In preparation of a presentation Paul and I are giving on Tuesday, I'm pulling thoughts together on why the library needs a blog. Feel free to chime in if I've forgotten anything, this is a work in progress and I'll be adding to it as I go.
What is the need?
In discussing community participation in library needs analysis, G, Edward Evans writes that involving the community can help achieve the "four-fold purpose of gaining publicity, acquiring voluntary help, encouraging the direct expression of needs, and securing the involvement of the people in library affairs." (Developing Library and Information Center Collections, Fourth Edition, 2000, p. 60) These are among the same purposes we are hoping to achieve through this information campaign.
To me, it is clear that there is a need to promote all of the great things the library is doing and to reach out to all of the library's stakeholders and provide them with information and get them more involved. It is a remarkable library system serving an incredibly diverse community with outstanding services and resources. We should be using whatever technology is available to get the word out about the library's offerings.
We want a way to keep the web site more up to date, to be able to alert stakeholders and the media of new materials and programming, and to both spotlight the achievements of the individual community libraries and the system as a whole.
Why a blog? What is a blog?
At its most basic, a web log (or blog) is a web site. Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in cronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominantly. While many blogs (including my own) are personal diary-like sites, many organizations and communities are finding great benefits from using the tools as well.
For our organization, a blog will let us distribute responsibility for creating content (while keeping editorial control and a consistent look and feel). It will automatically archive the content and allow multiple entry points (most recent, by library, by topic, etc.) and the site will be completely searchable. In addition, the site will automatically produce an "RSS Feed," a special page that people can subscribe to in newsreaders and aggregators that will alert them when there is new material posted to the site. We will also collect email addresses through the site and in the libraries to use to send periodic reminders of new material to draw people back to the site.
Using a blog lets new content "bubble up" to the top, rather than only being hidden deep within subsections of a large web site. It serves as a regularly updated source of "What's New" at the library and in our communities. It will provide an opportunity to reach out to particular community groups and for new groups to discover how the library can serve them.
Content Areas I would like to see
For me, the blog provides an opportunity to put a "face" on the library and to provide it with a strong "voice." So I would want to see lots of pictures, book recommendations, and personal accounts. I would want official notices of all the upcoming events, and then personal accounts of what happened, signed by a library staff member. I'd want to see profiles of staff members to get a better idea of who was bringing these great services to the community.
I'd have a category for each of the community libraries so patrons could go directly into the information about their local library, but also areas where you could get a system-wide glimpse of what's going on. Take booksales, for example -- I would want to know where all of the booksales are going to be this month. The libraries are close enough that I could make a special trip to another town if one was happening.
I'd want to involve all the existing service groups: adult services, children's services, teen services, circulation, management, etc.
I'd want to know of newly a
Posted by Emily at August 29, 2004 02:34 PM