Public Libraries

Easiest and most useful application of a blog is for promoting the library and its collections.  Many blog sites today are free and easy to set up.  Blogs are also relatively easy to maintain.  Another benefit to blogs is that once a user subscribes, the information can be pushed at the user.  Since blogs are free, a library can have multiple blogs in order to highlight different areas of the collection such as science fiction/fantasy, mystery, non-fiction, or different areas of the library itself such as reference, children's, or young adult/teen.

  

Avon Film Fans

The Labyrinth Librarians

Birmingham Public Library

Internal Blogs

Blogs are also a great way to keep up to within a library organization.  It can be used in any number of aspects including to update staff announcements, to highlight successful programming, to report important issues such as alarm system testing or out of service technology, or to highlight specific staff for a job well done, among other things. 

Tredyffrin Staff Notes

MPLIC Resouce Guides

Professional Development

More and more librarians have blogs and post on them regularly.  It is a great way to share experiences and knowledge.  One of the most common uses of blogs by librarians is to review books they read.  But there are also a number out there with practical advice.

Strategic Librarian

Letters to a Young Librarian

Tips for Blogging

Overall, blogs are an excellent and easy tool for a library to use.  However, as with any tool, if it is not kept in working condition, they might as well not exist.  The biggest problem with blogs is that they are often not updated and maintained.  It is not necessary to update a blog everyday, but there should be some sort of schedule.  One post a month would certainly be enough for some libraries. Also, the more people contributing to the blog, the easier it is to update since the burden is not on one person.

• Look at what other blogs do well and incorporate some of those aspects into your own blog. 
• Include areas of basic information about the library on your blog including links to the library's website and handy information such hours, a link to the catalog, and contact information for the library.
• There are programs that will work with blogs to track statistical information and give you important feedback about how often the site is visited.
• Link to other blogs your library may have

Management 2.0 via blogs in school and academic libraries

While blogs are big in the library world at large, they are particularly popular in academic libraries. And those in the academic world are doing what they do best: studying and writing; the literature is full of articles examining blog usage in academic libraries.

For example:

• Hernández, Y., & Domínguez, N. (2010). Blogs as content management system for an information literacy program.
• Murray, D., & Bell, S. (2007). Exploring the faculty blogoverse: Where to start and what's in it for academic librarians.

What are your experiences with blogs in school or academic libraries?

Special issues school and academic libraries:

• Privacy (school)
• Academic community—already inclined toward reading and writing, will they follow another blog?
• Others?

Some general ways in which schools and libraries are using blogs in a management context:

• Enacting the academic library mission (furthering intellectual discourse)
• Marketing
• Internal communications and resource management
• Professional development

Enacting the Library Mission

Managers, more than other staff, have a great responsibility to the organization's mission. Blogs in the academic realm are particularly suited to the mission of academic libraries, where reading, critical thinking, writing and discourse are crucial activities. Blogs can help managers who are looking for creative, relevant ways of enacting their mission.

Library Babel Fish
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/library-babel-fish
academic librarian blog hosted at higher ed website: networking across university, marketing for librarians among larger academy

Academic Librarian
http://blogs.princeton.edu/librarian/
Philosophy and Religion librarian writes about topics in these fields, and at large, at his personal blog

UThink blogs at University of Minnesota
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/uthink/
lots of conversations going on a once, library acting as a clearing house for them, networking across departments

Marketing School and Academic Libraries

Marketing is probably one of the most common uses of blogging in academic libraries. Blogs can be an easy (and free!) way to keep students, faculty, and other patrons up-to-date on the latest programs, collection additions, and library news.

Standford Library
https://www.stanford.edu/group/ic/cgi-bin/drupal2/
blog as simple website

Georgia State University Library
http://homer.gsu.edu/blogs/library/
news and upcoming events

Middler Books and More
http://phiferbooks.blogspot.com/
school librarian blog with book reviews