It is very early Wednesday morning, and I’m feeling some small beads of sweat on my neck. I’m looking for inspiration any way I can get it — from my brain, from divine sources, and of course, from you, gentle reader.
This Friday morning I’m giving at talk to SOLINET about how to market, get buy-in, and otherwise feed and water your library’s blog. I think I agreed to this last summer, when many very nice people were finding me gigs to keep food on the table.
In any event, when I was reminded in November of this commitment, I said to myself, self, I said, that’s February — no problem!
Then in January, I said, pish tosh — that’s over a month away!
Then last week I said, I have the whole weekend! But then I had that icky muscle-thingy happen, and I was so heavily medicated my doctor warned me against not just driving, but using kitchen appliances with moving parts. So I decided PowerPoint was a kitchen appliance (it chops text, right?), and lay on the couch, reading.
Cut to Wednesday morning. I’m still dorking around with my slides, and though I had brilliant thoughts in the shower, they got toweled away. I have a few ideas, but am struggling.
(I’m talking about blogs affiliated with libraries and library organizations and oriented toward library users… not the free range type, like this one, and not otherwise excellent “industry” blogs, such as Library Garden and It’s All Good.)
My go-to blog of choice is Icarus — a lovely blog where many posts have a voice and a focus on “you, library user” — and the AADL’s blog, but surely the well can’t run dry there.
I’m not limiting myself to library blogs — because the point is not “how can I have a blog as good as the best in LibraryLand,” but how can I have the very best blog possible — unfortunately, not quite the same question. But I want to give honor where honor is due.
Posted on this day, other years:
- ALA Midwinter 2013: Back in the Saddle Again - 2013
- Beautiful house for rent in Myers Park, Tallahassee - 2010
- MPOW Search Engine RFI - 2006
- The Library Blogs I Read - 2006
- A Satisfying, even Uplifting Rejection - 2006
- Pimp My Blog - 2005
I hate when my great shower thoughts are all gone by the time I get to writing them down! I’ve even taken to stashing a notebook and pen in the bathroom for just such an occasion. It helps a little, but not entirely.
As for blogs to mention, there are always book review blogs. And many authors have blogs, so perhaps some libraries could feature blogs by their more popular authors. You could also talk about blogging tools such as pinging engines like Pingoat or Pingomatic, Technorati, Feedburner, stat counter programs, plugins and widgets for programs such as WordPress, etc.
Either way, I’m sure you’ll do great! Good luck with it.
We’re working on something at Duke that might be of interest if you want an academic library example: http://library.duke.edu/blogs/libraryhacks/
Those are FABU ideas for my section on “found content”! Thanks! (Yes, I need a little waterproof voice recorder…)
I keep an eye on a couple in my state mostly so I can just keep up with what’s happening at the library.
Boise State University has a blog that is focused on their user: http://albertsonslibrary.blogspot.com/
Another area library has been using their blog as a way to help their community keep up with what’s happening with their plans for a new library building: http://nampalibrary-sketchbook.blogspot.com/
Yes, I should point out that I do want academic library examples! Thanks to both of you. Gina, I too like those project blogs. People do NOT have to commit to blogs forever and ever.
For the buy-in part, maybe talking about how PLCMC and Yarra Plenty and others used the 23 Things variation to encourage participation. I like what I read somewhere about starting out with the “low-hanging fruit” first – so not sure if that concept helps at all. I am sorry I’m going to have to miss your talk, I have to teach an online class in my HOTEL room that morning in Tally and then race over to speak at 1 pm.
