A list of reviewed articles (bibliography)

• Bardyn, T. P. (2009, June). Library blogs: What’s most important for success within the enterprise? Computers in Libraries. 12-16. Retrieved from ProQuest 5000 database.
• Bell, S. (2005, Fall). Where the readers are. NetConnect. pp. 8-14. Retrieved from General OneFile database.
• Blair, J., & Level, A. V. (2008). Creating and evaluating a subject-based blog: Planning, implementation, and assessment Reference Services Review. 36(2), pp. 156-166. doi: 10.1108/00907320810873020
• Draper, L., & Turnage. M. (2008). Blogmania: Blog use in academic libraries. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 13 (1), 15-55. doi: 10.1300/J136v13n01_02.
• McIntyre, A., & Nicolle, J. (2008). Biblioblogging: blogs for library communication. The Electronic Library. 26(5), 683-694. doi:10.1108/02640470810910701
• Reichardt, R., & Harder, G. (2005). Weblogs: Their use and application in science and technology libraries. Science & Technology Libraries.25(3), 105-116. doi: 10.1300/J122v25n03_07
• Stephens, M. (2006, July-August). Blogs. Library Technology Reports. 42 (4), 15-35. Retreived from EBSCO Megafile Premier database.
• Swanson, T. A. (2006). Looking to the future: implementing blogs in a community college library. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 11(3), 57-67. doi: 10.1300/J136v11n03_04

What is a Library Blog?

By revewing Literature about library blogging, functions and roles of library blogs can be defined as follows:

(1) It is used as current awareness services - better than emails and easier to use than webpages
(2) It is a tool to communicate with library patrons effectively and quickly. To communicate with the patrons, the tools do not necessarily have to be blogs, but at the moment (in 2009), blogging is the easiest and most affordable tool. Minimum staff training or IT investment is required.
(3) It is not used to receive feedback and comments from readers. Library blogs are not opinion outlets.

Weblogs: Their use and application in science and technology libraries

• Reichardt, R., & Harder, G. (2005). Weblogs: Their use and application in science and technology libraries. Science & Technology Libraries.25(3), 105-116. doi: 10.1300/J122v25n03_07
  

Reading several articles published for library blogs, most authors commended blogging is useful and helpful in term of its ease of use and publication. You don't need HTML knowledge or go through complex peer reviewing before publishing.

Blogging has been used by academic libraries mainly as a substitute of sending newsletters or current awareness services, and it's not expected to be a social networking space to discuss library issues. Librarians play a role of an information couch in a course based social network such as Moodle. Virtual reference desks are also popular options. This article is a rare article to discuss course based blogging and virtual reference desks.

At Waikato, A Science Subject Liaison Librarian has been working for Scince Virtual Reference Desk, and Education Library has a Virtual Reference Desk, and Law Library has similar virtual services including chatting via Skype. We already have many subject based library blog services. So how about blogging for generic tutorials? How does it work?

Biblioblogging: blogs for library communication

• McIntyre, A., & Nicolle, J. (2008). Biblioblogging: blogs for library communication. The Electronic Library. 26(5), 683-694. doi:10.1108/02640470810910701

This article reports about blogging at Canterbury University (CU) Library of New Zealand as internal and external communication tools.

Blogging used for communicating with economic students & staff is another example of subject base blogging, and it tells blogging can be the best tool for subject liaison librarians.

Creating and evaluating a subject-based blog

• Blair, J., & Level, A. V. (2008). Creating and evaluating a subject-based blog: Planning, implementation, and assessment Reference Services Review. 36(2), pp. 156-166. doi: 10.1108/00907320810873020

It's the first article I found to discuss evaluation of quality of blogging. A well-written review of the Literature, and practical suggestions to create a student-centred library blog are superb.

I'd like to use their evaluation methods to measure successes of my blogs, but most academic library blogging is requivalent of online newsletters and the author doesn't think feedback/comments feature of blogging can be used to measure assessing successes of blogging.

Bibiloblogosphere

• Stephens, M. (2006, July-August). Blogs. Library Technology Reports. 42 (4), 15-35. Retreived from EBSCO Megafile Premier database.

A detailed account of blogsphere is presented here, but I like the author says blogs are just a tool. Also it stresses every blogs need to state its mission and goals. Something like... "The goal of this blog is to more effectively communicate information about library resources in the area of business. The primary audience for this blog will be students of the College of Business who need assistance with their projects, although others might find useful information here as well"

The article shows more tips to make a successful blog including podcasting, but one memorable point the author raises is that blogs are viewed mostly by tech-savvy users. If library tutorials are designed for those who don't have enough computing skills, are they able to keep up with blogs? Perhaps a library blog can be where they can learn more about blogs.

What’s most important for success within the enterprise?

• Bardyn, T. P. (2009, June). Library blogs: What’s most important for success within the enterprise? Computers in Libraries. 12-16. Retrieved from ProQuest 5000 database.
  

As many other authors of the same topic argue, this article stresses that blogging is better than emails or newsletters - faster, and safer (no spams). This article is the latest (in July 2009), and it is addressed to library management people. A kind of a guide about blogging. The author starts discussion with the following question.

'Should library management support blogs in the enterprise? The answer is yes. Of course, this presumes two “givens”: an adequate blog software package and creative librarians.' (p. 14).
What libraries need is a good understanding about blogging (staff training), and IT investment. Yes, how much do average librarians understand Web 2.0 stuff? The author raises the following two points as first two success factors of library blogs. Yes, that's true enough.

1. Establishing clear strategies, objectives, and plans for blog oversight
2. Understanding the complicated nature of the value proposition of a blog within the enterprise