This term paper was researched and written by Amy
Proni (now Amy Ranger) for
the
course
ILS-538, Computer-mediated communication, taught by Dr. E. Sierpe,
Southern
Connecticut State University, Spring, 2005.
Assignment:
The CMC Applications and Implementation assignment is intended to give
you an opportunity to relate CMC technologies and CMC practices to the
functions performed by information professionals. To complete this
assignment, you will develop a document that concentrates on: a)
Describing the characteristics of a particular form of CMC technology
(e.g., textual, visual); b) Describing the application of the chosen
form of CMC technology in professional practice; c) Outlining the
challenges and problems posed by the technological form you have chosen
in relation to electronic communicative competence; and d) Developing
an implementation plan.
Applications and implementation paper
Library weblogs: marketing for a new age
Abstract
The idea of using a weblog—a type of online journal—as a marketing
device for libraries is discussed in this paper. Although difficult to
quantify, the question ‘to what extent can marketing with weblogs or
websites influence patrons to use a library or library service?’ is
viewed as a means of helping librarians understand the importance of
utilizing this unique form of computer-mediated communication. The
experience of some library bloggers is highlighted; a list of notable
blogs, blogging resources, and a bibliography are included.
Why should a librarian blog? – and – how are blogs relevant to
libraries?
The extent to which marketing with weblogs by libraries, to provide
patrons with information about the library or library services, is
investigated in this paper. Many libraries operate on a budget
maintained by tax dollars from the local community, and librarians can
no longer take it for granted that the community will continue to
support the institution, especially in times of financial crises.
Business enterprises, whether commercial or not-for-profit, have always
relied on repeat customers and steady or increasing sales to stay in
operation. Library managers may not view transactions in the same way
as other business managers, but reports in 2004 on the growing crisis
in library funding suggest that perhaps they should. From Salinas,
California, to Buffalo, New York, libraries are struggling to maintain
open access to information. Libraries in poor communities are in the
difficult position of being relatively expensive, but are not as
critical to the community as police, firefighters, schools, and health
care. (Wikipedia, 2004).
A good reason for a library to create and support a weblog is that it
is a simple way to transmit information to the library community, and
unlike a static display of information, such as a website, a blog can
be updated quickly and easily while permitting two-way communication.
“Why should librarians even care about blogs? Blogs are part of a
burgeoning suite of personal communication and information management
tools.” (Goans & Vogel, 2003). Community support for an institution
can be maintained through communication and by fostering a feeling of
belonging and of ownership. It is the contention of this paper that a
librarian’s job is to create a dialog with users and patrons just as it
is her job to acquire, catalog, circulate materials, and provide
reference services. Weblogs today are rapidly gaining acceptance as a
means of communicating about specific topics and blending the expertise
of many users, and also bridge a gap between the one-on-one style of
email and the formality of published documents, in situations ranging
from virtual book clubs to university study groups. (Umbach, 2004).
“Web logs (usually abbreviated to “blogs”) originated in the U.S. in
1997 as a few on-line journals, often with links to news items on the
World Wide Web plus brief, personal comments on those items by the
originators-editors (“bloggers”), as well as responses from readers.”
(Blogs, 2005). Several components comprise a typical weblog. Common
features are similar to what might be found on print versions of a
newspaper or magazine. These include, but are not limited to: a banner
title, title tagline, author tagline, and a photo of the blogger or a
logo; a time and date stamp; hyperlinks to other websites of interest;
a link to e-mail the author; subject categories; and archives
searchable by keyword, date, or subject. Additionally, a calendar may
be featured that indicates when a post was last added to the blog and
permits access to archived posts. Many blogs also provide a reader with
the ability to add comments to individual posts. Feedback, in the form
of public dialog, may be created between reader and author with
comments. This type of feedback is fundamentally different from private
email communication because it takes place in the public domain.
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A library blog can have the effect of creating an online social
network, that is, a back-and-forth method of communication between
library staff and the patrons they serve. Michael Stephens, a librarian
and educator in Northern Indiana, stated in his blog that he was
impressed by the use of subject-guide categories at the Kansas City Public Library. Their
website offers pages with updated local information as well as items of
general interest. Mr. Stephens’ enthusiasm for this site bubbled over
into his blog, emphasizing that the strength of an online social
network in a community may be realized through a library portal that
highlights local information. He reminds readers that “library staff
should not be putting in hours on something that's already in place —
unless it's building LOCAL portals and subject guides. That serves the
users best, in my mind.” (Stephens, 2005).
