Back to my original question: are library blogs useful? Ultimately, yes, I believe they are, especially in combination with other technologies such as RSS Feeds. For libraries, argues the Shifted Librarian, blogs are useful means to “get out into your community”. Similarly, Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk argue that blogs are “ways to engage customers and push fresh content to users”. For patrons, blogs provide another source of information enriched with relevant links to more sources, as well as the opportunity to participate in the discussion by providing some feedback. Granted, some blogs and posts may be boring, but users can selectively ignore those. Besides, “boring” may also be in the eye of the beholder.
Blogging @ The University of Victoria Library
The University of Victoria Library has two types of blogs: 1) Library-wide blogs providing resources, such as information on copyright, scholarly communication and publishing, and library news; and, 2) Subject Librarian blogs, which include subjects such as History, Music , Public Administration and Women’s Studies. The UVic Library Blogs page can be found from the main UVic Library website by clicking on “About the Libraries” and then on “Library Blogs” in the left sidebar.
Naturally, I was drawn to the Women’s Studies blog. For some reason, unlike the rest of the blogs, which incorporate the design of the main library website, the Women’s Studies blog uses a unique design, which may explain the absence of a link back to the UVic library homepage. It does, however, have links to the UVic Library Blogs lists as well as to individual blogs, so there is an indirect way to get back to the library homepage.
In terms of usability, the Women’s Studies blog has a search option, but no tags, unlike other blogs. A quick check revealed an inconsistency among blogs in terms of the provision of cloud tags, which can be very helpful. Some blogs also have links to other library services such as the Subject Guide, Citation Style Guides and E-Books, thus integrating the blogs with rest of the UVic Library website.
In addition to the ability to provide feedback by posting comments, the user also has the option to subscribe to RSS feeds.
In the final analysis, the UVic Library blogs provide both students and faculty with supplemental resources, combined with the opportunity for feedback.
Only Blogging @ Calgary Public Library
The Calgary Public Library (CPL) website has a colourful and busy home page. As a result, finding the link to the blogs page took me a few minutes, as it didn’t occur to me to scroll down until I had gotten frustrated enough. If I had done so sooner, I would have noticed the More blogs link in the bottom right corner of the home page, under a list of what I had assumed to be pages to specific resources. The list includes 16 individually designed and original blogs, all linked back to the CPL homepage. Each blog also has a search capability, and some have plenty of tags and links to other related sites and blogs. For example, Eco – Action, a “green site devoted to the environment and building a more sustainable community”, includes the following links in its sidebar: Eco Bloggers, Staff Eco-Action Newsletter, Green Tips, Sites We Like, Ecological Footprint Calculator and Tags. While the blogs are well integrated with the rest of the website, there appear to be no other Web 2.0 technologies with which to integrated—at least, I couldn’t find any.
The variety of blogs suggests that CPL is making an effort to serve all community members, however, I struggled in vain to find any blog or blog post about First Nations Calgarians. I found only one mention of First Nations or “Natives” in a post about the Calgary Stampede posted on the Community Heritage and Family History blog, which includes under the tag “Interesting Calgarians” posts titled When Irish Eyes Are…Calgarian and Black History Month, but no references to First Nations Calgarians. This is a serious omission, in light of the fact that Calgary had “the second largest Aboriginal population among cities in Alberta in 2006”, according to Statistics Canada. Thus, CPL cannot yet claim to provide “the best public library service to all Calgarians”, as it does in its Charter.
The Blogger-Librarians at San Francisco Public Library
While not as inviting as the introduction to the New York Public Library (NYPL) blogs, the users introduced to the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) blog page gets a clear idea of what to expect. Accessible from the “About” drop menu and reminiscent of the NYPL Blog Channels, the SFPL blog page has “channels” to individual branch blogs, as well as to “channels” such as the African American Blog Center, the LGTB Resources Blog, the Teen Services Blog and the Magazines and Newspaper Center Blog.
Clicking on the Mission Branch Blog, for example, takes me to a supposedly bi-lingual blog. (While I expected all posts to be bi-lingual, it turns out that only a few seem to be.) The side bar on the right has information about the branch hours, upcoming classes and events and children’s programs, as well as links back to the main SFPL website, the Mission Library webpage, SFPL on Facebook and SFPL News on Twitter. Unfortunately, unlike NYPL blog posts, these posts allow for comments from users, but do not integrate other Web 2.0 technologies that would allow the user to share interesting posts.
The Mission Library blog is also accessible via the branch webpage, by clicking on “Social Media” on the right sidebar, which takes the user to “Mission Library Photos on Flickr”, or to “Neighbourhood Social Media”, “Library Social Media” and “Media Resources” on the right sidebar. While the blog page fails to integrate other technologies, the webpage connects well with the other library services, as well as the community.
Accessibility, however, may be a bit tricky for a novice – from the SFPL home page, the user would have to know that s/he has to navigate across the drop-down menus on the top. From the Mission web page, some novice users looking for the blog page may not be familiar with the term “social media”.
