{"id":3674,"date":"2011-07-05T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mlgsca.mlanet.org\/newsletter\/?p=3674"},"modified":"2011-07-06T14:50:29","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T21:50:29","slug":"best-bytes-tumblr-out-of-many-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mlgsca.mlanet.org\/newsletter\/?p=3674","title":{"rendered":"Best Bytes: Tumblr: Out of Many One"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Kelly Battese, Arizona State University Libraries<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you have a hard time keeping track of your many social networking accounts and their passwords?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Myspace, YouTube: each serves their own purpose and fulfills different social and information needs. \u00a0However, Tumblr can enhance or replace them all.<\/p>\n

Tumblr<\/strong> is a free micro-blogging service that allows users to post blogs, audio, video, quotes, chat, photos and links to a wider audience. \u00a0Tumblr users post 2 million posts daily, over 15,000 people sign up every day and every second there are 18 posts and 5 reblogs.[1]<\/a> There exist over 6 billion individual posts and close to 20 million users.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Many other social networking applications can be linked to Tumblr.\u00a0 Facebook and Twitter can be linked to Tumblr so that a post can be shared amongst all or some of the user\u2019s social networking accounts.\u00a0 Blackberry and Android phones can be used to publish to Tumblr.\u00a0 You can post by email or even post an audio message through your phone.\u00a0 Tumblr provides a blog backup system to save your posts and offers a Bookmarklet button where you can easily share what you find online to your Tumblr followers.\u00a0 You can also send your posts directly to a RSS Feed. Tumblr allows the user to customize the look of their Tumblr page.\u00a0 Premium themes are also offered. \u00a0Tumblr also allows users to have a customized domain name.<\/p>\n

The unique and very useful aspect of Tumblr comes through its use of tags.\u00a0 Each post can be tagged by the poster.\u00a0 This is essentially adding one\u2019s post to other\u2019s of the same topic by tagging or linking according to subject matter.\u00a0 If a user chooses to follow or \u201ctrack\u201d a particular tag, everything that has been tagged with that particular tag will appear in a user\u2019s blog feed regardless of the user \u201c hearting\u201d or not hearting an insitution\u2019s blog (hearting is akin to \u201cliking\u201d a page on Facebook).\u00a0 For example, if a user chooses to track the \u201clibrary\u201d tag or the \u201cmedical\u201d tag and you tag your posts as such, your posts will appear in that user\u2019s feed without them having to specifically \u201cheart\u201d your institution.<\/p>\n

Tumblr could be utilized by medical libraries to great extent because of the many millions of users that could be reached many of whom are already tracking the library and health tags.\u00a0 A quick search for the terms \u201cmedical\u201d and \u201clibrary\u201d reveals that many thousands of others users are tagging and following these same tags.\u00a0 If your institution decides to adopt a Tumblr account a thorough and comprehensive tagging of your posts would ensure that your information would reach either a huge audience or a carefully selected one depending on your use of the tags.<\/p>\n

There are only two steps to sign up for a free Tumblr account:
\n1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go to\u00a0 http:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/register
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Enter your email address, a password, and your desired URL address.
\nAfter registration you will be taken to the \u201cdashboard\u201d.\u00a0 Here is what the dashboard looks like:<\/p>\n

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At the dashboard you can choose how and what you want to post.\u00a0 Explore the other customizable features under the Goodies and Account tabs.<\/p>\n

For more information on Tumblr see the Thoughtshots video below.<\/p>\n