Mr. Stephens’ point is valid: an important goal of a library should
be to provide information relevant to the local—or, if not local, to
the specialized—community. A library weblog that records links,
commentaries, and informed analysis, that is open to being read by and
commented upon by interested others, can become an objective artifact
of collegial activity. (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003). In the same way,
a blog mediated by experts becomes a team effort in which the knowledge
and expertise of many are shared with learners in mutually beneficial
ways. The benefit then is that not only can the work be shared between
colleagues, but also the format is amenable to comments from the
audience, allowing for a unique give-and-take opportunity. The Georgia
State University Library blog includes a statement of purpose under
the heading About This Blog: to deliver library related news
and events to the GSU community, specifically reporting on new
resources, services, changes in hours, facilities information, and
system status and alerts. Subject specific blogs, maintained by
subject-specialist librarians, are also accessible through the library
homepage via hyperlinks or RSS (Really Simple Syndication, or, Rich
Site Summary) feeds. Subject specialists detail a range of
information for students, faculty, and staff ranging from
African-American Studies to Special Collections, and seemingly
everything in between.
The St. Joseph County Public Library of South Bend, Indiana was
recently recognized by WebJunction as Library of the Month
because their blog emphasizes community outreach by experts. Certainly
the blog is worth a visit: it offers relevant information on a variety
of topics and in the individual voices of the librarians and staff
working there. This is an excellent example of community and public
relations in action. The WebJunction article indicated that when the
St. Joseph County Public Library first launched its blog in May of
2003, much of the posting responsibility fell to Joe Sipocz, a senior
staffer who was already an active blogger, and wanted to involve the
rest of the staff, too. The library’s administration includes a number
of forward-thinking, proactive people, who quickly embraced the idea of
a library weblog. Department heads also enthusiastically supported this
method of outreach and assisted in the development of a 90-minute
training session on the basics of blogging. That training session and
an HTML “cheat sheet” that they designed were enough to start the flow
of content from all sections of the library. Some staff had blogging
experience when they started posting on the library blog; others did
not but ultimately became interested in contributing thoughts and ideas
to the project. Regular posters today include representatives from all
departments: reference, local history, children’s, periodicals,
collection development, branch libraries, publicity, and media.
Valuable advice to staff for their blog posts was offered by Joe
Sipocz: “Don’t agonize – just write about what you’re already working
on.” (Anderson, 2005). This is simple, but terrific, advice. Not only
does blogging provide a forum for librarians and staff to enlighten
patrons (and colleagues) on the “inner workings” of the library, but it
also presents an opportunity for the staff to improve their
communication skills.
In a similar vein, the web librarian at the Marin County (California)
Free Library, wrote “There are 5 of us who blog. Each of us [h]as a day
of the week assigned. Sometime on that day, we post something. We find
that helps to keep everyone posting and to keep the blog current. The
other 4 librarians who post are at the branches, and usually post about
their branches' activities. I try to fill in the gaps by posting about
stuff at other branches who don't have bloggers, as well as about our
online resources and tech news.” (S. Houghton, personal communication,
February 16, 2005). This is not to say that something news-worthy or
even note-worthy happens every day in every library; the point of
having a blog is to use it in a manner that is most beneficial to the
local community. The flexibility of weblogs permit adaptations to
various requirements, from being a marketing tool for libraries to a
means of training and update for librarians. (Fiorentini, 2004).
The social benefits of blogging are even greater than the technological
benefits. The fact that a blog is easy to use means that it is more
likely that people will publish—and publish more frequently—so that
more information can be communicated. The online journal or
snippet-style structure is markedly different from relatively static
websites, and the hyper- and inter-linked aspects of a blog mark it as
a type of digital ecology that is constantly evolving. (Cayzer, 2004).
Including a weblog in the marketing and communications “tool-chest,”
can help librarians build an important virtual space, which can be
useful and valuable to even a small group of library users.
