CITY UNIVERSITY

Blogging and Libraries (An evaluation and impact of social media On libraries) Leslie T Crang September 2007

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Mac. In library & information systems

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Contents Page no. Acknowledgements…………………………………………………..………..3 Abbreviations and key terms…………………………………………..……..3 Aims and objectives…………………………………………………….……..4 Literature review……………………………………………………….……..6 Methodology………………………………………………………………….27 Results and findings………………………………………………………….32 Appendix……………………………………………………………….……..58 References & Bibliography …………………………………………………68 Endnotes………………………………………………………………………80

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank everybody who has assisted me with this project. Particular thanks goes to my supervisor Dr. Andrew McFarlane. Finally I would like to thank my girlfriend, family and Stephen O’Hear for their support and encouragement. Abbreviations and key terms: Blog: - An abbreviation of a web log. Often described as an online diary. Technorati: - A popular blog search engine. Echo chamber: - often repeated term, used derogatory. Digg: - community-based popularity website with an emphasis on technology and science articles.

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Aims and objectives:- the aims and objectives of this dissertation is to see whether blogging has impacted (or not) upon libraries. In this dissertation I will be using interviews and questionnaires to attain my results. In the interviews I will ask three library related bloggers and an anti-blogger what their opinion is on blogging, and what the future of blogging maybe. I will also enquire into why the bloggers do blog. I will also enquire as to whether blogging is a useful tool in their work (all of which are different). One is an American blogger, another an advocate blogger trying to stop the closure of public libraries in the UK and the final person was a search engines and web design blogger, working with the libraries. So as to have a balanced viewpoint, I interviewed an anti-blogger who works in the library field. These interviews were obtained via email. I have not released their identities. The interviews were used to see why librarians blogged and what audience they were looking at. Much of my research was influenced by Sauers book Blogging and RSS: A Librarian’s Guide, in which he interviewed over 20 library bloggers. The anti-blogger was used to see what there opinion on the subject was. I was influenced in my questions to the anti-blogger by the new book written by Andrew Keen called The cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy (2007), which takes a diametrically opposed view to the social web and blogging than Sauers work. Other questions I put to the respondents were my own and looked into the three areas they individually worked within. I also set up an online questionnaire for library bloggers. In this research I wanted to see what platforms of software users were using, and if libraries were utilising 4

blogging as a way of contacting staff and patrons, amongst other questions. I cross-reference my research, I used work previously done by Clyde (2004) and Farkas (2005). In gaining these questionnaire results I used my own blog and a social website called Ning to set it up and obtain my responses. Another library blogger (Sarah Houghton) entered an entry on her blog, and this increased the number of responses. The questionnaire was also used to see what area of the world most blogs came from also.

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Literature review Introduction In the new digital age of computers, blackberries and Internet access the rise of blogging has been phenomenal. It’s been reported that there are as many as 15.5 million active blogs online, although this seems to be now peaking (Green, 2007). In this dissertation I wish to discuss what impact this new media is having on libraries (if at all), and why people actually blog (or do not). My research will include interviews with librarians who use blogs for their own personal reasons (peer prestige, enjoyment of writing etc), and a questionnaire sent to some librarians who use blogs in their libraries. What is a blog A blog is an amalgamation of the terms web and log. A web log is described by Stone (2004, p.228) as: 'A personal website that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries, and recommendations compiled by the users.' There are many different platforms and Blog software available. The most popular are Blogger (owned by Google), Movable type, Word press and Live Journal amongst others. Each platform though has a different ways of working. There are three methods of creating a blog. Web-based service, server software, or client software, which I will now describe. Web based are accessible from any internet-connected computer. The most 6

popular of these is blogger.com. They have the advantage of their accessibility, they’re free, no technical skills are required and they are easy to use. Whilst its main disadvantage is that it lacks some of the advanced features of server and client-based software. For example, it’s more difficult to customise code on a web based (hosted) service than the other two. Server-based packages include such blogging platforms as moveable type and Word press. These services require installation to software onto a server. The advantage with this platform is the additional features such as interactive calendar-based view of posts. The disadvantage is its not free and requires a level of technical capabilities to put the software on the server. Client based is similar to server based, but instead of entering it onto a server you enter the software onto a client-based machine. Again, like server-based machines, the advantage of extra features is the best thing about it. The disadvantages are the same also (cost and need of technical skills). There is also another disadvantage that the client machine the software is entered onto is the same machine one has to enter blog entries onto. Blogs that use this software are Radio User land (Sauers, 2006, pp78-9). Blogs are also created for different reasons. Rebecca Blood (2002, pp.60-4) gives four reasons. These are :1.

Self-expression. A person can discuss a subject they enjoy or hate and allow

inner feelings and anxieties to be released. It also can allow them to express their language and writing skills as well. There it acts as a tool to improve one’s writing. 2.

Keeping in touch. Some people use their blogs to keep in contact with

friends and family if they’re either on holiday or away from these people. Access to these blogs may sometime just for personal friends and family, and give a regular update of what the person is doing or thinking. 7

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Information Sharing. Some blogs are created to share a subject topic with

others. For example one of the most popular blogs is Techcrunch, which provides readers with information on new internet start up companies and internet related news is an example of this. 4.

Reputation building. This means that writers can gain reputation via there

blogs. This can assist in getting jobs, conferences and interviews. These four are not exclusive to each blogger. They can also be interchangeable. The above instances may explain how blogs work and came into existence but not why they work. Firstly, blogs have been described as conversations. One of the earliest books to regard the net and blogs as this was The Cluetrain Manifesto (Levine. R. Et al, 1999, p.xi) The opening line of the book says: ‘A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the internet, people are discovering and reinventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with binding speed. As a direct result markets are getting smarter – and getting smarter faster than most companies.’ The importance of the conversation is always one of the aims of bloggers. Bloggers often wish to discuss something (whether it’s relevant or important is another matter). There is also a more important reason for conversations. Bloggers, Blood (2002, p.153) says ‘carried on public conversations on site from site. They drew readers by sending them to reliably interesting material all across the web, and then pointed them to other ‘sites like mine’, thus merging their audiences and expanding their influence.’ The spreading of the conversation creates links with other like-minded persons and can grow the person’s own influence within what has been termed the blogosphere (see key terms). Blogs also often have what is termed a blog roll. Blogrolls are described by Stone (2004, p.101) ‘the practice of publishing a link lists of blogs…A blogroll is a simple hyperlinked listing of blogs, usually in the sidebar of a blog.’ Like 8

