Blogs: If You Write It, Will Anybody Read It?

Here I am starting another round of "23 Things" with the first topic being blogs. I spent some time exploring how blogs are being used by archives and special collections. First, there were the official blogs of special collections and archives that announced events, new acquisitions, collections recently processed, or highlighted collections relating to a particular theme. It is a good alternative to a newsletter but reaches a smaller audience generally than a social networking application such as Facebook. However, it does give you the option of writing more substantial information about the event or collection than the social networking applications. Many organizations are using a combination of both or a combination of several Web 2.0 applications. An excellent example is the Deseronto Archives in Ontario.

Another group of blogs in the profession concentrate on professional practice and issues. Blogs in this second category can cover a variety of issues or concentrate on a single issue such as conservation or an audience category such as NewArchivists, aimed at archivists entering the profession. One that I try to follow is ArchivesNext, a blog that explores the use of the latest technology by archivists. For those less serious moments, I turn to Derangement and Description, a comical perspective to the archives profession. Finally, there are blogs that are written more from the personal perspective of the blogger. These are sometimes useful but some times fall into the category of "Who Cares." I have to admit that the last category describes my own personal blogging so far. I assumed no one would notice.

Blogs can be very useful to archival institutions, but you have to be aware that they have limited audience and require some effort to keep current. Bloggers often get weary of it and drop out for a few months or years or just stop.

Blogs and Feeds: Wading into the Digital Stream

When you are standing at the edge of the ocean or by a mountain stream, do you carefully wade in gradually letting your body adjust to the cold water or do you just take a deep breath and jump right in? Myself--I have never been a jumper, but after wading in so far I usually figure that it is just time to face the inevitable. I am looking at this process this way. I am still wading in to the digital stream with an introduction to blogs--this one in particular--and subscribing to RSS feeds.

For these first exercises, creating the blog was fun and easy. While I am still not sure what I have to say is of interest to anyone, it is an exercise in expression and certainly is an easy way to get information out to others. I will have to ponder on ways to best use this tool for the Archives where I spend my weekdays. I am also eager to watch some other blogs from archival repositories to see how they use the tool. This brings me to the second part of our first week of exercises, RSS feeds.

I did subscribe to some of the blogs through the Google Reader. I had my gmail account, so using Google Reader was an easy choice. It was easy to subscribe with Google Reader and I chose to follow some of the blogs from other repositories from your suggested list. I also used the Google Reader to try to search for blogs relating to Appalachia or higher education in Tennessee. Searching turned up lots of blogs out there on those two topics but very few were worth following. It reminds me of all the cable television channels that still have very few programs that I want to watch. All the Appalachian related blogs seemed to focus on coal and mountain top removal. Don't get me wrong--this is a huge issue, but there are other issues in the region worth blogging about. I did find a couple of blogs to follow on higher education in Tennessee and on Appalachia, but it really wasn't easy. I do think that there is a real need for lists like the one compiled on recommended blogs relating to archives.