Blogs

Weblogs, or "blogs" are diary-type commentary Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on a single topic or a range of subjects.

Blogs allow two-way communication and comments can be signed or anonymous. That anonymity is valuable because it encourages everyone to express their opinion and therefore we gain more diversity of thought.

Creating a blog is simple and takes just a few minutes. Millions of free blogs have been created at Blogger (www.blogger.com) and Wordpress (www.wordpress.com).

The difficulty for many bloggers is continuing a steady stream of blog entries. Lots of blogs are hectic for a week or two and then fizzle. A library blog aimed at customers however, can advertise upcoming events, discuss past events (and link to Flickr for the event photos!), feature library "specials," like databases or new books or ebooks, advertise Ask-A-Librarian or any homework help you have, etc., etc.

An internal blog is just like an Intranet in that it's for staff only. When creating the blog, uncheck the box that asks if you would like your blog to be made available to the world at large, and then only tell library staff of the blog address.

At Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL), we have two internal blogs: one devoted to the future of customer service in libraries (and, by extension, the future of libraries), and a blog for technology related topics including shortcut tech tips.

FCPL's blogs for the public include a book review blog (http://allfairfaxreads.blogspot.com/), a blog featuring various types of books and other materials available in the branches (http://fairfaxcountypubliclibrary.blogspot.com/), and a blog for teens (http://fairfaxlibraryteens.blogspot.com/). We have a fairly regular posting cycle, once a week on one blog, twice a week on another. The regularity of posting helps our regular readers.

We use a free counter on our blogs from Statcounter (www.statcounter.com). Statcounter provides us with a small piece of code which we place in our blog template (on blogger.com) and it keeps track of the number of visitors. Statcounter even has a map of where your most recent visitors are in the world when they read your blog. Statcounter is free!

Don't be distressed if you don't get many comments from the public -- or even staff. Remind yourself that people ARE reading your entries, whether they contribute to the conversation or not. When you DO get comments, in many cases it means you've probably stirred someone emotionally enough to write, and that's a good thing.

There's also a blog created with you in mind called It Came From VLA. It's commentary on the future of libraries and it can be found at http://itcamefromvla.blogspot.com/