Monday, 28 May 2007

Blogging in Libraries

I have found the reading on blogs this week very exciting and stimulating on the one hand, but in another way I am finding it quite difficult to "make it real". Some of the library blogs I have visited were great, I particulary liked the Bergen county cooperative library system where the library users themselves left comments on the book they have read. I was also impressed by this blog because it is really alive and current, a whole community of interested participants using the blog to communicate their ideas. The SaTH library blog looked very professional and contained interesting information, but I was very disappointed to see no comments returning to the posts from a "live audience" out there.

I can see that library blogs are a good idea to keep customers up to date with the latest information we want to give them and also to encourage immediate library feedback from customers on our library services and the sort of information they really need to be getting from us. I am beginning to think that a blog for our outreach library service could provide us with a distinct voice and become a useful link with our remote library users. A blog would provide an area to disseminate more widely SDIs and targeted news alerts, as well as creating a forum for the exchange of research ideas and evidence based practice projects within the Trust.

BUT!!, yes there is a but here for me. I am really finding it difficult to convince myself that Trust staff in North Staffs are ready for blogging. I am unsure that the library service could create a blog space which would engage with the "live audience" out there and if this is not achieved I have to question whether it would be a good use of time. In order to work it would probably need to be a project for several library team members, perhaps the outreach librarians and the training team? I suppose the only way to find out if a blog would be used is to try, then we will see the response we get. I think the first step would be to get together and come up with some content that could really get people interested and a style that makes people want to visit.

2 comments:

Blow said...

I really enjoy reading this post. I was about to disagree when you said BUT. But ... I think your conclusion regarding joint-up working is a sensible one. Instead of duplicating efforts, it's a good idea to get together with a few others in your patch to explore, experiment, or even learn from the mistakes together.

Back to the bit I disagree ... I am really finding it difficult to convince myself that Trust staff in North Staffs are ready for blogging. ... The fact that our users aren't ready doesn't mean that libraries can't introduce the technology here and now. As mentioned in my presentation on 22/5, I do think library colleagues have the role to lead and 'inspire' their users. Actually this isn't the very first time I got this comment this week although only 2 working days have passed so far; the fact is that I hear similar doubts about users or even library staff themselves constantly. If I had taken the remarks as they are, there wouldn't be 3Cs, not to mention take two!

Bertha

Sue Caldicott said...

Clare
I was interested in your post about blogging in libraries and echo your sentiments, although I think my echo is more of a scream. Your point about no comments from the live audience reiterates my point that it would be difficlut to engage interest from our users who may feel this is all a bit too much. But I don't want to be to defeatist, I do think there is a place for blogging for outreach services and for that ever constant demand of 24 hour acces to library services.