Blogs? Blogs? We don't need no stinkin' blogs!

In the January/February 2006 issue of AASL’s Knowledge Quest journal (1), editor Debbie (NoodleTools) Abilock examines the “schism between self-identified blog evangelists and well-respected, progressive school librarians.” She believes such a divide exists based on the evidence that so few school library media specialists are blogging or podcasting. So she asked librarians why they don't blog. (The column does not spell out who was asked or the method). Here are some of the reasons she discovered:

• Not enough time to blog or blogging is a low priority
• Absence of compelling professional need
• Ignorance of technology and no clear reason to learn it
• Current library website does the job
• F2F contact with students was sufficient
• Potential audience lacked home Internet access
• Tired of “the learning curve”
• View blogging as “vanity journalism” with entries like “deadly, self-absorbed Christmas letters” (Ouch!)
• The “elasticity of blogs as both a publishing and authoring tool”
• Other traditional outlets for writing available (It is the writers who are frustrated with conventional publishing outlets that are more likely to blog.)
• Librarians are reluctant to endorse sources of “unreliable” information
• Lack or perceived lack of writing skills by librarians
• Lack of tech support to maintain blogs
  

Debbie suggests that social software and ubiquitous computing is at the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” stage where there  are “over-enthusiasm and unrealistic projections.” I agree, having grave doubts personally on nearly a daily basis about the genuine value of blogging both as a reader and as a writer.

She also makes five extremely sensible recommendations about the school librarian’s role in ubiquitous computing.

I would add yet one other reason why the rank-and-file school librarian has not taken to blogging – far too few librarians understand the importance of formal communications/PR efforts with students, staff and parents. How many SLMS now regularly inform both patrons and decision-makers about their programs? If one is not a regular communicator using traditional formats, a new technology probably will not suddenly make one into a regular communicator. My sense is that most of us older bloggers were writers first.

I also wonder how we as school librarians compare to others in K-12 education in our adoption of blogging. Are we represented in proportionately smaller numbers than say PE teachers, school counselors, junior-high principals or even English teachers? How do we compare to the general population of professionals - doctors, dentists, lawyers, business executives, etc? Are we really that under-represented in the blogosphere?

BTW, a second piece in this issue of KQ well worth reading is Jason Johnson's "Toward Ubiquitous" in which he makes some thoughtful observations about educational technology use based on his school's one-to-one program. (Jason allowed one of his e-mails on student blogging to be published in The Blue Skunk.) Jason's voice is a new one to me. I hope to hear it regularly in our professional conversations, print and online.

(1) While I would like to be able to link to an online version of this interesting column, it is not available at this time. Some of KQ’s materials are online and this column may eventually appear.

As I thought about responding to Debbie’s article, I found myself thinking about John Battelle’s comment in his book The Search on why he no longer reads the Wall Street Journal or The Economist:

“In a print world, people read their own paper, then talked about the news when they got to the office or coffee shop. With the Web, however, news is a conversation – fueled by blogs, e-mail, and the cut-and-paste culture. In short, even if I did read the Journal or The Economist, I wouldn’t discuss it as freely as I would a story on Yahoo or Google News, because my friends and coworkers wouldn’t be able to read what I read. More and more, I find that if I can’t share something (that is, can’t point to something using e-mail or my own Web site), it’s not worth my time.” (p173-4).

He concludes: “In the end allowing deep linking [of articles] will drive subscription sales, rather than attenuate them.”

ALA, AASL, ISTE – would allowing the public to access the editorial content of all associations’ print publications drive membership as well?

Comments

[Sara Kelly Johns]

How much content to post on KQWeb has ALWAYS been part of the conversation at Knowledge Quest Board meetings since I have been an associate editor--which about three years.And also was at last week's meeting of our NYS library association last week. There are still people who want print journals (many according to the recent KQ survey) and there is the "member benefit" concept.

