The History Librarian

Last August, I posted the following to our library’s intranet blog, but some recent events have caused me to revisit this post. I’m not sure that I agree with everything I wrote back then (and in at least one instance, I think I overstated the case for partisan reasons), but I wanted to put this out here for me to stew over and as a way of starting to think again about blogging in academic libraries.

Why Do We Blog?

Yesterday, I came across a really interesting pre-print article written by Steven Bell: Wasted Words: Is A Library Weblog Worth The Effort (links to the PDF). This is one of those must-read articles in the most part because it is so critical of library blogs as they are practiced. Much of what Bell criticizes doesn’t apply to us as much as it does to other libraries, in my opinion, but he has some really great ideas for sustainable library blogs; here are the main points:

• they should have regular and frequent content
• they should not be time-consuming – he rates blogging fairly low on the list of priorities for librarians
• they should offer specialized content
• they should be integrated into specialized learning environments whenever possible – e.g., as part of a course; he is a strong advocate of pushing RSS feeds into course management software [this is a particularly excellent suggestion]
• they should fill a significant need – Bell talks about the lack of research about user needs and behavior when it comes to blogs and RSS feeds. His own survey indicated that students are not that hip to RSS feeds, which is why he is so sceptical about library blogs in general. I think his main point here is that libraries should not have blogs just because, but should be able to articulate specific needs that blog technology can help satisfy.

I would like to add a few points of my own to this last bit about need: internal – even when blogs are used for outreach (rather than something like this Intranet Blog), they provide an outlet to communicate with other librarians (something that happens with the liaison research guides as well); publicity – GSU Library has gotten a lot of publicity among other librarians about our blogs and there is a sense “out there” that GSU Library is a hip, tech-savvy place (at least, that’s what librarians-who-blog tell me) and the blogs can and do reflect well on us and help create a brand, though the other side of this is that if our blogs are not sustainable and well done, this also reflects poorly on us (a point that Bell makes in general, not about GSU); subject awareness – in my own experience, doing subject blogs helps keep me informed about what is going on in my fields (that is, I’m forced to keep current in my subject specialties) and it seems to me that even if there are only 5 or 10 regular blog readers, taking the time to be an intelligent, well-informed liaison improves us as librarians and this is something that should not be discounted.Other thoughts or comments?