Your mom has one.
The Taylor Swift addict next door has one.
So does that strange man across town with the parrot.
But we’re not talking about a library card, folks.
We’re talking about a blog.
We’re talking about a blog.
According to Merriam-Webster.com, a blog (derived from the combination of the words “web” and “log”) is
But is this all a blog can be?
Over the course of twenty years, blogs have gone from being the playgrounds of angst-ridden basement-dwellers to being key players in pop culture, business, and politics. Today, many corporations, non-profit organizations, and individuals use blogs as a way to connect with users in order to promote their products (and themselves) and provide regularly updated information about events and practices.
Not to be left out of the loop, libraries large and small have also adopted blogs as a way to introduce patrons to library staff, rate and review books & AV materials, and keep followers in the know about library services.
Also, after the press's rather recent interest in the new generation of librarians, blogs about librarianship have cropped up in numbers rivaling those of unattended children at the library on school holidays. These blogs cover a range of topics, including helping new graduates find jobs, reporting library news, challenging stereotypes, and coping with day-to-day life as a librarian.
Library blogs serve many of the same purposes as commercial or personal blogs: they transmit information to people in hopes of gaining a following and therefore drawing in more people to partake of their services. The difference with library blogs, though, is that they aim not to reach the masses, but to reach their specific communities, whether they be colleges, small towns, or special populations like the hearing-impaired.
Localized blogs such as these have the potential to create a niche in blogging: that of a community forum in which the followers may actually meet each other in real life. Promoting libraries as community hubs is a project near and dear to my heart, but in order to do that, we must first consider two questions:
Blog [Def. 1]. (n.d.). From Merriam-Webster Online, Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog
a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also : the contents of such a site.
But is this all a blog can be?
Over the course of twenty years, blogs have gone from being the playgrounds of angst-ridden basement-dwellers to being key players in pop culture, business, and politics. Today, many corporations, non-profit organizations, and individuals use blogs as a way to connect with users in order to promote their products (and themselves) and provide regularly updated information about events and practices.
Not to be left out of the loop, libraries large and small have also adopted blogs as a way to introduce patrons to library staff, rate and review books & AV materials, and keep followers in the know about library services.
Also, after the press's rather recent interest in the new generation of librarians, blogs about librarianship have cropped up in numbers rivaling those of unattended children at the library on school holidays. These blogs cover a range of topics, including helping new graduates find jobs, reporting library news, challenging stereotypes, and coping with day-to-day life as a librarian.
Library blogs serve many of the same purposes as commercial or personal blogs: they transmit information to people in hopes of gaining a following and therefore drawing in more people to partake of their services. The difference with library blogs, though, is that they aim not to reach the masses, but to reach their specific communities, whether they be colleges, small towns, or special populations like the hearing-impaired.
Localized blogs such as these have the potential to create a niche in blogging: that of a community forum in which the followers may actually meet each other in real life. Promoting libraries as community hubs is a project near and dear to my heart, but in order to do that, we must first consider two questions:
Who blogs? And why?
References
Blog [Def. 1]. (n.d.). From Merriam-Webster Online, Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blog
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