conversations blogrolls allow like-minded people to see what there reading. This can extend what has been termed the social network or network. Wikipedia describes it thus:‘A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes.’1 If you note the above, linking, blog rolls and conversations are seen as adding value to a network. Finally, not all blogs are just text. There are also vlogs (video blogs), moblogs (mobile blogging), podcasts (sound recorded sources of information). Unfortunately this dissertation will not be looking into these in any great detail. The history of blogging. Blogging as an online diary may seem to be a contemporary idea brought about by the introduction of the Internet. This is far from the case. William Bowles (2005) for example feels that the idea of blogging has been around for longer, saying '‘Blogs’ have been with us for some four hundred years although obviously their form and means of distribution has changed. The invention of moveable type enabled the relatively inexpensive production of printed material as well as an increasingly literate society.'2 Bowles points out that the idea of independent media has been around for people such as Jonathan Swift and Thomas Paine to create an alternative view point within the politics and newspapers of the day. Papas (2006) has also discussed the importance of these pamphleteers, with one pointing out that if you ignore the word pamphleteer and replace it with blogging that Orwell's words have some resonance when he wrote: 9

'The pamphlet is a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and ‘high-brow’ than is ever possible in a newspaper or most kinds of periodicals.'3 The creation of web logs in the age of the Internet was not created by the use of blogging software such as Blogger or Movable Type. Most of what are now termed blogs were previously websites with links that other people could also link to. Therefore the creation of the Mosaic Web Browser in 1992 not only indicates the birth of the Internet but the creation of blogging. With the creation of Mosaic people could create web pages if they were able to use Hypertext Markup Language (hereby HTML) and put this on the web for others to access. Many people therefore saw the web as a communication tool, where hyperlinks would transport people to whatever knowledge they may need or find. Some people used this form of communication to set up links on their sites that other users could look at if they wished. The use of linking is a common theme within blogging history and a person who is (arguably) seen, as the first blogger is Justin Hall, who created Justin’s links from the underground4. Gillmor (2004, p.12) says of him: ‘[He] may have well been the first serious weblog, long before specialised weblog software tools become available.’ Accessibility (for those who could understand HTML at least and were online) to a large and expanding market was a reason for the explosion of the web and blogging. Hall (Stone, 2004, p.42) himself says: ‘I could put writings and words up electronically, make them look pretty, and engage the web with links. And I didn’t have to pay anyone to do it.’ Others have argued that Mosaic’s ‘What’s new page’ (which ran from June 1993 to June 1996) was the first proper weblog (beating Justin’s by six months to the 10

term of first blog). Blood (2002, p.3) points out ‘updated daily, it pointed web surfers to sites they might enjoy seeing – and in those days web surfers enjoyed looking at any page.’ Either case, both are seen as the starting point of modern blogging. Peter Merholz (2002) created the term weblog in 1999, who said: ‘I've decided to pronounce the word "weblog" as wee'- blog. Or "blog" for short.’ Blogging had to reach what is termed a tipping point for it to become popular. Gladwell (2005, p.12) as ‘the moment of critical mass, the threshold, and the boiling point’ describes the tipping point.5 This critical mass required three separate things to occur. Firstly, a platform which was easy to use and freely available to users. Although as mentioned previously, Justin Hall’s site was regarded one of the first blogs, Hall still had a rudimentary understanding of HTML and how to set up web space and how to upload web pages to a server using FTP (Stone, 2004, pp.43-6). This was beyond most people’s remit on the web. As O’Reilly (2005, p.54) points out: ‘Web sites hosting services and participatory sites like GeoCities made it somewhat easier to participate, but these services were outside the mainstream of web development, with a consumer positing and non-standard tools Recently, there’s been a new emphasis on the “writable web,” with projects like David Winer’s Editthispage.com (http://www. Editthispage.com), Dan Bricklin’s Trellix (http://www.Trellix.com) and Pyra’s Blogger, making it easy for anyone to host their own site and discussion area.’ Blogging platforms such as blogger have made it easy for non-technical people to set up blog sites without any knowledge of HTML and at no cost. Secondly, the importance of web accessibility is another factor aiding the rise of blogging. The early introduction of internet access into the office and education 11

establishments (and later homes) in the early 1990’s was usually via a telephone modem. Download speeds were fractional, slow, and expensive. Uptake was slow at first. As the price decreased, downloads increased and technologies improved, uptake swiftly expanded. With the ubiquity of broadband entering the market one paper pointed out last year (2006) that ‘Three years ago 8.5% of households in Britain had high-speed Internet access, but by June this year the figure had ballooned to 40%.’6 Access to a fast and reliable Internet was needed for blogging to work. Thirdly, for blogging to enter the mainstream mind required an event to occur in which bloggers would be seen as a source of information. As Gillmor (2004, p.18) says ‘we needed a catalyst to show how far we’d [bloggers] come. On September 11, 2001, we got that catalyst in a terrible way.’ The events of 9/11 opened up what has been termed citizen journalism, which is described as ‘playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information.’ Hall (2006, p.31) points out that the events of 911 meant that mainstream media ‘was in chaos and acting in near-hysteria, bloggers began a shadow commentary, holding the MSM’s [mainstream media] feet to the griddle. When EPA [established publishing agencies] stated that there were no toxic chemicals lurking in the air around ground zero, and this press conference was duly reported by the newspapers and TV station without scepticism, bloggers ridiculed these conclusions and proved their assertions by taking digital photos of Battery park and posting them on their blogs.’ The combination of these three events have helped assist in what Craig Newmark has called ‘everyone’s printing press’. (Hall, 2006, p.18) 2.2

