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Library blogs: what's most important success within the enterprise?

Article Excerpt
Library blogs, such as the one I supervise as associate director for public services at UCLA's Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, exchange information and ideas on everything from the everyday, such as library services, to the profound, such as values held by librarians (high-quality reliable resources, academic freedom, open access, and so on). If you've got your library blog up and running, however, don't count on it being a booming business, providing plenty of "connectedness" to the enterprise or new business. Recent figures from a 2008 national survey of 22 academic health sciences (medical) libraries with blogs indicate as much. According to medical librarians who maintain library blogs, a typical month includes two to four contributors writing and posting about two to four posts--but barely any feedback. In fact, only one out of 22 blogs surveyed received comments on a regular basis, suggesting that almost all librarian bloggers these days find themselves struggling with the problems of how to integrate content into the enterprise and how to engage users in library initiatives. Most medical librarians spend 1-3 hours per week working on library blogs, with their efforts going mainly toward gathering information to place on the blog (32%) and writing content for the blog (37%).

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Two Givens

So 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. If these two givens are not present in the organization, they must be addressed before there are any major efforts to implement and sustain a successful...

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