•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Unless you have been asleep or just born in the past three years, you will have found many library articles touting the growth and value of the weblog.1 You may also have attended one of the many technology/library conferences, such as Computers in Libraries, and even an ACL Conference and gone to a presentation on blogs. You will have heard that you must blog, and in conjunction use RSS – whatever that is – if you wish to communicate more effectively with your patrons, your staff, or anyone else.2 Hopping on the blogging bandwagon can “save” your institution, make you a better librarian or teacher. As Irene McDermott notes, “Just as it has been imperative for everyone to have a Web page, now everyone with the slightest interest in being au courant must, absolutely must, have a blog.”3 This paper will examine the hype surrounding blogging, the hope or potential benefits of blogging for your institution, as well as the hysteria or negative aspects of blogging. This will be accompanied by comments about my personal experience over the past 4 years with The In Season Christian Librarian. Writing a formal article about blogging seems odd because the style of a blog is casual and conversational and often stream of consciousness. Marshall Brain (2004) says, “There is no particular order to [blogs]. For example, if I see a good link, I can throw it in my blog. The tools that most bloggers use make it incredibly easy to add entries to a blog any time they feel like it.”4 However, given the short time blogs have been around, several doctoral level theses on blogging have appeared in Dissertation Abstracts.5 This paper does not draw on dissertations but does make reference to several formal presentations at conferences in addition to national surveys and white papers. Even after 4 years, much remains unclear and undecided about blogging.

Download

Share

COinS