The growth of blogs: - Although as mentioned earlier blogs had expanded

due to the impact of the events of 9-11, blogs started to certainly come to the forefront with two other major events. The 2004 presidential election and what 12

has been termed web 2.0. The Presidential election of 2004 can be seen as a turning point in not only the use of the Internet but blogs as a weapon in the political armoury of contact people. One of the quickest to utilise the impact of the blog as a political tool was Howard Dean. In march 15th, 2003 blog for America was started, the official blog for the Howard Dean presidential campaign and considered the first ever-official presidential one (Stone, 2004, p.174). Dean, although failing in gaining the democratic card to stand for president, did see the relevance of the web and the importance of grass-roots support. It has been noted his ‘presidential campaign was to reinvigorate and reinvolve the grassroots of the Democratic Party, and – ideally – of the entire American polity at large in the process of electing a candidate. By giving each volunteer and supporter a stake in the candidacy, a sense of ownership, the dream was to trigger a successful maverick insurgency and topple a powerful sitting president against all the odds.’ (Crumlish, 2004, p.24) Dean, in being the first candidate to embrace blogging could see how the web could affect voters. The presidential election not only affected the democrats but also the republican party. The so-called Killian incident7 was what brought bloggers to the fore. The Killian incident was basically that the CBS 60 minutes programme alleged that President George.W.Bush had been criticised for his military service by his Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian. As President Bush was seen as a ‘war president’, being criticised by the military (even over 20 years previous) would have damaged his re-election. Within hours of the release many republican bloggers had shown that this was untrue. One blogger who assisted in disproving this said ‘open-source intelligence gathering…We’ve got a huge pool of highly motivated people who go out there and use the tools to find stuff. We've got an army of citizen journalists out there.’ This caused the host of 60 minutes, Dan 13

Rather, to give an on air apology for this error, and been seen by some critics as the reason why his contract at CBS was not renewed in 2006. These two points alone indicate the changing tide towards bloggers and especially towards the media. This effect will be discussed in detail in the following chapter. Web 2.0 is a term coined by the publisher Tim O’Reilly: ‘If the early version of the web took a "top-down" approach to content, which consisted mainly of standalone and static web pages that were hard to update, web 2.0 takes a more "bottom-up" approach - where web services and applications allow users to publish content without the need to write code and exploit the network's potential to support greater social interaction and collaboration.’8 The bottom up approach of web 2.0 technologies is one of the main aspects of importance to bloggers, as now the resource of writing to an audience is cheaply available to those who have internet and computer access, and no programming skills are required to create dynamic web pages for a blog. The importance of the social aspect of blogging and the web 2.0 credo should not be undervalued. For example, the website Myspace has a quarter9 of its users aged between 12-17 years old. Myspace also has a popular blog feature, which many teenagers use to write about themselves. Danah Boyd (Tapscott, 2006, p.49) feels that teenagers enter these realms as ‘in virtual spaces teens are increasingly free to manage their interactions, form networks, and shape their identities [whilst in the real world this is more difficult].’ Teens are not the only people who find the social aspect important within the blogosphere. One blogger (Paterson, 2007) recently was asked why they blog. Their response was:‘Blogging has given me a small but vital - life giving - group of friends who nourish me and help me feel great just because they exist.’ The political and web 2.0 factor should therefore be taken into consideration 14

when looking at blogging and bloggers. 2.3

The impact of blogging on the media: - As the Killian incident

indicates, the impact of blogging on the media is the area where the effect of blogging has been most felt. At first some journalists (Lyon, 2005) described them as ‘the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo.’ With the advent of blog software online, the media industry was not prepared to what might occur to them, as the printed press had taken over from the town crier for news, blogs seemed to be replacing (or at least cutting into) the media’s cash cow. There is more than one reason for blogs cutting into the media market, which I will proceed to explain. Blogs have been said to have created what has been termed ‘Disintermediation’, Crumlish (2004, p.217) says ‘[it] means removing the monopoly of a media elite class over the interpretation of information.’ As the Killian case above pointed out, previously reliable sources like CBS, had been shown to be wrong. Unpaid Bloggers had researched better than the professional journalist. A paradigm shift has occurred in the media industry. Gillmor (2004, p.26) point’s out: ‘in the past 150 years we’ve essentially had two distinct means of communication: One-to-many (books, newspapers, radio, and TV) and one-toone (letters, telegraph, and telephone). The Internet, for the first time, gives us many-to-many and few-to-few communications. This has vast implications for the former audience and for the producers of news because the difference between the two are becoming harder to distinguish.’ The user can now be the news, write the news and define what news he or she 15

wishes to gain, rather than have to be a passive recipient of what media organisations have previously made available to us. The impact of blogs on the media, it has been said will impact upon the business models of old media. In the following section I wish to look into the impact and new economic models that blogging and bloggers have said to introduce.

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The economic view of blogging

The impact of blogging in a digital age has caused at least four major areas of fundamental change. These are :• Aggregators/RSS (really simple syndication). • The impact of networks. • The affect of the longtail. • The affect of the meganiche. These will now be covered and discussed in greater detail. Crumlish (2004, p.235) describes Aggregators as ‘a software application or web service used to collect and read a list of subscribed news feeds all in one location.’ RSS readers collect and present these aggregated, the majority of which are blogs the people are subscribed to. RSS feed reader software includes bloglines, feedster, netflakes and Google Reader (amongst others). Most blogs have an icon so people can add the feed to their reader. The image used can be seen below.