With survey results to consider and a new KQWeb team about to be announced, the amount online could change soon. WILL change soon.We've tried to include "web exclusives" with substantive articles that don't apprear in the print version along with articles that did appear with live links...Staff time has not been sufficient to put the whole issue up. ProQuest seems to pick it up sooner than EBSCO does but they do pick it up.

Few people know that you can subscribe to the print version of KQfor $40 a year which can be through a library budget. But...they should be members and just get it free ;-). We need a bigger voice and more members raises the volume!

Debbie's article is really a balanced look at blogging and I hope more people do find it and think a bit about how blogging fits into their personal and/or professional lives. I'm trying!

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Sara,

I didn't mean for this to sound critical of KQ or AASL. (If I remember, getting articles from L&L requires entering a membership number too.)

Just pointing out that economic models seem to be changing. Our MEMO group here in MN has the same discussions about what to make available to all and what should be reserved for members.

Just a thought.

Doug

[Jacquie Henry]

There is a LOT here to think about. The "learning curve" is a big roadblock to school librarians & classroom teachers.

In my "I Will Blog Because....." post <http://tinyurl.com/c3dhq> I opened a discussion on the reasons why having a blog is a great idea for school librarians. I got several good contributions to that part of the post. But I never got any contributions to the section called "I Will Blog Instead Of..." Librarians do need to think of practical ways to make room for another technology. They wonder how to fit one more thing into an already crowded day. But there are lots of folks out there who write all the time. They just don't think of themselves as writers. They jot down notes and keep them in a folder or on their computer to read and think about later. They send memos on library issues to administrators, classroom teachers or other librarians in their districts. They post messages to LM_NET or local listservs. They email newsletters, bibliographies and pathfinders, etc. etc. They do more writing than they realize. It is really no more time-consuming to blog any of these everyday communications. Some practical, hands-on workshops would help. The hard part might be getting them to the workshop to begin with...

[Sara Kelly Johns]

I didn't take your post as criticism of AASL, Doug. I just got into my "teaching mode" more than I intended to, probably from being so immersed in KQ Survey results that show a real swing to people reading more online journals than before--but still wanting their print copy! There is change afoot in approaches to publishing--as their should be. It's just a challenge to try to provide significant, meaningful content in the best format for those who want it. But without challenges and change, life would be awfully dull...

Jacquie, your post is thoughtful as always. Blogging IS one solution for meaningful communication that makes sense for schools to utilize but I see it as an additional tool at this time, not a replacement for much else BECAUSE not enough people are ready to participate. Look at how many people showed up for Doug's workshop this week after he put so much time into a meaningful way for his district to use blogging. 12, including Anne? Yikes!

I'll predict that within a year, there will be many more educators using blogging and wikis (see Joyce Valenza's 1/27 entry on her blog <http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org/> rather than just the kids who are ahead of us by years. Gee, Joyce's latest post talks about blogging in libraries, too....

It's mostly ahead of us, Sara

[Laura]

Doug, I don't have a library-related blog because at my new school, they have decided (as a school policy) to use other software and means of communication. At my old school, I had one but few people (including students) looked at it. Yes, they have value for communities blah blah blah but the reality is that many of us have school-wide (or district-wide) policies that prevent it, or we're one-person libraries and simply do not have the time to do that and the other million things that must get done so that we can play a central role in the student's education. And, ultimately, which is more valuable? A blog or working with students and teachers? A wiki or a great collection and delivering instruction? If it comes to a choice, I know where my priorites are - I suspect I'm not alone.

