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Marylaine's latest installment of Ex Libris is a good one. She writes:
"If there's an issue you care a lot about and nobody else is addressing it, start a weblog or a web site, and get me and Jessamyn and Blake Carver at LISNews.com to announce it. Bingo, you're now the expert on it, unless you fall on your face in public. It's a great career move, because you can use it, as I have, as a platform from which to propose books and articles and topics to speak on at conferences."
I know that I have mentioned this in the past, but when someone asks me why I take the time to post to this weblog, I always mention that the reasons are mostly selfish. I started LS as a mechanism to post stories/news/etc so that I can stay current with what is going on in librarianship. Since August 2000, I have befriended numerous colleagues, I have written lots of articles and a book, and I am speaking at more and more at library conferences. Weblogs are a great way to market yourself and become "known" in any profession, due to their ease of use. Anyone can have one. Even you. So, if you haven't jumped on the weblog bandwagon and want to jumpstart your career, now is the perfect time to do so.
Oh, and when my weblog was started three years ago, the first ones to link to it were Blake, Jessamyn, and Marylaine. So there you go.
Posted by Steven at August 1, 2003 10:14 PM | TrackBackI think a library professional could develop some recognized expertise on a topic if they have something unique and useful to add to the knowledge base - especially something that frontline practitioners will find helpful, or that will facilitate their ability to improve themselves professionally. But I think the title of Walt's new book, First Have Something To Say says it all. I find it scary that you advise your readers to jump on the weblog bandwagon when in fact many of the existing librarian blogs are really pointless and poorly done. Do we need to know what happened at your (not you Steve - the pointless blog authors) job today or what you're having for dinner tonight? I don't think so. I recently came across one (only because it was someone on the local library scene that we know) who was chronicling everything she did on her job in 5 or 10 minute segments - under the guise of letting the public know what librarians really do. This was just awful stuff. Most certainly not the stuff that gurus are made.
Sorry if this comment comes off as being cynical, but I'd like to still believe that developing expertise in some aspect of the library profession - something that might get you recognized as someone worthy of giving a conference presentation - requires dedication, research, thoughtfulness, the willingness to take risks, publishing something controversial or contrarian in the literature - and probably a couple of years of hard work. Suggesting that we all jump on the blog bandwagon as the path to gurudom stikes me as ingenuous. If it's all about marketing yourself and becoming known, that sounds a lot like "style over substance." I'd like to think it's about more than that.
Our Boston Public Library people with expertise and experience need to compile their own weblogs that BPLuser clientele might check out. There is a resistance to it among BPLers. In general BPL publications tend to be done with so much formality as to obviate their actual usability.
Posted by: Don Warner Saklad on August 3, 2003 08:02 AMShe forgot to mention Library Stuff...
Posted by: Chris on August 4, 2003 01:47 PMVery interesting post
Posted by: David on November 29, 2003 07:53 AM