In terms of content, blog posts include titles such as Organic Container Herb Gardening, Staff recommended reading: The Shack, Hispanic Heritage Month at the Mission Branch and (one of the few bi-lingual posts) We introduce to you, our new children’s librarian!
Clicking on the LGTB Resource Blog takes me to the Queerest Library Ever, where I am informed that I will be kept
up-to-date on resources, collections, archives, public programs, and exhibitions of the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center and the Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library. We’ll also tell you about LGBT services at other SFPL locations, as well as highlight new books, archival materials and more.
Of course, being San Francisco, the so-called gay Mecca, it is not surprising to find a “queer” blog. With titles such as Queerest News Ever, Education and Homophobia, Proposition 8 on Trial, The Queer Perspective in Spanish Culture and Africa and LBTG Citizens: An Uphill Battle, the blog discusses a wide variety of books and issues, both local and global, of interest and concern to the LGBT community.
The blog format is simple, with one link to the SFPL home page and a “Hot Links”, which is a “work in progress”, on the right sidebar. Unfortunately, like the Mission Branch blog, the Queerest Library Ever does not integrate other technologies to allow users to share information easily. In answering the question: Why should your library have a blog? The Shifted Librarian argues that
There are many benefits, but my biggest reason is because it gets your current news and announcements in a syndicated format, the display of which you can automate anywhere. You can easily recycle your content to Twitter, Facebook, elsewhere on your website, and more.
From this perspective, it seems that the SFPL fails to take advantage of one of the benefits, namely “recycling” blog content using other Web 2.0 technologies.
In the final analysis, the SFPL blogs page reflects the diversity of the community it serves, which is the essential element, notwithstanding the problems of accessibility and sharing, which require only a technological (and maybe a financial) fix.
The New York Public Library: Blogging Through Channels
So in addition to being on-the-beat reporters, taking the pulse of events and activities around NYPL with up-to-the-moment coverage, think of our bloggers also as deep sea divers, swimming down, flashlights in hand, exploring the library’s vastness and bringing knowledge to the surface.
Those are very inviting words, and opening up the New York Public Library Blog Channels page does not disappoint. With titles such as The Reader’s Den, Cooked Books and Duke Jazz Series, these “channels” have something for a wide variety of user needs and/or desires. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Blog Channels page, try browsing the blog by subject. (Surprisingly, though, I was unable to find “censorship” in the subject categories.) The blog itself is easy to find from the home page—it is immediately visible on the top of the home page under Blogs, Videos & Publications, which has another link to Blogs on a side bar.
I decided to take a closer look at one of the Blog Channels that got my attention, namely Next Chapter: A 50+ Library Blog . While I’m not quite 50 yet (Hint: I celebrated the last birthday in my 40s this year), I do feel disturbingly comforted when I read: Don’t despair if you are a Boomer, or a Silent, or a Greatest–the public library is with you every step of the way! This channel covers services, programs and other items of interest for the active older adult. Indeed, Next Chapter: A 50+ Library Blog contains useful posts with titles such as Digital Native… or Not?: Learning Computers Later in Life, Brain Fitness: Practical Advice to Keep Your Brain Sharp and Working After Work: Finding a Job at Midlife and Beyond, as well as interesting posts such as Women over 50 Making a Difference and Women Making History in the Second Half of Life.
Would a digital “non-native” find it easy to navigate around “Next Chapter”? As a relatively embryonic user of Web 2.0 technologies, I believe I can provide a close approximation of an assessment by a digital “non-native”. As mentioned above, getting to the blog pages is relatively simple, and so is getting back to the NYPL home page—there is link on the top of each blog page. If the user has any questions, s/he can click on AskNYPL to chat with a librarian, although when I clicked on it (at 8:30 pm on a Sunday night mind you) a message appeared, politely informing the user that there is no librarian available. I suspect not many public libraries can afford to have a librarian available 24/7, even if it were necessary, which is questionable, unless you’re an insomniac or you’ve procrastinated on a term paper.
“Engaging” with the library bloggers is also relatively simple. Each post on the blog allows for user feedback, and indeed the NYPL encourages users to “engage directly with bloggers in the comment stream”. While this may be a bit intimidating for the Web 2.0 novice, if the posting is of particular interest to the user, s/he has the option of bookmarking it on Delicious, Google or Yahoo, sharing it on Facebook or submitting to/on Twitter, Furl, Newsvine, Reddit and Propeller. The sidebar on each post also has links to other relevant blog posts, as well as links to library audio/video resources and publications on similar topics. The blogs are definitely well integrated into the rest of the library services.
Users can also connect with the library via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and e-Newsletters. He or she also has the option of subscribing to the NYPL RSS feeds. According to the “About NYPL blogs” page, users can find posts “peppered throughout the Library’s website — supplementing search results and tied to relevant location pages, topics and events”, thus further integrating the blogs with other services.
