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.
