BLOGS

The first time I heard of “blogging” was in 1985. I read about it in one of my favorite books, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. I never imagined it would become so popular. I created my first blog in 2004 when I moved from Michigan to Florida. It was a means to keep in touch with my family and friends.
As librarians we need to embrace technology and use it to reach out to the public. If we don’t get with the times, we will become boring and the public will not view us as useful. We need to be where the public is (on the internet) and guide them to the library. We can have blogs that are interesting and eye catching, and “speak their language”, to hook the public, then bring them to our webpage. Our webpage must be easy to use, modeled after things they are familiar such as amazon.com.

Below is a list of helpful articles:

Saxton, B. Information Tools: Using Blogs, RSS, and Wikis As Professional Resources. Young Adult Library Services v. 6 no. 2 (Winter 2008) p. 27-9

Rempel, H. G., et. al., Infodoodads--Building a New Blog Community. Computers in Libraries v. 28 no. 4 (April 2008) p. 16-21

Barack, L. Pimp Your Library. School Library Journal v. 54 no. 3 (March 2008) p. 27