Library Hard

A lot of his discussion surrounded who is blogging and why they are blogging, found through the survey results. The answers are varied. Almost 63% are, surprisingly, women. Age is primarily 25-34 (44%) with the 35-44 age range coming in next (almost 27%). His survey did not include people under 18. Most started blogging in 2004 or later (only 30% blogger before this; only 18 were blogging 2001 or earlier). This was interesting to me–where people are employed:

Academic libraries - 41.53%
Public libraries - 24.58%
School libraries - 5.08%
Special libraries - 8.05%
(there were a number of other categories including vendor, consultant, and LIS student).

This was surprising in that he expected public libraries to outweigh academic libraries. Apparently blogging hasn't yet proliferated in the special libraries arena! Special libraries = specialized libraries for you non-librarians. All the private law libraries would be considered special libraries. I know, I know, I am very "special".

Overall, blogging librarians tend to reveal a lot of personal details. Someone from the audience asked what librarians did to express themselves before they had blogs. It was speculated that chatboards and conferencing communities such as The Well filled the gap. I didn't mention listservs but that would have been my answer for sure…

Overall, blogging should be as easy as you want to make it. It is about being part of a conversation, part of a community. It is a very inclusive thing, and should not depend upon one's level of technical knowledge. You can delve into the fancy things like podcasting and video blogging, but that is not necessary to be heard or to get your message out.

Related: poster by Michael Stephens, "Who Are the Blog People?"