Week Three : Ethical Blogging

I am really enjoying learning more about blogging, blogs, and bloggers.  Knowing a bit more about the ethics, standards, and expectations for bloggers makes me feel a bit better about blogs than I may have in the past, and finally allowed me to shed my concept of blogs as an online vanity journal.

The fact that this much good content exists about blogging ethics demonstrates the importance bloggers put on credibility (already hinted at in the past, with discussions on building reputations, and the Technorati authority system).  Though I've already thought of some of the things in the articles (most notably, don't publish anything online you wouldn't want your boss to see), but there was a lot of new food for thought, too, especially relating to library blogs.

The points that stand out to me this week are all from Darlene Fichter's article on "Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services", which I liked because it critically analyzes this blogging trend, and proposes very sound background information, how to get started, a list of good library blogs to look at, and, best of all, a caution to avoid a blog if it is not the tool best suited to your purpose.  I also liked her idea of coming up with unique content to keep your audience's attention (something I saw put to good use on some of the blogs we looked at this week).

So on to the blogs - I actually only really liked one - the Mabry Middle School blog - but I felt a bit voyeuristic looking at it.  I wasn't sure that I should be able to access this much information about a middle school without some kind of password or other membership.  Maybe that is my stodgy technophobe rearing it's ugly head, but I wouldn't want strangers worldwide being able to read what my children had for homework, or when they had a day off of school.  It was the best thought out and easiest to use among those examined this week, though, in my opinion.  Admittedly, after reading the articles for this week, I looked at all of the blogs critically, and may have missed some hidden gem in the face of more evident flaws (like the formatting at the Plymouth State University site).  Other things I noticed were a lack of authorship, difficulty locating the page once I'd navigated away from it, or locating the blog from the homepage for the library, and inconsistency between the different blogs at an institution.

*I didn't link to any of the blogs, because most of my criticism is general, and this post is long enough already .