Great to see that when I clicked on the links for the library blogs listed, that they had since been updated from Sunday night....so here are just some of my thoughts regarding these blogs...
Southern Tablelands History Matters
I like it! I feel the look is appropriate for a 'history' blog and I thought it was great to see that it is obviously updated regularly as it was different to when I visited the blog on Sunday night - it's now Tuesday night - perhaps I find it interesting as it does cover some of the areas of my descendants. There has been the attempt to attract comments - although I'm not sure of the effectiveness as there are not many comments present - I guess it depends on whether the blog is advertised/promoted or not.
Lo and behold, the WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier has the same 'look' - it too is appropriate for the historical aspect...
Sutherland Shire Libraries News
I like it! It's bright but easy to read with the black text on white. I also like the 'comments' being labelled Reactions and it was interesting to note that the post with the most Reactions was for the Call for Casual Library Shelvers - good to see that staff are responding to the Reactions from young students asking questions! Again, it has been updated recently with Library Lovers' Day - great to see that other libraries were also actually seizing the opportunity to have some fun on LLD!
Alternative Teen Services
OK, I'll admit it - I'm on dial-up at home and this page takes forever to load - so far I've got a dark green screen and if I were a young person (or should I say younger), I would've clicked the stop button and skipped it - so I have not actually investigated this blog as it takes far too long to load....
ACT Public Library Blog
I quite like the look of it - I am curious as to why there are 'riddles' but I think that makes it different to some other library blogs - and the fact that they have the answer the following week probably ensures that people will return to the blog - interesting idea...
It doesn't give too much information away (eg School holiday activities) - rather making people visit the library website (with the hyperlink that directs user to the actual page) or phone for further information.
Thus, it is true - blogs are one of the easy ways that libraries could potentially reach many more people - it is interesting with the above blogs the various ways they attempt to capture people - I do like the local studies option and as my library has a large Local Studies collection, it would be an absolute shame to not start such a blog - the Local Studies staff did in the past write an article for the free local newspaper and for whatever reason, the article no longer exists - our area also have several heritage/historical societies that often use the library resources - so there is a connection there - if only it could be extended further to the community.
Sutherland's example demonstrates that young students are utilising their blog with the 'reactions' for the employment post.
Having said that, I also believe that there needs to be a certain amount of promotion of the blogs to the community - is it enough to just have the blogs on the library website and wait for people to peruse the blogs? - I suspect not.
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1 comment:
You raise some really interesting points and seem to have a real appreciation of the needs of different clients groups and how design might effect reach...so I would say you do have some pretty goodflippinideas.
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