Free Books For Bloggers…
November 3rd, 2004“It’s a small thing, yet somehow significant. Blogger Costa Tsiokos was pleased to receive a review book from the Time Warner Book Group after posting an item about the upcoming release of Berkeley Breathed’s compilation of Opus comic strips.”
“So big deal, right? Well, this is another small indicator of the growing power of blogs and their steady march toward being included in the ranks of mainstream media. Today, free books; tomorrow, real influence?”
Hmmm. So maybe librarians who blog about books can have an influence over the traditional book selection print materials (LJ, Kirkus, Choice, etc), by having books sent to them directly from the publisher. Reviews can be published instantly without waiting months for them to be published. This shortens the time that a library can order and receive the book and get it out to the public. This is, of course, implies that library bloggers can be taken seriously by the publishing companies. In order for this to happen, we need to be read more by these companies and seen as an influence in the library world. I don’t see that happening just yet.
In popular culture, bloggers are breaking boundaries that librarians can only fantasize about doing within the profession. Maybe what we need is a voice in the national organizations. Heck, we can start our own organizations. The NLBA (National Library Blogging Association). It sounds too political, but you get what I mean. I think it may be time to step it up a bit in our little world. Get our names out there more. Am I totally off base here?