Blogs and blogging in libraries

This was the title of the presentation I gave at the Fly the web event mentioned in the previous post. Since Dave Pattern had just made everyone a blogger through the practical exercise in the previous session, I didn't have to spend time explaining what a blog was! However, I did identify characteristics which I think lead to blogs being (quoting from my powerpoint) "Good for news, things with timelines, developing ideas; Not so good as a reference tool or to foster ongoing discussion on a range of topics." I drew a disctinction between individual bloggers and organisational bloggers. I talked about my experiences of blogging (as an "individual" blogger - it's certainly not part of my job description, and it isn't hosted at Sheffield either, now).

I identified four areas in which blogging can be useful for libraries, and gave some examples of blogs of different kinds. I also highlighted some management type issues. Finally I identified some resources for library blogging: articles, wikis, search tools etc. For example sites that are useful for searching library blogs are:
Anjos, J. Infolitworld news: blogs. http://www.infolitworldnews.com/
Bradley, P. Librarian Weblogs. http://tinyurl.com/y6qvhf (Google custom search, 25 blogs)
Bradley, P. (2006) Librarian weblogs. Pageflakes. http://www.pageflakes.com/philipbradley.ashx?
page=4541261 (has search options for Google & Liszenembedded)
Libworm. http://www.libworm.com/ (Searches 1400 RSS feeds)
Liszen. http://www.liszen.com/ (searches 500 library blogs, Google custom search)

My PowerPoint is available in pdf format at: http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/blogging2006.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: Newcastle road bridge, Nov 2006.