What's a library blog good for?

Hmmmm…now that’s a good question. My library is currently in the beginning stages of planning a blog, so we have already started to think of answers to this question. All of us realize that if it isn’t going to help or interest our community, it’s not worth the time and effort. However, we do feel that there are a number of things that the community would find helpful (and maybe even…dare I say it…fun or interesting!).

First, we think that it would be a great way to showcase our collections and services to our community. Our school is increasingly getting into online education, so we will not always have patrons who will be able to enter the physical library. This would a great way to reach this particular population. We’ve thought of doing something like “the database of the month” and perhaps highlighting that database with related trivia questions.

Also, we have displays in the library that we could also do online. One example of this is our “Word Wise” program. One of our part-time reference librarians picks a word a week and makes signs with two examples of how the word has been used in sentences. We then post one sign on the reference desk and another above the dictionary stand (with the dictionary opened to the word’s entry). This could certainly be done online with links leading patrons to our online subscription to the OED.

Another way to use the blog would be to update the community on general library news (quiet study hours, group study rooms, library events, keeping valuables safe, etc.). For more temporary news bits, I think implementing a Twitter feed on the blog would be really great. (See U. Illinois UC’s Undergrad Library’s UGL Alerts for a great example of this : http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/). It is not uncommon for us to have a printer or two go down for a little bit during the height of the semester, and this would be one way to inform our patrons. In addition, we have 24 computers in our library’s reading room that serve as our dedicated teaching space, so we could alert patron’s to these computers’ availability and direct them to the computer lab if need be. And of course we can also inform patrons about snow closings, which is always an issue in Boston!

Finally, our staff likes that our community could receive updates to their emails, feed readers, or mobile devices. This means that patrons could stay up-to-date at their convenience, even when the library is closed (including during longer holiday breaks or the summer).

I’d love to hear other suggestions or feedback, as we are meeting next Tuesday to start planning and dividing the work among our staff members.

Thanks for reading!