BackTalk: That Bloggin' Pneumonia!

By Antoinette Powell -- Library Journal, 6/1/2007

“So, do you want to do a music blog?” my library director asked, clearly intent on dragging us into the wonderful new world of electronic communication. “Heck no!” was my immediate response. “I barely have time to do what I need to do.” As the words slipped out, I immediately wished I had softened my response to indicate that, yes, I really do get my work done.

I think he knew that, though. He let me be, and, eventually, he got his way. A few blogs were launched here at the Mudd Library. The “News from the Mudd” blog was, well, nice. But, it seemed to be little more than a rehash of library news and announcements, and it wasn't getting many hits. Maybe if we just gave it more time, people would discover it, we thought. We gave it time. Still, not much action.

It was about this time I attended a Society for American Music (SAM) and Music Library Association (MLA) joint conference in Pittsburgh. At one inspiring session, Library Journal reporter Andrew Albanese spoke these words: “Don't just make your library blog a bulletin board.” Albanese's advice was to change the blog constantly, to post daily, and to post anything. Keep people off guard so they have to—so they want to—check back frequently.

Those words hit me like a ton of quartos. That's exactly what we were doing wrong. All along, we had thought simply that “if we build it, they will come.” We were mistaken. People can find out all the latest library news on the homepage. Why should they click again to a blog that says pretty much the same things?

At our next staff meeting, I passed on what I had learned, and everyone agreed that a change was necessary. First, we decided that we didn't need multiple blogs. We would keep “News from the Mudd” and the University Archives blog, which was getting traffic. Now, it would fall to the two people who had logins and passwords to whip those blogs into shape and make them irresistible. But then, we thought, why should only two of us carry the whole load? Someone, possibly our forward-thinking Fearless Leader, suggested giving everyone on the library staff the power to post.

At the next library staff meeting, it was announced that all library staff would get logins and passwords for the blog. Some greeted this news with great enthusiasm. Some, echoing my initial reaction, cowered under the table. It was also made clear, however, that people did not have to post. Posting was just an option now open to them. At that, a great burden lifted from my and many of my colleagues' shoulders. The clouds parted. Suddenly, I was free to blog or not to blog.

Looking back now on the days that followed that declaration, it's all a blur, a frenzy of activity. It was Jazz Appreciation month. The possibilities were staggering. Jazz recordings? We have those! Sound files available for streaming or downloading? We have quite a few. Could it possibly be someone's birthday today? Someone connected with, oh, I don't know, jazz? Let's find out. What's that you say? It's National Poetry Month? Can something be posted about poetry and jazz? How about Jazz Poetry? Done and done. Hey, can we somehow link that cool web-based “open source planetarium” program to jazz and poetry? Do you even have to ask?

You get the picture. Once dreading the idea of blogging, I found myself logging in two or three times a day. I posted and posted again. There was so much to say, so much information to disseminate, so many correlations to be made with library materials or services. Suddenly, there just was so much to blog and too little time!

When I would come up for air, I'd sometimes pass Fearless Leader in the halls. He'd just look at me. I knew in my heart it was an admiring glance, an affirmation of a job well done. Then one day he said (or rather, sang), “You've got that bloggin' pneumonia and the wiki-wiki flu.” What higher praise from one's supervisor?

Since that initial burst of activity, our geekified library secretary has created a Flickr® page to announce new CD acquisitions. It contains an image of the CDs piled on top of one another, and patrons can mouse over the spines to get a description. They can also click on a link to see if the CD is available. We'll change the image as new CDs come in. Maybe someone on our staff will make a similar new book link, or maybe we'll announce new DVDs the same way.

We know the word is getting out. Music Conservatory faculty have thanked me for keeping them informed. The university's chief information officer now has an RSS feed set up. We are (OK, I am) already looking forward to next month's blogging: National Egg Month, Eat Dessert First Week, National Effectiveness Week, Eat What You Want Day, and National Chocolate Chip Day. Now, if I can only think of a theme.