Library Web Chic

I was thrilled that Meredith should mention my blog as an example of an academic librarian blogging in response to comments made by Steven Bell in Inside Higher Ed. At the same time I’m somewhat annoyed after reading the article and Steven Bell’s perspective on his blog. Particularly I was annoyed with the comment that the blogs written by academic librarians

are covering some niche area of the academic library world (e.g., distance learning, information literacy, etc.). Most do not address the wide range of issues confronting the profession, and moreso, they do not consistently go beyond mere reporting to the provision of insightful, witty, and thought-provoking commentary.

While my blog does focus on my experiences working with technology in an academic library, I don’t feel like it is geared only to that niche. I write about a variety of my experiences as an academic librarian. Sometimes that is about technology sometimes it is not. Furthermore, many of the other blogs that Meredith mentions do very similar things. I particularly enjoy the commentary and thoughtfulness of ::schwagbag::, and The Distant Librarian. Furthermore after reading the article, the first thought that came to mind was “can a single blog really address the wide range of issues confronting academic librarians today?” I would say no. It would be exceedingly difficult to do so because there is so much variety in what academic librarians do. The issues that I think are important in academic librarianship are colored by the fact that my niche in profession is electronic and web services. Perhaps a communal blog might be a solution to this. However, I think that it would be better to draw from the existing materials that those of us who are working and blogging in academic libraries. There are a number of technologies that might be able to facilitate this.

Additionally, I would like to suggest that blogging and generating material for traditional publishing are not so incongruous. It is unfortunate that some academic librarians that see this as the case. Many of the articles I have had published have started out as blog posts or posts. Blogging allows me to keep track of projects I am working on in a journal format that facilitates writing a later article. Additionally, blogging is a great way to draft ideas without having to go through the peer-review process (which can be time consuming).

For me my blog is particularly helpful because it allows me to get ideas and developments out there for others to see quickly. This is important to me because technology changes so much that the time the formal article writing process can take can make the content in that article out of date. Personally, I would rather get my ideas out there for people to see as soon as possible. Adding another publication to my vita is an afterthought. However, unless people taking blogging seriously as a form of writing and a worthwhile endeavor for academic librarians, librarians are likely to devote their writing time to other activities for which they will receive more credit. In my mind it is a Catch-22, academic librarians don’t blog because academia doesn’t take blogs seriously. Academia doesn’t take blogs seriously because the number of academic librarians out there trying to produce serious, good, consistant blog posts is small but growing. Meredith points out that the importance of blog is gaining ground in academia and hopes “Perhaps one day blogging activities will be counted towards a librarian’s tenure (obviously only if they write a quality blog that contributes to the profession).” This is something I fervently hope for as well because it will allow more librarians to share their knowledge, ideas, and voices with the rest of the profession.