Overall, the NYPL Blog is a well designed, informative, useful, interesting and engaging. It is well integrated with the rest of the NYPL services and tools provided on the website.
Blogs Everywhere @ Ann Arbor District Library
Blogs are sprinkled around the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) website. They can be found from About Us, Catalogue, Events, Services and Research drop menus in on the top of any page, or by going into Services, where the user can click on Using the Website to get to a page with descriptions and links to all the AADL services including blogs. A click on the Check out all AADL blogs takes the user to an alphabetized list of blogs, all of which have subscriptions to RSS feeds.
Ann Arbor District Library Blog List
As the list reveals, AADL provides a wide variety of blogs, but unfortunately, there is no way to search the blogs by subject. They are, however, integrated with the RSS Feeds, allowing users to receive timely blog updates and sharing them via email.
The individual blogs themselves are simple in design, easy to navigate, and well integrated with the rest of the AADL website. The Library News Blog, for example, includes posts about “new services, products, partnerships and projects” with titles such as Family Time at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Downtown Library Closed this Sunday, 1/17, followed by …and we’re back! Like most blog posts, all AADL blogs encourage user feedback by providing an opportunity to add a comment. Moreover, a click on the post titled Family Time at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, for example, shows relevant links to “Movies” and “All Ages” in other parts of the AADL website. A post titled Traverwood Branch holds pickup, also includes links to other relevant AADL blogs.
Overall, the ADDL blogs are useful, informative and well integrated, but they could be made easier to browse by including an option to search by subject.
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books
Having recently done some research on book burnings, this “flaming” blog caught my immediate attention. I was curious about Fonthill, Ontario, where the Pelham Public Library (PPL) is located, so I did a Google Map search and found it somewhere between St. Catherines and Niagara Falls. According to its website, the Town of Pelham, Ontario “is composed of five unique and historic villages: Effingham, Fenwick, Fonthill, North Pelham and Ridgeville. Blending successful farming, growing commercialism and five beautiful villages Pelham is ‘Five Villages One Community’”. That sounds so quaint! But, somehow, it seems odd to find the source of Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books in a quaint village. I got curious, so I went on a trip to Fonthill with Google Maps Streetview, and frankly, I was disappointed. Even though it’s called a village, it looks like any other small town in Canada. I guess when I think of a “village” I get a mental picture of the villages I visited with my parents in Spain in the 70s and 80s – some with stone houses, some without running water, and goats and chickens everywhere. But I digress.
The village of Fonthill is not only connected to water, it also is digitally connected to the information world—at least, its public library is. The Pelham Public Library has the usual links to the catalogue, databases, e-books and the bi-lingual AskOn/OnDemande , an online research service. However, the only Web 2.0 tools/services used by PPL are a blog, Twitter and RSS feeds to allow users to subscribe to the PPL blog, Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books, using JacketFlap’s Children’s Publishing blog reader.
Interestingly, Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books, as the title reveals, is dedicated exclusively to censorship, and one is tempted to ask: Why? While it is described as “a discussion on censorship through the Pelham Public Library, Fonthill, Ontario”, it’s not clear why censorship is of particular and exclusive interest to this library. I thought I would find some clue in the About page, but it was limited to the name/location of the author and her favourite books and blogs. Needless to say, censorship is an important issue to discuss, but it would be helpful to know why the PPL blog is limited to this issue. One clue is provided by a link to a list of “Banned or Challenged Books in Pelham Public Library”— including two children’s books and one teen book—suggesting that all is not well in the village. A click on one of the banned or challenged books takes the user to LibraryThing book club, where users can view book recommendations of the same author or genre.
Fahrenheit 451:Banned Books is a relatively easy to find blog from the home page of the Pelham Public Library—just click on a link listed in the Services and Programs menu on the right side. Visually, the blog’s flames in the background remind me of images I found during much of my research on book burnings, thus invoking an ominous feeling. The blog’s simple structure allows for relatively easy navigation, although it would be helpful if new pages opened in new tabs, so as to make that navigation less cumbersome between pages.
In addition to a link back to the PPL website and annual lists of the Fahrenheit 451: Banned Book Club suggested readings, the blog has an extensive list of links to other sites concerned with censorship, as well as links to other “librarians and other book lovers”.
While the content of the blog is limited to censorship, the scope of the discussions is global. With topics ranging from China’s Google war and Germany’s reprinting of Hitler’s Mein Kampf to information about Freedom to Read Week and the Banned Books Challenge, the blog postings, coupled with links to other websites and blogs, make this blog an excellent resource for users interested in censorship.
The question remains, if blogs are ways to “engage customers and push fresh content to users”, as Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk argue, how does PPL measure up? A quick look at the posted comments, suggests that not much “engaging” is happening. Many of the blog posts have zero comments, while those that do are limited to one or two comments. Perhaps those willing to challenge book bannings are few and far between in Pelham, although I’m speculating of course.
