Thinking While Blogging
January 19th, 2004Vernica Downey had an interesting post today about weblogs, RSS, and archivists:
“Librarians, in general, it seems, are adopting RSS and weblog technology, slowly but surely. Yet, I would argue that many of the weblog workshops for librarians are “preaching to the choir” of tech and reference librarians. There is little in either the titles of these workshops or the methods of advertising them to convince archivists and special collections librarians that these workshops are useful or relevant for their field.”
In my travels over the past year, teaching and training librarians about weblogs and RSS, I have spoken to many types of information professionals, from technology librarians to public librarians to academics to catalogers. At no time did I think that I was “preaching to the choir”. They were all there to learn about how weblogs and RSS can help the keep current as well as easily provide content to their users.
A caveat. There is a difference, however, between conference talks and hands on training with a small group of people. With conferences, I talk more about theory and resources, with a splash of show and tell. With hands on training, we actually create weblogs and work closely with a few aggregators. I love the small training sessions better as I get to work closely with the attendees (I never call them students), get to know them on a personal level, and make it more personable.
And my suggestion to Vernica would be, that if you feel archivists and special collections librarians need to learn more about weblogs and RSS, why not teach a class yourself and make it geared toward your colleagues?