While a weblog might not be the most efficient method of sharing
information in a low-tech community where many people do not routinely
access the internet, there is no reason not to do it if the major
concern is only the time of the employee. The wonders of cut-and-paste
technology make it simple to create a document such as a press release,
then re-make it into an advertising poster, blog post, web page, or a
simple letter—any of which may be used to reach out to the library
community. A blog is an excellent tool for posting short, snappy bursts
of information, and in this it is perfect for academic libraries, where
students and faculty may be so focused on research that they don’t take
the time to read anything perceived as only tangentially related to
their needs. At the least, a blog can be created for your library to
post announcements, meeting notices, and board agendas and minutes.
Again, this is not very creative, but is perhaps of community interest.
(Umbach, 2004).
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Blogging is easy and fun … but is it effective?
There are problems in quantifying research related to the effectiveness
of blogs. Very little research thus far is related to enterprise
blogging, so the commercial applications of blogging are mostly
unproven. There are, however, many articles and papers written by
enthusiasts and early adopters of the technology. While this body of
literature contains useful ideas, it includes little evaluative
material. Even though we know that enterprises have used blogs for
various purposes, it is not known whether or not those blogs achieved
the purposes for which they were created, nor is there much information
about either the characteristics of successful blogs or the purposes
for which blogging is most successful. (Clyde, 2005). Queries along
these lines sent to blogging librarians yielded diverse answers. When
asked ‘what kind of response have you gotten from patrons?,’ a
librarian from the Waterboro (Maine) Public Library responded “We don't
track this formally. Our sense is that patrons of the physical library
don't much use the weblog or the website in general. While there are
notices on the weblog of local events and news, most of it is devoted
to general literary, library, and reference news, not specifically
about or for Waterboro. Most of the response has been from writers,
readers and librarians, from all over the place. Waterboro is a small,
rural community of about 6,000 people. While there are certainly people
in town who are tech-savvy and who have incorporated computer and
internet use into their daily lives, there are many who are not and
haven't.” (M. Williams, personal communication, February 16, 2005). It
is a different story on the west coast of the country. The web
librarian at the Marin County (California) Free Library wrote: “We get
a great response from patrons. A local mothers group actually
syndicated our content and was displaying it on their homepage. I don't
have any way of knowing for sure, but I don't think people are using
the library because of the blog, but current library users who have
found the blog have given us very positive feedback on it, especially
those who fall into our "online patron" category (e.g. rarely if ever
set foot in our physical locations).” (S. Houghton, personal
communication, February 16, 2005). As both of these librarians are
affiliated with public libraries, it could be construed that the
general public is not as technically savvy as other user communities.
That is not the case at Georgia State University, where a collaborative
blogging project was begun in November, 2002. (Goans and Vogel, 2003).
In a recent 8-month period, from June 30, 2004 to February 28, 2005,
the main page of their blog was visited 84,783 times (an average of 347
visits per day) by 25,651 unique visitors (which could be people or it
could be unique clients, aggregators, or web crawlers). “The main thing
I can say is that our blog traffic is definitely increasing over time
and the main destinations are the RSS feeds. What I can’t determine is
the extent to which blog technology may be using the RSS/SML and
messing with the numbers.” (D. Goans, personal communication, March 17,
2005). Michael Stephens also alluded to the difficulty of maintaining
and understanding visitor statistics. (M. Stephens, telephone
conversation, February 25, 2005).
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Can blogging be quantified?
The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported on the state of
the blogosphere as of late 2004. The key points of the report are that
the phenomenon of blogging is growing by leaps and bounds, and that
internet users are beginning to make use of new and efficient
technologies, such as RSS feeds. “Blog readership shoots up 58% in
2004 — 6 million Americans get news and information fed to them through
RSS aggregators — But 62% of online Americans do not know what a blog
is.” (Rainie, 2005). So then, the differing responses between the
public and academic librarians noted above have as much to do with
their geographic locations, patron ages and types, and missions, as
with the needs of the community. Certainly a university library blog
would see greater use: in general, patrons are younger and are active
users of cutting-edge technology. Similarly, middle class library
patrons living in a densely populated area near the country’s high-tech
corridor would also be more likely to integrate new technology into
their daily lives than people in a small, rural community. Additional
research performed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project
helps to put this into perspective by detailing the number of people in
the country who use the internet to access information on the World
Wide Web: “… the online population in America stands at 63% of the
adults in the country, or about 128 million people age 18 or older. …
81% of the nation’s teenagers (those 12 to 17) go online … On a typical
day at the end of 2004, some 70 million American adults logged onto the
internet to use email, get news, access government information, check
out health and medical information, participate in auctions, book
travel reservations, research their genealogy, gamble, seek out
romantic partners and engage in countless other activities. That
represents a 37% increase from the 52 million adults who were online on
an average day in 2000 when the Pew Internet & American Life
Project began its study of online life.” (Rainie & Horrigan, 2005).
