During her presentation last tuesday Rachel Singer Gordon talked quite a bit about using blogs and social sites to promote the library's role in the community. This made me think about how we have this blog to update our fellow GSAs about what is going on, or to discuss issues, but it might be helpful to have a blog for the people who use the library. We could use it to post problems with the computer system, or events in the library, changes in the library hours, etc. And the library users could post their issues with the library, their suggestions as to how we could do our jobs better, or questions about our services.
I don't know, maybe it's just the coffee talking. What do you guys think?
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Before starting this blog, I had done some general research on library blogs in general, and it seemed like there was a growing trend for libraries to put blogs on their Web sites (according to what I read, Ann Arbor District Library's blog is quite good). I like the idea of having a WSULS blog for this kind of information, and I think it would be a valuable addition. However, I also think it would be a headache to implement. The blog in itself wouldn't be difficult, but the problem lies in where the blog will be.
It would make sense if the blog were on the library's homepage (or somewhere within the Web site), but we would have to work with C&IT and/or the WSULS computing gurus. I've been led to believe that this would be an overly long and complicated process, and from what I understand those who updated the blog would need some top-level, CIA-type clearance. These could be the perceptions and rumblings of the malcontented, however. Additionally, in my previous blog-related discussions with Iryna, she told me that we would have to be careful that the library's servers could handle the blogging software.
We could put the blog on something like Blogger, My Space, FaceBook, etc., and a few academic libraries have chosen this route. We will probably need some sort of clearance from higher powers (the Dean at the very least). If we went this route, we would have the advantage of "bringing the library to the people," (since they could bookmark our blog or put us on their "Friends" list). I think we would also have the added burden of actively advertising the blog to our students and faculty, since they wouldn't intuitively think to look on Blogger for library information.
It seems like the library already has a quasi-blog, the "News For You" section under the picture on the homepage. Perhaps at the very least this section could be flushed out with more current and pertinent information.
We're closing soon and I must tidy Club UGL, but I'm sure I'll have more to add later.
Alright, I'm back again. In my previous comment, I mentioned that I had read several articles library news blogs. I've done a quick search on Library Lit and have included a quick, sleep-deprived, caffeine-supported annotated bibliography below. By and large, the authors seem in favor of library blogs.
Blair, J. & Cranston, C. (2006). Preparing for the birth of our library. Computers in Libraries, 26(2), 10-13, 54.
A step-by-step guide to planning your library's blog.
Bell, S. (2005). Where the readers are. Library Journal Net Connect, Fall 2005, 8-14.
Informtion on syndicating library blogs on courseware (such as Blackboard) and the results of a survey gauging how useful student find this tool.
Vogel, T.M. & Goans, D. (2005). Delivering the news with blogs: the Georgia State University Library experience. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 10(1), 5-27.
The GSU Library successfully created a news blog for science faculty and students, and is now working on creating other subject-specific news blogs.
What I had in mind was doing a blogger blog and I had the same thoughts about promotion and wondering if anybody would actually use it. I'm still thinking that it's worth a shot. I for one will be willing to help promote the hell out of it or whatever else needs to be done.
Hmmm...if we did this, we could make all the Club UGL GSAs administrators, so we could all post to the blog. Perhaps other GSAs and librarians would want to participate as well.
What do you think about moderating patron comments? While I don't like the thought of censoring comments, I can also see where it might be useful (i.e. if an unhappy patron starts leaving flaming messages, etc. It's possible that students might also leave messages for each other or non-library-related messages that we might want to axe (and blog administrators have the ability to do so).
Do you want to start pushing this idea with the powers that be?
I just spent the last half hour looking at what other university libraries have done with blogs and I have to say it was an encouraging experience. I even found out that our own medical library has a blog:
http://wsumedlibrary2.blogspot.com/
Even if we don't open comments to students (which I see now could be a huge mistake) I think it would be worth doing, especially if all WSU GSAs and librarians could post if they wanted to, making it a system-wide deal.
Here's a directory of library blogs I was going through:
http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Weblogs/Organizational_Weblogs/
So I guess what I'm saying is that we should start pushing it to the "powers that be."
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