The New York Public Library: Blogging Through Channels

With over 50 million items, and thousands of events, services and exhibitions spread across the library system each year, staff are faced with the near impossible task of shedding light on the many hidden treasures and resources on offer here at NYPL. In a sense, the library is like an enormous iceberg: the section peaking above the water represents only a small fraction of its overall size. These blogs are designed to better document and promote this immense trove of information.

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.

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