[Jacquie Henry]

Up till now my main means of communications with my teachers - other than quick conversations in the hall and at lunch - has been via email & sometimes paper memos. Our faculty is more likely to read emails. Hardly anything is done with paper anymore. For any library where this is the case - blogging can easily replace emails and be just as effective with practically not extra effort. Here's the trick. You don't make a big deal of it being a blog. And you don't expect anyone to remember to go there on their own. You simply write a blog post the way you would have written an email in the past. Then - you email the link to the teachers. The link might say - "Click here for a list of new books that just arrived. Let me know if you would like to borrow anything and I will see that it gets to your mailbox." Then you provide the link to the appropriate post. I have done this 3 or 4 times since I started the blog and am getting just as good a response as I did to my emails. I tend to put things aimed at my faculty under "articles" on the blog and things aimed at the "biblioblgosphere" go into the daily posts. Eventually I plan to post something and ask teachers to put their comments on the blog and see how that works. I am also going to try to communicate with the other librarians in my district this way when appropriate.
Eventually I will work on something for the kids.

[Will Richardson]

Doug,

This surprises me:
"I agree, having grave doubts personally on nearly a daily basis about the genuine value of blogging both as a reader and as a writer." Really? You seriously doubt the value of blogs as a reader? I hope you write more about that. But then again, I guess you may choose not to. ;0)
Will

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Laura,

How high a priority good communication is depends on how dependent your library is on the support of others - parents, teachers and community. If those folks don't know what the library does for kids, they are unlikely to support it. So while I don't defend blogs as THE most effective means of communication, I will defend communication as something that should be a high priority in the majority of library programs.

IMHO (as always).

Doug

[Christopher Harris]

Laura,

First, let me say that I understand where you are coming from. Not only do I see a lot of the hardships of single librarian libraries in the schools I work with, I also get "reminded" by my wife when my ideas get to grand. She is an elementary librarian who is lucky enough to have an aide about 2 hours a day.

I wanted to take a closer look at something you said: "ultimately, which is more valuable? A blog or working with students and teachers? A wiki or a great collection and delivering instruction? If it comes to a choice, I know where my priorites are - I suspect I'm not alone."

That statement presumes that a blog doesn't involve working with students and teachers. I hope the students (and the librarian) there don't get tired of me linking to them, but I would recommend you check out the Pacific Middle School Library Book Blog at http://beiffert.net/liblog/ to see a blog that is totally about connecting with students. Remember, a blog is just a website running special software to let you more easily add regular entries. The content is up to you...so it can be about helping students as opposed to what you had for breakfast.

I think there are ways that blogs and wikis can be used in a single librarian library to let the tools work for you. If you get a lot of materials requests on the same topics, maybe you could use a wiki to create a set of online pathfinders. The wiki technology makes them very easy to update, and since they are online you can access them anywhere without worrying about files. Have a secondary student helper or a library student working with you? Have them work on updating the pathfinders and use wiki technology to hold the updates for review before publication.

Blogs can work the same way. As Jacquie said, they can be used to share information with teachers. If you couldn't get students to contribute (and I bet they would love to) with a committment of about 5 minutes a day you could have a "Book a Day Blog" to highlight your collection development activities. Remember, marketing what you are doing is sometimes more important than just doing!

And like Sara, I am getting, well...not teacher-like, but certainly a bit too library administrator. I hope you don't mind.

[Laura]

Actually, Chris, I am a lucky Head Librarian: two full time and one part time librarians report to me, as well as a full time para and many parent volunteers. In our case, the school's policy is to not allow blogs - I have to respect that decision,whether or not I agree with it.

I was writing for the many, many OPLs I've spoken to in my local LA who are just feeling too overwhelmed, too innundated with daily stuff to even consider "one more thing". Yes, you can get students to help with blogs. But what if the policy is to have their comments moderated? Who will do the moderating? The overworked OPL. As Doug says, communicating with the community is key - not the way in which you communicate. It's great that you, and Doug, and Joyce and others are Thinking Ahead. I worry more about No Librarian Left Behind, because I'm seeing a lot of them in my life.

(I don't mean to sound pissy here, but I have 93 blogs in my Bloglines account, yours and Pacific MS included)

[Alice]

FWIW: Judith Siess has an interesting response to Doug's comments on her One Person Library blog, at <http://opls.blogspot.com/2006/02/not-enough-time-to-blog-think-again.html>