Librarian.net Analysis

While my own project is a wiki, I thought it only fair to look at and review what is being done on blogs relating to libraries. Librarian.net is as she states, "putting the rarin' back in librarian since 1999". Jessamyn West, the creator of the blog, does not go over specific how-to instructions for using the library she works at. West instead has created a blog, which fits many of the criteria discussed in Sebastien Paquet's article "Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research". In Paquet's discussion of the uses of weblogs he lists 5 main things; selection of material, personal knowledge management, conversation, social networking, and information routing.

West focuses her blog on libraries and information to help other librarians and patrons. Her interests lie in promoting libraries and the growing technologies becoming available for use in libraries. Her site is an accumulation of selected materials relating to the above-mentioned topics.

Not all of West’s shared information is from outside sources. One reason for her blog is because, “I’ve always had things I wanted to tell and show people online and the nascent blog became the way to do that.” West gives talks around the country and posts her power point presentations online. Her posts give information for others and herself. Paquet says, “A weblog that you edit also serves as a chronological record of your thoughts, references and other notes that could otherwise be lost or disorganized.” Interesting sites, information, or her own musings can all be found on West’s blog.

Blogs open the door for comments, emails, and contacts. “Weblogs have evolved to become a medium for public discussion, in the process making the two-way nature of the Web much more prominent” (Paquet). One of the posts titled “American Libraries: Mattering in the Blogosphere” (http://www.librarian.net/stax/1990) is West’s answers to survey questions about blogging. Included in the post are links to other librarians who answered the same survey. Various opinions are given on the same topic and while not directly speaking to one another, there is a conversation going on. This leads into Paquet’s next use of weblogs; Social networking.

The internet allows people from all over to be connected. Blogs and Myspace pages allow for easier discoveries of people with similar interests. West even added a Myspace page to her list of friends, which was set up for a library, not the librarians, but the library. Social networking is broken down into 2 areas. “First, hyperlinked conversations can be found everywhere and attest to the existence of a web of relationships. Second, blogrolling lists go further, essentially asserting that a particular weblogger has enough interest in another to regularly read what he or she has to say.” (Paquet) Librarians from around the world are able to offer advice, compare different catalogue systems, etc. The possibility for sharing personal/academic knowledge has been brought into a larger network than was ever possible before the internet.

Paquet also talks about Information routing. The idea that information will float around out in the World Wide Web until it comes back to you. One librarian site will quote another, which will eventually come back to the first site.

So while West's Librarian.net site is a great example of using a blog for publishing personal knowledge, it does not show how a blog could fit the format necessary for creating a manual on the web.