The Marin County (California) Free Library acknowledged the importance
of visitors to its website in a recent blog post: “The Library's
webmaster is always trying to make our website more interesting, more
useful, and more fun for all of Marin's residents. 2004 saw a number of
great additions to the website and a lot of people coming to visit us!
Here are some statistics from the last year... The number of monthly
visits to the website has increased 49% over the last year, with
334,886 visits to the Library’s website in 2004. In 2004, we added
about 500 new pages to our website--chock full of useful content for
you, our beloved patrons! … In 2004, we’ve had 171,564 unique
visitors to our website--an increase of 110%! … Thank you for making
the library's webpage one of most popular web destinations in Marin!”
(MCFLB, 2005).
The population of Marin County, California, as of July, 2003, was
estimated to be 246,073. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003a). The estimated
population for the San Francisco – Oakland – San Jose metropolitan area
at that time was 6,955,695. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003b). Increasing
virtual foot traffic to the main library website by 49% from the
previous year is certainly impressive, as is adding five hundred new
pages to the site. The number of unique visitors to the website
(171,564) could be seen as an indicator of patron interest – it would
be very interesting to learn how many of those virtual visitors are
from the local area, although with the current state of technology that
may not be possible. Correlating the virtual visitors with in-person
visits to the library would also be interesting. Bearing in mind that
while website visitors are not necessarily weblog readers, the
blogging effort could be considered justified if a small number of the
virtual visitors read it and learn from it. A side effect of increasing
actual foot traffic, or circulation numbers, in the physical library
facility could also be considered a valid indicator of a successful
blog. As a side note, people who are not physically part of the Marin
County Free Library community are also apt to find the blog fun to read
and interesting – that is true for many library blogs.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project survey on blogging
included a general question in an effort to learn about the importance
of the so-called blogosphere to the average internet user: “‘In
general, would you say you have a good idea of what the term internet
'blog' means, or are you not really sure what the term means?’ Some 38%
of internet users said they had a good idea and 62% said they did not.
Those who knew about blogs were well educated, internet veterans (about
half of those with at least six years of experience knew what a blog
is), and heavy users of the internet. In contrast, the internet users
who did not know about blogs were relative newbies to the internet,
less fervent internet users, and those with less educational
attainment.” (Rainie, 2005). Clearly, not every community will be
responsive to a library blog: poor neighborhoods (urban or rural), or
communities where people are not in the habit of looking for local
information on the internet. The contention of this paper, however, is
that any library outreach program that provides the opportunity to
bring people together – whether in support of a common cause or in
search of a greater understanding of the human condition – is worthy of
support. A librarian using blogging technology has the ability to do
that; any tool that enables an organization to communicate relevant
information quickly and easily to its user base is one that deserves to
be embraced.
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Conclusions
“The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we
communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the
fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local
or global, be it draft or highly polished. There was a second part of
the dream, too, dependent on the Web being so generally used that it
became a realistic mirror (or in fact the primary embodiment) of the
ways in which we work and play and socialize. That was that once the
state of our interactions was on line, we could then use computers to
help us analyse it, make sense of what we are doing, where we
individually fit in, and how we can better work together.”
(Berners-Lee, n.d.). As mentioned earlier, an important aspect of
librarianship involves distributing and sharing information. Through
the modern miracle of computer-mediated communication, the network of
computers which comprise the internet, and the abstract space for
information called the World Wide Web, librarians have the opportunity
to connect with information-seekers both near and far. “The phenomenon
of blogging, fad though it may be, has a goal in common with both the
founders of the World Wide Web and with librarians. Sharing information
is the goal, and Web logs are one means of accomplishing it.” (Balas,
2003).
Some patrons will need to be gently trained in the habit of blog
reading or referring to library websites for information. That could be
accomplished with simple measures, such as adding the URL (Uniform
Resource Locator) of the library blog or website to bookmarks, in-house
posters, newspaper advertising, the telephone directory, or through the
local government web portal. Libraries could also offer courses or
lectures on blogging technology and RSS feeds. These newest forms of
technology are relatively user-friendly methods of providing reliable
information to information seekers. The blogosphere is still an
emerging virtual space, but has the potential to be quite important for
libraries and other information-based organizations.
