Ethics, Blogging, and ALA Midwinter
December 13th, 2004“I’m hoping that those of us blogging PLA’s meetings at the ALA Midwinter 2005 conference are willing to talk about, and agree to, guidelines for our own blogging, and are willing to commit to standards of blogging that won’t make us cringe when we look back at our activities ten or thirty years hence. We have a great opportunity to show the world that information specialists represent the sine qua non, the absolute go-to-gang, for today’s citizen bloggers. Library flavor: it’s mmm-mmm good!”
I guess that I’m in the best position to comment on this. Since we will be blogging for an organization, there will be guidelines for what it published. I’ve mentioned this on numerous occasions during my presentations and most recently Internet Librarian (with Michael Stephens). When blogging for a company, organization, or association, there should be guidelines. There should also be a mission. The mission of the PLA blog will be for the 10 (or so) of us to get the national library associations in the United States excited about blogging. Second, it will be our mission to get out thoughts, ideas, and (yes) commentary out to those who couldn’t attend the meeting (but want to play along at home) and to put a different face to the conference. Who better than a bunch of librarians who love blogs and who want to get that information out?. Thank you PLA for allowing us to do this and for your faith in our work.
These guidelines, however, will not hold back the creativity and freedom of the blogger (I doubt that this is what Karen was implying). You see, I think there is a middle ground that we’re missing here. We can have guidelines and standards without having to stomp on the blogging ideology that “I should be able to write whatever I want to”. You can do whatever you want on your own blog. But, when it comes to the PLA blog, there will be certain things that you won’t be able to say. Stuff that you probably wouldn’t post to your own blog anyway. Jenny Levine and Michael Stephens told me that even though I don’t have a “mission statement” for Library Stuff, I do have a mission. When I replied, “I do?”, they both said, “Yeah, you do.” And as we spoke, I realized that I do, albeit informally, have a “mission statement”. I won’t blog about certain topics, I won’t say certain things, use certain words, etc. I’m sure that we all can agree on that.
I hope that Karen doesn’t take the brunt of any negative commentary that her post may receive. I agree with her comments more often than I disagree with them. I think on the topic of ethics, we are almost in agreement. In a way, I’m glad that we’re not.
On that note, for those that still want to blog at ALA Midwinter, we have a bunch of spots left. For those that have already contacted me, you will hear from me this week.