I’m afraid I keep ours really tight, short and well pruned. Respect the patron’s time and what all. It is, though, invaluable as fast update PR tool (the local newspaper staffs, at least, are reading it) and we often link back into the library web to remind folks of the wealth of resources there. (I see the link backs in our web analyzer.) However! few subscribers and negligible comments .. the blog is simply not a big deal in our community (I’ll be teaching our blog class again, this Saturday). For all but the politically committed, a blog is still just something that gets mentioned on CNN. Electronic forums (BBS) are the preferred communication hereabouts …
Better tool for us has been a listserv of advance notice of classes, events and news … 700 subscribers to that and more signing on daily. http://morriscty.blogspot.com
I think our eBranch librarians do a great job with the HCPL blog — I really love the TV grid they did for what to watch during the writers’ strike.
http://www.hcpl.net/ebranch/news/
Max, that’s a good point, though I was also thinking about (maybe surprisingly?) the role of policy and also staff assignments. Nothing’s itchier than not knowing what the guidelines are, and also having a blog in that nebulous zone where it is tolerated but not affirmed is a big downer.
Sara, I think it’s a case of YMMV… some readers seem to really cotton to the more reflective posts. Danbury’s short book reviews are priceless, though…
Our state SLA chapter uses our blog to keep in touch with each other, to announce upcoming events, and to stay informed with various bits of news:
http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/kentucky/
Although not physically attractive, we’ve received good feedback on our Library’s News and Events blog: http://www.valdosta.edu/library/blog/ . Students have mentioned that they like the weekly “Neat Stuff” column that our catalogers do, that highlights weird/neat stuff in the collection.
You might be interested in our blog-as-library-website.
It’s still a baby, really, and we’re still working things out, but the idea has been to have about one post from each branch every week, and so the staff buy-in has come largely from the understandable desire to see your branch up there on the front page.
Our reader’s advisory blog has been humming along for a couple of years now. Turning the Page: http://www2.cincinnatilibrary.org/blog/
Sandy, I’m very impressed by the voices on your library’s RA blog! Very engaging. Nice job.
Here’s an overseas example – my workplaces blog from Australia: Invisible Ink – http://www.cclc.vic.gov.au/news/blog/
One way to “feed and water” a blog is to encourage pairs/teams of writers/editors, rather than getting folks to do all-or-nothing. For example, when I was in Law Firm Land, it was easier to get young associates to write stuff (they have energy, a bit more time, want kudos and exposure), and then pair them with a senior partner who could edit/approve the piece. It was also a good excuse to encourage mentoring and interactions between senior and junior players.
So… find a kid fresh out of library school with a ton of energy, enthusiasm and moxie, and pair him/her as the writer with a more experienced hand as editor/approver. The young writer will learn from the interaction (and be protected from youthful indiscretion), and the editor will get to play without having to do all the heavy lifting.
Note that the relationship doesn’t even have to be open; you don’t have to say, “Post by Frank and Lou.” The writer can still get the blog credit. The important thing is to communicate internally in order to encourage external goodness.
Andy, I like that process. It gives the writing a good last check, but it doesn’t bog it down in interminable “communications review.” Plus I have found that I always learn something from a good editor.
http://sonomalibrary.org/biz
Our business blog. One librarian wanted to post new business books on the web site, I installed WordPress for her, and look how she ran with it!
Getting the word out: Traditionally we do bookmarks, flyers, posters. This is a *business* blog so guess what we did this time? BUSINESS CARDS! She hands out business cards and distributes little racks of business cards to all the library branches plus the local Chamber, Kiwanis, Economic Development office, etc., etc.
I’m really impressed with the enormous amount of outreach she’s taken the time to do … the business community doesn’t ordinarily beat a patch to the library, so the library has to work harder to get their attention.
Genny, what a great idea, and that’s too cute! You don’t have a business card to show me perhaps..? On Flickr or sumpin’?
Karen,
May I suggest SPLAT? It’s the Special Projects Library Action Team, a group of dedicated and energetic library folk who blog about libraries, services, tools, and everything in between: http://splat.lili.org/ .
Karen,
Here at the University of TN at Chattanooga, we got the go-ahead to start our planning to build our new library. Our Dean (& Our head IT guy, Griffey) is very big on transparency and inclusion of the campus community as well as the greater community of our city (& the world), and all of the planning documents and chance for comment has been made available on a wiki here: http://wiki.lib.utc.edu/index.php/Library_Building_Project – it means we have to teach some of the older faculty what the heck a wiki is and how it works, but all in all it’s been a pretty impressive effort.
