When I
started this blog, I had a couple of main goals. I wanted to see how blogging
has impacted society in general and libraries in particular, and I wanted to better
understand how blogs can foster accessibility in libraries. In my research, I
found the answers to these queries and many more.
I found out that blogs have a
long, proud history of being voices for the voiceless and helping people cope
with situations far away physically but close to home emotionally. I found out
that blogs definitely have a place in information centers today, but sometimes
it’s hard to figure out where that place is. And I found out that blogs are
only helpful if people know about them and are able to use them, that blogs sometimes add to the problem of information inaccessibility.
When doing
research, I find it important to identify the
biggest advocates for my topic, and I eventually came across Andrew Sullivan, whose
blog, The Dish, is one of the leading political blogs today. From his seminal
work, Why I Blog (Sullivan, 2008), I learned the best blogging lesson of all. I hope you enjoy his
message, as I hope you've enjoyed Ars Blogetica.
In fact, for all the intense gloom
surrounding the news-paper and magazine business, this is actually a golden era
for journalism. The blogosphere has added a whole new idiom to the act of
writing and has introduced an entirely new generation to nonfiction. It has
enabled writers to write out loud in ways never seen or understood before. And
yet it has exposed a hunger and need for traditional writing that, in the age
of television’s dominance, had seemed on the wane.
Words, of all sorts, have never seemed so now.(Sullivan, 2008)
References
Nice recap, Amanda. I thought the Sullivan quote was a poignant way to end it. Personally, I've followed a number of blogs that really do provide the kind of voice for the voiceless that you mentioned. I've also followed blogs, however, that contribute to our growing and interrelated problems of information overload and misinformation. Lastly, I agree with Sullivan that blogs, contrary to popular opinion, have actually increased our "hunger for traditional writing" and information access and I think this is positive development.
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