liary blog online. And it is the only blog which can be read in Hindi too. Only three blogs viz KV No.2 Calicut, KV Pattom and KV PT Cochin have listed the RSS feeds of few websites, which are useful to the school fraternity. Only two liary blogs namely KV Pattom and KV No.2 Calicut have created a good number of link categories. Only KV Pattom blog has created task-specific exclusive blogs for different aspects of a schooling and school liarianship. ive blogs have used Categories and two blogs have not used the powerfulness of �categories� to present the contents. Future implications: The study can be further extended to larger number of liary blogs of Kendriya Vidyalayas situated across the country. Social implications: It acts as a guide to the liarians to see where they are and what they lack. It acts as a yardstick to the KVS authorities to ing out a� School Blog Policy� to standardise the content and presentation of KV Liary blogs.