May be too late for your talk tomorrow, but these are some of the blogs I use as examples:
Nicely done ‘blog as web site’: http://www.thetroylibrary.org/
Variety of info and appealingly put together: http://ehplct.blogspot.com/
Great community blog hosted by library: http://www.darien.org/communitymatters/blog/
Love the ‘voices’ of the front desk here: http://www.darienlibrary.org/frontdesk/blog/
Good example of a community college blog: http://nvcclib.blogspot.com/
Thanks, all! Polly… you are so generous. Those are great examples!
http://picasaweb.google.com/gennyengel/SCLBiz
Business card for SCL Biz blog.
P.S. For all the many in our audience who don’t particularly use RSS readers, even when built into their browsers … we’ve been setting up Feedburner RSS-to-email subscriptions. This way, the feed from our blog, and certain other coming-soon feeds we will be offering, is available as an email subscription. As Sara Weissman noted above, there’s still a big population that wants their news by email newsletter.
Check out our MIT Libraries News blog:
http://news-libraries.mit.edu/blog/
We use the RSS feeds from it (via Feed Digest) to auto-populate other web pages on our site, such as these:
http://info-libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/news/
and
http://libraries.mit.edu/giving/news/
We’ve been running it since 2005 and we have about 25 librarians and library staff who post stories to it.
It’s nice to see all these other blog success stories, too. Thanks for the post.
Yay Genny! Copying, pasting, copying, pasting…
Is it okay to have a couple from overseas? They are both public libraries. It might be too late too – I’m not sure about the time difference…
http://cclblog.wordpress.com/
http://www.rodneylibraries.blogspot.com/
Genny, I like offering the same material by RSS and email. It’s a good (and easy) option. Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks, Nicole and, uh, “irk”! It’s still Thursday night here in Florida so that Christchurch blog is going into the talk… the “Love Sucks” post is a fabulous example of “voice.”
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It’s late, I know, but if you want to throw some school library blogs into the mix, check these out:
http://thepeskylibrary.blogspot.com/ and http://nmhlibrary.typepad.com/the_reading_room/
I don’t know these folks personally, but I think they manage by being big enough to trade off amongst librarians.
Then there’s mine:
http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/blog/. I’m a small operation, but I manage by keeping posts regular and short and taking breaks during the summer, etc. But I have loads of fun with it.
Good luck!
Wow, what a great list of blogs here. Karen, I’m copying and pasting too. 🙂 Hope the talk went well.
It went great, Polly — thanks for asking! By Monday I’ll post all the links and so forth. Whew, so tired… when I give talks elsewhere I can go lie down afterwards. 😉
I think this is a great idea. When you get the list, will you publish it somewhere. I have a hard time finding great library blogs that are actually associated with a particular library, it seems most of the good ones are librarians blogging without any connection to an actual library.
It’s way too late i’m sure, but feel free anyway to take a peek at the Blogalogue of the Frankston Library Service. Our Council CMS controlled official website is a little too boring, so yo’ve flicked the switch and playing with the customer via our blog.
Just wanted to say thanks Karen, your presentation on Blogs was great at the Solinet User group meeting. Gave me a lot of great idea for PLAN’S Blog. I also got a couple of pictures of you. I posted the link on PLAN’S blog with the pictures.
http://www.planfl.net/crackercoastblog/
Roy, thanks back! You were great hosts and I love this picture set.
I’m sorry I only just discovered your blog, to late to be helpful for you on this presentation. But the Brooklyn Public Library has a great blog-assisted reading group program, which you might want to check out (if no one has already mentioned it to you). The site is http://brooklynbooktalk.blogspot.com.
Great blog by the way 🙂
[…] Fe Public Libraries’ blog, Icarus, was voted one of the best public library blogs by the Free Range Librarian. I guess they’re doing something right. It is so easy anymore to integrate blogs into […]