Hi, Ari-- I rather tangled two points, for which I apologize. You're quite right about the typical use of institutional blogs as outreach tools--that's been how we use ours as well, and how most seem to be getting used. Announcing interesting exhibits, new books, speakers, fun facts, etc.
We briefly contemplated also including the "meta" dimension in our own library blog, but we decided fairly early on that that would get a little confusing for readers. So we've stuck primarily with the outreach aspects. Any "meta"-level bloggers I'm finding do indeed seem to be doing so on their own time. What I've found though is that very few of even those people seem to be heritage institution *librarians*. That's the thing that has struck me in all this. My thought, indistinctly made in my previous post, is that--whether they would blog from outside or within of the walls of an institution--perhaps that reluctance to blog is in part due to a reluctance to be seen as critical of the institution in question? I think that's a shame, because it needn't be done from a critical perspective. And as you point out there are quite a number of cultural heritage staffers who blog (primarily on their own time), and quite successfully and compellingly. But not so much from the library perspective. I'll see what I can do to pull together who seems to be responsible for what kind of blogging and report back. --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:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ari Davidow Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 3:33 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Museum librarian blogs 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/ > _______________________________________________ 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/