“The library is a growing organism.” This, perhaps, is the most
important reason for libraries to embrace the use of weblogs: the fifth
law of library science from S. R. Ranganathan is a reminder that the
institution is not static. Why should library marketing be any
different? Libraries must take advantage of these technological
innovations: personal computers, the internet, the web, and software
that allows for quick and easy transmission of information. Those that
do not embrace change risk the loss of information-seeking patrons,
especially young patrons, to flashier organizations that may not
properly vet their sources. The participation in, and support of,
libraries by young people is essential for the continuation of the
library as community institution.
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Notable library weblogs
Blogging resourcess
References
Anderson, Joseph. (2005). How do you spell “blog”? WebJunction
Community Center, Library of the Month, posted February 7, 2005.
Retrieved February 15, 2005, from http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=548
Balas, Janet L. (2003). Here a blog, there a blog, even the library has
a web log. Computers in libraries, 23, 10, p. 41-43. Retrieved
February 15, 2005, from LibraryLit database.
Berners-Lee, Tim. (n.d.). The World Wide Web: A very short personal
history. Retrieved February 18, 2005, from
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory.
Blogs Mix Up the Media. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved
February 16, 2005, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9389625
Cayzer, Steve. (2004). Semantic blogging and decentralized knowledge
management. Communications of the ACM, 47, 12, special issue: The
blogosphere, 47-52. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from the ACM
Digital Library portal.
Clyde, L. Anne. (2005). Enterprise blogging. FreePint, 174, 13
January 2005. Retrieved February 16, 2005, from http://www.freepint.com/issues/130105.htm#feature
Fiorentini, Barbara. (2004.). I blog bibliotecari: nuovi servizi di
informazione. Library blogs: new information services. Bollettino
AIB, 44, 1, 29-36. Abstract obtained from LISA, Library and
Information Science Abstracts, accession number 297863. Retrieved
February 15, 2005.
Goans, Doug & Vogel, Teri M. (2003). Building a home for library
news with a BLOG. Computers in libraries, 23, 10, p. 20-26.
Retrieved February 15, 2005, from LibraryLit database.
Lankshear, Colin & Knobel, Michele. (2003, April) Do-it-yourself
broadcasting: writing weblogs in a knowledge society. Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research
Association , Chicago, IL, (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED478120). Retrieved February 7, 2005, from http://www.eric.ed.gov
Marin County Free Library Blog. (February 2, 2005). 2004 State of
the site. Retrieved February 15, 2005, from http://marincountyfreelibrary.blogspot.com/archives/2005_02_01_marincountyfreelibrary_archive.html#110736599309482110
Rainie, Lee. (2005). The state of blogging. Pew Internet
& American Life Project, January 2, 2005, http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=144,
accessed on February 17, 2005.
Rainie, Lee & Horrigan, John. (2005). Trends 2005: Internet:
the mainstreaming of online life. Pew Internet & American Life
Project, January 25, 2005, http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=148,
accessed on February 17, 2005.
Stephens, Michael. (2005). That local flavor please. Tame the web:
technology & libraries, February 15, 2005. Retrieved February
16, 2005, from http://www.tametheweb.com/ttwblog/
Umbach, Judith M. (2004). Is blogging for real? Feliciter, 50, 3,
p. 79. Retrieved February 15, 2005, from LibraryLit database.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2003a). California QuickFacts. Retrieved February
18, 2005, from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06075.html
U.S. Census Bureau. (2003b). San Francisco--Oakland--San Jose, CA CMSA.
Retrieved February 18, 2005, from http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/MYPTable?_bm=y&-context=myp&-qr_name=ACS_2003_EST_G00_MYP11_7&-ds_name=ACS_2003_EST_G00_&-tree_id=303&-redoLog=false&-all_geo_types=N&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=38000US7362&-format=&-_lang=en
Wikipedia. Library funding. Retrieved February 17, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library
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Dedication
To the memory of L.
Anne Clyde, an educator and librarian who "got it" — and shared it.
¶
Last updated 2007-06-11.
ALR. Contact me.