Week 3: Blogs and Blogging

It was interesting for me to see how ethical concerns have come to the forefront in discussions of blogging. I think this demonstrates the growing maturity of blogs, and the attendant authority that blogs have gained. Traditional media may try to distance themselves from "amateur" blogs, but they are increasingly turning to them for content and leads. Anyone who listens to commercial radio can hear how much producers and on-air personalities depend on blogs for content (particularly blogs about celebrities).

The Regret the Error blog provides an amusing digest of retractions from traditional media sources. Bloggers have the luxury to correct their errors immediately, but an ethical best practice is to insert a correction to the error without removing the original error.

The case studies this week were illustrative of some of the design and strategic errors that libraries make when planning to use a blog.

-Darien Library Blogs contained some good content, but the design was unlikely to draw readers in. Blog entry titles were vague, no pictures of the authors (or even names of the authors) were available on the main blog page. RSS links dominated the design, and I can't imagine that many people are drawn in by the list of generic-looking entries.

-Garfield County Public Library System’s LIBRARY LOUNGE had a more friendly design than Darien library's, but it still lacked the personal touch that an author profile/picture would provide. Blog entries were reasonably frequent, but given how brief they were, greater frequency might increase readership.

-Lamson Library (site & OPAC powered by Scriblio which is based on WordPress) - Good use of visuals, but still feels rather anonymous (despite the inclusion of author names). Perhaps this blog is closer to a news feed, given how brief most of the entries seem to be (the list of links for tagging and RSS options is consistently larger than the actual content of the blog).

MabryOnline.org blogs is very focused on having students sign up for their teacher's blog feed, and it shows in the design of the site. I can't imagine many browsers would spend much time on this page unless they knew that their grades might depend on it. Once into the individual blogs, however, the design is much better and feels more personalized.

St. Joseph County Public Library GameBlog is pretty dull for a blog devoted to video game tournaments. Personal touches, such as a category tag for "made of awesome" are fun, but they don't really help navigation much. More personality could be added with larger pictures, blogger profiles, gamer profiles, - maybe even some artistic touches.

Virginia Commonwealth University - Library Suggestion Blog - I'm not sure that many of the things included on this blog are really right for a blog. Some items, particularly the entry on housekeeping, are good examples of a responsive library, but many of the others are merely policy updates that don't seem likely to generate much response. A lack of personal touches detracts from the visual appeal.

Overall, I think I may have leaned too far to the negative in my assessment of this week's blogs. None of the blogs were abysmal, and most had some very positive elements. I think a good rule for bloggers is to always have the intended audience in mind. Too often I've seen blogs that seem like afterthoughts or job requirements.