I take your point, but in our case, at least, it isn't that management is against such discussion, but rather that the blog is seen as an outreach tool, and staff haven't been interested in adding the "meta" dimension.
I am curious as to whether the library bloggers you notice are their main institutional bloggers, or if they are blogging on their own time about their craft. I seem to have a long list of bloggers I follow from general cultural heritage institutions--in most cases, though, they blog outside the institution--Seb Chan at Australia's Powerhouse being one notable exception as I try to think on my feet and fail, yet again. ari On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 3:04 PM, Eric Johnson <ejohnson at monticello.org> wrote: > Hi, Ari-- > > That last point is very much at the heart of my inquiry. I find it > intriguing that museum librarians and archivists (and related information > professionals) who are engaged in the day-to-day work of helping connect > people to information spend so little time talking among themselves about the > meta-level questions of what they're doing. There are certainly plenty of > librarian blogs out there that address librarianship as such, but not many > that I've found doing so with a focus on the museum world. I've seen quite a > bit of discussion of museum/information connections, but it seems to be lead > primarily by academics and programmers, with curators throwing in their > occasional two cents. I'd like to see more sharing of information from other > museum information practitioners (spoken of broadly, as the lines are often > quite blurred). > > I suspect you're right about the institutional reluctance to support that > kind of blogging, as it may result in negative reflection on "the way things > are being done" at a given institution. But I don't think that negativity > necessarily has to be the case at all, nor does the conversation really have > to revolve around a single site. > > In any case, more food for thought. Thanks! > > --E. > > Eric D. M. Johnson > Web Services Librarian > Jefferson Library, Monticello > P.O. Box 316 > Charlottesville, VA 22902 > Phone: (434) 984-7540 | Fax: (434) 984-7546 > http://www.monticello.org/library/ > ejohnson at monticello.org > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of > Ari Davidow > Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 2:35 PM > To: Museum Computer Network Listserv > Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Museum librarian blogs > > Interesting take on the subject. The Jewish Women's Archive blogs at > http://jwablog.jwa.org but mostly we blog about current events and how > they relate to our collections, or just about current events. Very > little meta discussion about the archive, itself. There has been > resistance here to using the blog that way. In fact, I blog at > Musematic when I have something to say about the tools we use or the > philosophical issues we face. > > ari > > > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ >