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The importance of RSS and aggregators to blogs and economics, is its effect on what is termed the push-pull relationship. Wiki describes it thus:‘The push/pull relationship is that between a product or piece of information and who is moving it. A customer "pulls" things towards themselves, while a producer "pushes" things toward customers.’10 Morville (2005, p.100) has pointed out that the impact of push and pull means ‘we can now turn the sources we find into services that find us. We can selectively opt in to push, so we need not remember (or take the time) to pull.’ This allows us to choose what content we want (and when we want it), rather than passively obtaining our information. As Negroponte (1995, p.169) wrote ‘on-demand information will dominate digital life. We will ask explicitly and implicitly for what we want, when we want it.’ A new source of concern for the media is the impact of social networks upon their business plans. With the increase of users and data, users set up informal and formal networks. Information is increased and tailored to individuals needs found via the information, friends and their searches on the Internet. In the area of blogs this can impact in many ways. One reason that people are moving towards blogs and away from mainstream media is the trust in the network of other users. Gladwell (2005, p.38) has pointed out the importance of what he termed connectors; these are ‘people who know everyone.’ These are important groups for people to be networked to. An example in the blogosphere of a ‘connector’ would be Michael Arrington, of the social media blog ‘TechCrunch’. In a recent Wired article on him Vogelstein (2006) wrote: ‘A positive 400-word write-up on TechCrunch usually means a sudden bump in traffic and a major uptick in credibility among potential investors. In early March, for example, the site profiled Scribd, a San Francisco start-up that bills itself as a YouTube for documents. CEO and cofounder Trip Adler says he had 10 calls from venture capitalists within 48 hours.’ 17

Influential bloggers like Arrington are not only making a successful business out of this, they are more influential than old media. Both are taking money out of old media’s pockets. The importance of networks in the blogosphere can be seen in other areas. For example, in previous eras the influence of editors choosing what stories where influential and which were not was how people came to their news. In the blogging world, sites like digg (which describes itself as ‘user driven social content website’) and reddit allows its readers to be the editorial staff, when they vote on what stories (blogs or newspaper) should be entered onto the front page (Weinberger, 2007, pp.129-30). Kevin Rose, the man who created dig was said to be worth $60 million in 18 months from this idea.11 This form of networking has been called ‘the wisdom of crowds’. Surowiecki (2005, p.xiv) has described this phrase as: ‘We generally have less information than we’d like. We have limited foresight to look into the future……….And we often let emotion affect our judgement. Yet despite all these limitations, when our imperfect judgements are aggregated in the right way, our collective intelligence is often excellent.’ The impact of the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ means ‘the members get the credit for being the first to find the stories’ (Tapscott, 2006, p.144) and not the media. Another impact of networks upon the media and blogging is what has been termed the long tail. The long tail is an economic theorem invented by Chris Anderson (2006, p.10), who describes it as: ‘In statistics, curves…are called the “long-tailed distribution,” because the tail of the curve is very long relative to its head…The three main observations – (1) the tail of available variety is far longer than we realise; (2) its now within reach economically; (3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a significant market – seemed indisputable, especially backed up with the heretofore unseen 18

data.’ A graphical representation of the long tail can be seen below: -

(Anderson, 2006, p.54) The long tail coloured in yellow. On the impact of the long tail on blogs, Anderson (2006, p.186) wrote that ‘bloggers can specialise in particular topics to an extent that few journalist employed by media companies can, since the more specialised, the more of them the company would have to hire in order to be able to cover all bases.’ The creation of these niche markets, created by blogs and cut into the media’s financial structure, as these small niche’s combined add to a large market share. As Clay Shirky (2003) wrote ‘Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing.’ Finally, a new theorem put forward and that can be said to have an impact on blogs and the media is what has been termed the meganiche. Shirky (2006) described as ‘a thin slice of the Web that nonetheless represents roughly a million users. The meganiche is something new, and it will have a lasting impact on

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online business and culture.’ With the increase of RSS feeds, aggregators, the increase in networks, the long tail and meganiche will increase the competition that the media will be impacted by. The efficiencies of new technologies mean that news will not be ‘all size fits all’, it will be what fits the user. This so-called democratising of media is a cause for concern for some media companies.

2.5

The criticism and problems with blogs and blogging Bloggers, blogs and

blogging though have not always been met with a great deal of enthusiasm (and that includes bloggers). Terms that underline the problems and criticism of blogs are words such as ‘Bloggerrhea : N o u n . High volume, low quality blogging.’(Stone, 2004, p.230) Other terms of disdain given to the bloggers are the echo chamber affect, which is described as ‘observers of journalism in the mass media describe an echo chamber effect in media discourse. One purveyor of information will make a claim, which many like-minded people then repeat, overhear, and repeat again (often in an exaggerated or otherwise distorted form) until most people assume that some extreme variation of the story is true.’12 Ahrens (2006) argued that ‘Rather than opening minds, it can close them, thanks to echo-chamber Web sites and blogs…We like to read Web sites and blogs that we agree with and that reinforce our opinions.’ Blogs and bloggers are often still treated with disdain by the media. Another criticism of bloggers is they are for amateurs by amateurs, and therefore do not bring anything but extremist, radical and unsubstantiated news to any conversation. Andrew Keen (2007, p.52) in his new book The Cult of the Amateur wrote: ‘The Internet is bloated with the hot air of the amateur Journalist. Despite the size of their readership, even the A-list bloggers have no formal journalistic 20

training. And, in fact, much of the real news their blogs contain has been lift from (or aggregated from ) the very news organisations they aim to replace.’ Not only is it the old media that has attacked bloggers as amateurs, but also people within libraries. The most renowned and vociferous was Michael Gorman, former president-elect of the American Library Association. In 2005 he wrote an article called Revenge of the Blog People! In this article he wrote: ‘Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable.’ Obviously, as many libraries and librarians use blogs this was soon picked up in the blogosphere with Houghton (2005) saying this ‘is an example of irresponsible leadership at its worst.’13 Weinberger (2007, p.132) has pointed out that he is fortunate enough ‘that he heads an organisation with its own journal.’ Blogs, blogging and bloggers also suffers from the major problem, that people can use false identities when leaving comments on other peoples blogs. On some occasions they are malicious, and some have even threatened violence. In a recent case, a blogger called Kathy Sierra was threatened with lewd images and murder on her blog causing her to go into hiding.14 The perpetrator has never been caught. As Keen (2007, p.77) said the ‘anonymous world of the blogosphere, there is no assurance, creating a crisis of trust and confidence.’ Blogs also face other problems when it comes to the commenting section. The worst of these ‘is a form of spamdexing. Automatically posting random comments or promoting commercial services to blogs, wikis, guestbook’s, or other publicly accessible online discussion board does it. Any web application that accepts and displays hyperlinks submitted by visitors may be a target.’15 21

These hyperlinks can often be from pornographic sites, which means children or your audience could check them and cause offence.

2.6

The impact on libraries of blogging. In discussing this area, one has to

clearly differentiate between librarians and libraries. Therefore I will firstly look at libraries’ use of blogs and blogging. Blake Carver (2005) has said that libraries should use them as: ‘Adding a blog to your library's web site can add currency and freshness. It can also encourage patrons to return. At its best, a blog can transform your site into a dynamic learning community where everyone shares knowledge.’ Unfortunately it is not always that easy or quick for libraries to be able to get up a blog for their library. Goans and Vogel (2003) have pointed out: ‘Despite the mainstream media coverage in places like Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and articles in the library literature that advocate and promote the use of blogging in libraries, few libraries are actually doing so.’ Although this was written in 2003, Sauers (2006, p.37) seems to agree with to sentiment saying ‘as I write this, there are still relatively few libraries using blog technology to enhance their websites.’ Laurel Clyde (2004, pp.85-104) has written on previous research into the subject why librarians feel blogs should be used in libraries. I will borrow from her ideas here and add some more recent research. Greg Schwartz (2005) gives six reasons postulated why libraries should blog: • Writing a blog keeps you current. • Blogs are an advocacy tool. • Blogs build community. 22

• You are unique. • Do it for you • Lastly, it's easy, so no excuses. Darlene Fichter (2003) has written how she feels libraries could use blogs in an article titled why and how to use blogs to promote your library’s services feels that blogs could be utilised as a resource to market libraries saying libraries ‘have seized the opportunities to market libraries in the real world via traditional media: newspapers, corporate newsletters, radio, and TV. Many libraries produce brochures, pathfinders, and their own newsletters… Savvy librarians have identified blogs as another means to market libraries and their services.’ The use of a blog as a marketing tool has since been taken up by other library bloggers such as Nancy Dowd’s The "M" Word - Marketing Libraries16. This blog though is her personal blog and not affiliated with the libraries she works in. Libraries and blogging can also be utilised as an education tool for all generations. For example, Stephen O’Hear (2006) has discussed the impact of blogging in education. He has cited how students as young as seven years old have been using blogs to do work and learn better grammar at a school in Brighton, England. Another example he cites is English literature students who used a blog to publish a readers guide to the book The Secret Life of Bees. The author, Sue Monk Kidd, then participated by answering questions and commenting on what the students had written. This is already being utilised in some junior libraries, such as Darien Library, in which librarians write articles, which junior members can respond to. This educational aspect of social interaction is of the utmost importance. Blogs have also been as a tool for internal information to be shared between librarians only. Darlene Fichter (Clyde, 2004, p.88) has said on this ‘imagine the 23

teams and departments creating individual and collaborative weblogs that post sites, files, notes and commentary. Weblogs can keep everyone in the loop and allow ideas to flow within the team and among teams.’ These are obviously only available as an intranet and not searchable to show a relevant example. Libraries’ uses for blogs where they can and have been utilised are as a reference tool for reference libraries17. Roy Tenant (2003) has pointed out that with the use of RSS (mentioned previously) in obtaining information and how articles could be linked to relevant departments or managers. Libraries that use blogs though have come up with problems that have been mentioned previously. The main one is with regards to policies regarding a blog’s comments section. Goans and Vogel (2003) have discussed this when they started a blog at Georgia state university, and being unable to have comments ‘because these blogs are part of our library's Web presence, the administration will have concerns about allowing patrons to "talk back," thereby adding content to the library Web site anonymously and possibly irresponsibly.’ Therefore libraries and blogs have perhaps not taken off because of this problem. Librarians: - Michael Sauers (2006, p.3) has defined three types of blogs. Organisational, individual and subject. Organisational blogs are like those mentioned above (affiliated to the library, about the library). Individual blogs are usually more personal and used in a journal format. A subject-based blog is based on a subject (for example in libraries it could be library comedy like the unshelved blog, or library 2.0 blogs like shifted librarian blog). These next two could be defined within the librarian’s section, where company affiliation is not needed to write the blog. Individual blogs are blogs written by librarians, information officers or library students. Sauers (2006, p.3) describes these as ‘personal in nature, relating to the bloggers life experiences or professional life.’ He describes these in the library 24

field as Jenny Levine’s blog, the shifted librarian as one such case. A subject based library blog is usually genre specific. An example of this might be something like the library law blog, which is specific to this area of librarianship. An area that Sauers (2006) does not cover is advocacy of libraries. An example of this would be the UK based blog called Good library blog by Tim Coates (2005). His bio describes him as ‘a [former] managing director of Waterstones. For the past six years he has advised and written about the public library service.’ Coates is not a librarian or library, but a person who uses libraries, and uses his blog to advocate for improved UK services. Librarians may also use a blog to put forward not only ideas but also new technology that they have created for other users or for commercial success (or a combination of both). An example of this is Liszen creator Garrett Hungerford (2006). Liszen is used in conjunction with his blog and described as: ‘LISZEN is more of a library community archival tool than a source for new information. So why not create something that allows users to submit and vote on content in order to create a real-time/social library tool?’ This new tool of voting on library based blogs has been noted by some bloggers to have similarities to Kevin Rose’s Digg website. (Crang, 2006) In the next chapter (three) I will look into why librarians blogs, if libraries blog and other such queries. 2.7

The future of blogging. One of things that some of the more powerful

blogs are doing is creating niche markets (discussed above under long tail and meganiche). Gillmor (2004, p.152) has described this as ‘nano-publishing’. These are again niche markets, but bundled together under one banner. An example of this is Richard MacManus’ Read write web blog. Previously, the 25

readwritweb dealt with new web 2.0 companies and software reviews. To increase his market share he has added two new blogs. One called last100, which ‘provides news, reviews and industry analysis on products and services related to the digital lifestyle, with a particular emphasis on how the Internet is penetrating the home in an era of ubiquitous broadband access.’18 Another is called alt search engines, which aims ‘to expand coverage of search engines to include the hundreds of alternative / niche search engines.’19 Therefore three areas are being penetrated under the flag of the read write web brand. This increases the brands niche market. Finally, some people have seen the recent introduction of twitter as the future of blogging. This is ‘a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, and the Twitter website.’20 This form of microblogging allows people to know what other bloggers are doing in real time, and could be advantageous to some users who are at conferences and writing up different speakers. Holohan (2007) has said of it: ‘If a growing number of bloggers are shying away from the citizen journalism and mass consumption that originally defined the medium ……Twitter's popularity shows how eager people are to share quotidian tidbits of life in real time.’

Methodology I choose two forms of research for this dissertation. The first was to interview 26

some bloggers who write about the subject of libraries. I also contacted antibloggers. The reason for using interviews is their adaptability (Bell, 2004, p.157). Although the three interviews are a very small measurement of library bloggers, this was due to the time restrictions of the thesis and the number of responses I had got for interviews. I also chose bloggers of libraries in different areas and adapted my questions to discuss the areas they were interested in. These areas are as follows: • A blogger who is an advocate of public libraries and government policies on them. • An American blogger, who has also provided web applications to be used for the library blogger. • A UK blogger who works within libraries, usually in the area of search engines and web design. Although this is a limited group from which to work from, I had chosen both USA and UK bloggers as I felt that these are areas that have had greater research into. I had chosen these specific areas as Clyde (2004, p.91) had pointed out in her 2002 based research that ‘despite efforts to ensure that the study was international, library weblogs were found in only three countries; the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with by far the largest number.’ Clyde’s figures are provided below: -

Country USA Canada UK

Number 48 6 3

27

% 84.2 10.5 5.3

TOTAL

57

100%

(Clyde 2004, p.92)

Although I had been unable to obtain a Canadian to participate, I still have a selection of the library bloggers by region. When looking into how I should approach my interviewees, I used Michael Sauers (2006) book as a template. His book Blogging and RSS: A librarian’s guide, in which he interviewed 11 prominent (USA) library bloggers (and none of the ones that I interviewed were the same). One question I did use from his book in my interviews was ‘why do you blog?’ as I wanted to compare and contrast their responses. My questions for the America and web and search engine blogger were as follows: • Why do you blog? • How many hours a week do spend blogging? • Rebecca Blood (2002) in 'The weblog handbook' discusses 4 types of blogs: 1. Self expression- a blog to discuss or be silly on. 2. Keeping in touch- Used so friends and family can see what you’re doing/thinking etc. 3. Information Sharing- To explain new ideas or to filter other idea's to an audience. 4. Reputation building- a blogger who wishes to gain recognition by discussing areas of interest and becoming an expert in that area. • Which would you describe your blog as and why? • As you work in a public library, what do you feel may be the impact

28

of blogging on libraries and librarians? • What advantages do you see of a blog in libraries or for the library profession? And what impact if any is it having an impact now? • How important is it to use blogs to reach what’s been termed the 'digital natives'? What are the challenges? • Is blogging what is termed the 'echo chamber', in which only a few individuals are listening, and the majority is left wondering what may be going on?' • Does a blog have to have an audience or are there other benefits to blogging?' • What do you think the future holds for bloggers? For the UK blogger, who acted as an advocate for libraries I asked the following questions: • Why do you blog? • How many hours a week do spend blogging? • Rebecca Blood (2002) in 'The weblog handbook' discusses 4 types of blogs. 1. Self-expression. A blog to discuss or be silly on. 2. Keeping in touch. Used so friends and family can see what your doing/thinking etc. 3. Information Sharing. To explain new idea's, or to filter other idea's to an audience. 4. Reputation building. A blogger who wishes to gain recognition by discussing area's of interest and becoming an expert in that area. • Which would you describe your blog as and why? • 'As a blogger that is dealing with the political ramifications of 29

government investment in libraries, do you feel blogging has assisted in your campaign?' Can/has it achieved anything? • 'More generally what do you think blogging can assist library professionals or library users? Can you give an example where this is happening? • 'Is blogging what is termed the 'echo chamber', in which only a few individuals are listening, and the majority are left wandering what may be going on?' • 'Does a blog have to have an audience or are there other benefits to blogging?' • What do you think the future holds for bloggers? All but one question was different to the previous interview, in which I wanted to ascertain the political aspect of the blog. The reason I had used these questions was to see how they would describe themselves and get an idea of how much time they invested into their blogging. The unfortunate aspect of using interviews, being the obvious one of number. The other, as Cohen (1976, p.82) says ‘like fishing, interviewing is an activity requiring careful preparation, much patience, and considerable practice if the eventual reward is to be worthwhile.’ Unfortunately I had little time to practice my questions, and therefore looked into Sauers (2006) as a basis for my own. All three interviews were done via email. In view of recent events in which wired magazine and Jason Calacanis (who co-founded Weblogs, Inc. with Brian Alvey and sold it in 2005 for $25 million), discussed whether email interviews are legitimate form. Calacanis (2007) felt: ‘A wired writer who won't do an email interview--thats ironic! Frankly, you need to adapt. Journalists have misquoted people for so long--and quoted them out of context that many people like to have their words on record. 30

I don't want someone taking half a sentence or paraphrasing me... Just too much risk.’ The Wired reporter (Tweney, 2007) responded to this by saying ‘Granted, we may not be as conversant with this newfangled "e-mail" and other cutting edge technologies as you, Mr. Calacanis, but that does not mean we are slow or dimwitted.’ Therefore, my methodology of email interviews also comes with some difficulties. The way I obtained my three interviews was reading library blogs for over a year, and having my own personal blog, and thereby checking popular and known blogs in the library field. The question I asked the anti- blogger was as follows: 1. You have been a critic of bloggers in libraries. Can you say why you do not agree with bloggers per se? 2. Andrew keen (2007) in his book ‘the cult of the amateur’ has said of bloggers: - ‘when a medium like the web is unchecked by regulation or professional editors or filters, and when we’re left to our own amateur devices, we don’t always behave well.’ Would you agree with this sentiment, especially after the criticism your ‘blogpeople’ comment caused? 3. Do you feel blogs in libraries can be of any use to both users and workers? 4. Bloggers like Rebecca Blood (2002) have said people can blog for a mixture of reasons. These reasons being: a. Self expression- a blog to discuss or be silly on.

31

b. Keeping in touch- Used so friends and family can see what you’re doing/thinking etc. c. Information Sharing- To explain new ideas or to filter other ideas to an audience. d. Reputation building- a blogger who wishes to gain recognition by discussing areas of interest and becoming an expert in that area. 5. What do you think the future (if any) holds for bloggers? Laura Clyde (2004) has done previous research that has looked into blogging predominantly. These are slightly dated, as they were from research 2002 and released in 2004. These include figures and questionnaires. I will update this research with statistics released by Meredith Farkas research in 200521 and 200722. Meredith’s statistics have looked into what she has termed ‘ Survey of the Biblioblogosphere’. I have also set up my own survey of the impact of blogging in libraries, receiving over 100 responses, and looking into the effect of libraries blogging. Alongside this I have also set up interviews with both pro and anti-bloggers in the biblioblogosphere. This will be used in conjunction with Michael Sauers (2006) book, which interviewed over a dozen library bloggers. What my research hopes to attain is why bloggers write about or for their library? Has there been an upturn in libraries blogging? Are patrons using this new tool and how? Results and findings: -

32

I

set

up

the

questionnaire

on

my

own

blog

(http://librarytwopointzero.blogspot/com) and also entered it onto a social networking site for librarians called Ning, which is described as ‘an online platform for creating social websites and social networks.’23 This at first only gained 10 responses. Then Sarah Houghton, from the blog Librarian in black pointed it out on her blog24 and this ended up with me getting 104 responses. The questions and the responses to the first six questions can be seen below. The final question, unlike the others, asked for a written response, which I will discuss at the bottom of this section. Q1) Is your Blog run in conjunction with the library and/or library services? A/ YES/ 88 RESPONSES (84.6%) B/ NO/ 13 RESPONSES (12.5%) C/ NOT SURE/ 3 RESPONSES (2.9%)

Q2) Does your blog have reciprocal links with the library and/or library services? A/ YES/ 76 RESPONSES (73.1%) B/ NO/ 22 RESPONSES (21.2%)

33

C/ NOT SURE/ 6 RESPONSES (5.8%)

Q3) Does the blog have comments available? A/ YES/ 94 RESPONSES (90.4%) B/ NO/ 10 RESPONSES (9.6%) C/ NOT SURE/ 0 RESPONSES (0%)

34

Q4) Which software is used for your blog? A/ MOVABLE TYPE/ 9 RESPONSES (8.7%) B/ VOX/ 0 RESPONSES (0%) C/ BLOGGER/ 53 RESPONSES (51%) D/ WORDPRESS/ 28 RESPONSES (26.9%) E/ OTHER/14 RESPONSES (13.5%)

35

Q5) Is your blog accessible online or internal only? A/ YES 77 RESPONSES (74%) B/ NO 17 RESPONSES (16.3%) C/ NOT SURE 10 RESPONSES (9.6%)

36

Q.6) Which country are you based in? A/ USA 77 RESPONSES (74%) B/ UK 4 RESPONSES (3.8%) C/OTHER 2 RESPONSES (22.1%)

Q7) Is there more than one person who contributes on your blog? Please specify? I will know proceed to look at these results individually. On the first question ‘Is your Blog run in conjunction with the library and/or library services?’ I wanted to see whether libraries as an organisational entity had taken up the role of a blog. In 2002 Clyde (2002, pp.44-6) said ‘while a number of libraries, such as the Leddy Library at the University of Windsor ("leddy weblog") and the Redwood City Public Library in California ("Liblog"), have created weblogs on their library web sites to provide news for staff and/or users, there did not seem to be any weblogs created by …… libraries when this article was being written.’ In my own research it seems that over 80% of library bloggers were created for libraries. This seems to indicate an upturn in the adaption of blogging software in

37

libraries. It should be pointed out though, that as my questionnaire specifically asked for libraries that blog, the question would only gain results from those people that blog for libraries. My second question I asked ‘Does your blog have reciprocal links with the library and/or library services?’ I wanted to see if the blog linked directly to the main library blog. I was wishing to know this as in Clyde’s (2004, p.96) work she noted that ‘only half the weblogs 30 or 52.6%) had a link back to the library website or homepage.’25 It seems that most blogs in the survey (73.1%) had allowed this in the four years since her research. In my third question I had asked ‘Does the blog have comments available?’ Wanted to indicate if users where able to leave comments on the libraries blog. In this question I wanted to see if users were allowed what Robert Scoble (2007) described as a ‘naked conversation’. This means ‘essentially about conversations replacing messages because of the Internet.’ There has been a fear of allowing comments on library blogs as users may leave offensive or potential lawsuits. In my research it seems that people were able to make comments, as the questionnaire shows over 90% of library blogs have allowed for comments. This question though does have problems, as some of the blog maybe for internal use or the library may check comments before allowing them to be submitted. As I had not put this in the question, the answers are somewhat limited. The fourth question I asked was ‘Which software is used for your blog?’ as I wished to see if most libraries were using blogger or not. I was also interested in comparing the results to Meredith Farkas results from 2005 and Clyde’s from 2002 (2004) research. In Meredith’s (2005) research, the results were from a 150 librarians and library blogs (and not just library blogs). Her results were as follows: What software/service do you use to blog? 38

Blogger…. 73 (44.5%) Word press…. 34 (20.7%) Moveable Type…. 19 (11.6%) Other…. 11 (6.7%) Typepad…. 10 (6.1%) Too many to mention…. 5 (3%) Self-Designed/Custom…. 4 (2.4%) LiveJournal…. 3 (1.8%) Square Space…. 2 (1.2%) Blogsome…. 1 (0.6%)26 Clyde’s (2004, p.98) research was based on 57 respondents within libraries only. The results were as follows: Weblog Software

Number

%

Blogger

25

43.9

Movable Type

10

17.5

Radio Userland

5

8.7

Iblog

1

1.7

Weblogger

1

1.7

Blog-city (blue dragon)

1

1.7

Moveable Manilla :

1

1.7

13

22.8

57

100%

blue Information not available Total

39

(Clyde 2004, p.98)

Although my survey included five blogging software platforms (Blogger, Vox, Moveable type, Word press and other) I wanted to see which platforms libraries were using. Blogger was the most popular, with 51% of the share, which is similar to Meredith’s results (44.5%). Clyde’s (2004) research for blogger was 43.9%. The reason Sauers (2006, p.96) ‘blogger.com will provide you with a useful grasp of the basics [of blogging].’ WordPress was the second most popular in both pieces of research, and again had similar results (mine being 26.9% whilst Meredith’s was 20.7%). Clyde’s (2004) research did not include Word press. Meredith’s and my own research also seemed to show a correlation, that most users prefer a hosted blogging service (which blogger and Word press are). Finally, all three had similar figures regarding Moveable type of between 8.7% (mine), 11.6% (Meredith’s) and 17.5% (Clyde’s). The fifth question I asked was ‘is your blog accessible online or internal only?’ In asking this question I wanted to see if the blog was utilised by just the staff, or staff and library users. As mentioned previously in this dissertation, Darlene Fichter and others have seen that internal blogging could be utilised as a knowledge management tool. Therefore this was why I wanted to see if this was occurring within libraries. It seems that most blogs were open to the public and not internal (only 16.3% being internal). Over 70% were open to the public. The sixth question was ‘Which country are you based in?’ I wanted to know this as I wanted to compare and contrast my results with Clyde’s (2004, p.92), which had the following results: -

40

Country

Number

%

USA

48

84.2

Canada

6

10.5

UK

3

5.3.

TOTAL

57

100%

(Clyde 2004, p.92)

In my corresponding research I had followed Clyde’s (2004) view that both the UK and USA would have the most bloggers, so that is what I wanted to focus on. Therefore I allowed 3 choices (USA,UK and others). The figures were fairly similar for the USA bloggers (mine were 74% and Clyde’s 84.2%), as were the UK figures (mine were 3.8% compared to Clyde’s 5.3%). Therefore, there seems to be a correlation between both results. The final question was ‘Is there more than one person who contributes on your blog? Please specify?’. The can be found on the appendix. Of the 104 responses, 10 did not complete this section, therefore there was 94 responses to this query. Although the question was open, so as to allow the respondent to give a fuller written answer. In this area I wanted to see if it was as one user put it ‘no one else but me is interested enough to learn how to do it (low level of technical knowledge/interest), although I've certainly made it clear that they are welcome to do so.’ Although 15 of the 94 who responded said there was only one person doing blog entries, many had more than one contributor, with one respondent saying ‘yes, we have 40 registered bloggers system wide, though around 15 post regularly.’

41

Criticisms of the questionnaire The questionnaire although gaining results has many criticisms. Firstly, I should have titled the questionnaire, but that is comparatively minor. Another problem with the questionnaire was that there was no test paper, and I went directly into putting it online to be answered. Bell (2006, p.147) wrote ‘there is a temptation in a small study to go straight to the distribution stage, but however pressed for time you are, do your best to give the questionnaire a trial run.’ Unfortunately, I was too quick putting the questionnaire and many of my questions were shown to be badly worded, hard to understand and lacking depth. One blogger from New Zealand even wrote me an email on where the questionnaire went wrong (see appendix. 2). The problems were as follows:Q, 1) is your Blog run in conjunction with the library and/or library services? The problem with this question was it did not specifically ask if the blog was written for the library or integrated into the libraries website. Q2). "Does your blog have reciprocal links with the library and/or library services?" This is again an unclear question and makes the presumption that people understand what I mean by reciprocal links. I should have asked does the blog link directly to the library website. Q.5) “Is your blog accessible online or internal only?” Another unclear question as a better phrase than accessible online would be; accessible to the public’. Also, the responses I had given for this question is ‘yes’ or ‘no’, when ‘internal’ or ‘online’ would have been better. Also, I should added a third option called ‘both’

42

Q.6) "Which country are you based in?" In this the first error is I gave three responses, which are: USA UK Oher (please specify) The first error is obviously the spelling of other. The other error is when I asked in the third option to ‘(please specify)’ and then left no space or area to put this. Therefore, not only did it confuse my respondents but also meant I missed out on data to show what other countries maybe blogging. If I had given a test paper this may have assisted my research and the results. Another problem with my questionnaire was I should have based it more around Meredith Farkas’ questions in 2005. Unfortunately, although this was used later in my research, I did not know of this research till I had already obtained my results. Farkas’ used four different subheadings in her questionnaire, which were: • Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Demographics • Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Blog Demographics • Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Attitudes and Behaviours • Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Why we blog

This looked at specifics of blogging, which in many ways my own questionnaire failed to cover. Finally, another criticism of my questionnaire is that it was in English. This unfortunately ignores all non-English blogs. If time had been no obstacle I would like to have made it available in Spanish, German and French, so as to give other bloggers a chance to respond to the questionnaire. 43

Although my questionnaire was not as effective as it should have been, there did seem to be a correlation when looking at which were the major countries for blogging. Though it would have been more helpful to see what other countries were also blogging, my omission meant I could not find this out. My research was also unique in that I wanted to see if comments had been made available, as Stone says (2004, p.104) ‘reader comments are an extension of the original post – a conversation that takes place right on your site and ads value to your initial thoughts.’ In both Clyde’s (2004) and Farkas’ (2005) research, this had not been covered.

Interviews Through my interviews I wanted to look at specific bloggers and anti bloggers. As said previously, they were: •

A blogger who is an advocate of public libraries and government policies on them.

•

An American blogger, who has also provided web applications to be used for library blogger.

•

A UK blogger who works within libraries, usually in the area of search engines and web design.

•

An anti-blogger from the USA. In my interviews with the bloggers I had asked predominantly the same basic questions. For the anti blogger they were different as he was looking at blogging in a different manner to the others. ‘Why do you blog?’ Most of the blogger questions were similar so as to keep a form of continuity

44

within it. The first question I asked both the advocate blogger and USA blogger was ‘Why do you blog?’ In this area I wanted to see why people have taken up this new medium of writing. The advocate responded by saying ‘my main purpose for the blog was and is to keep the problems of the library service in public discussion. Before it started I was writing a lot of emails which allowed me to work out what I thought about different issues, but obviously the audience for them was limited and often to people who didn't really want to know. The blog allows discussion of all those things with anyone who wants to join in.’ Therefore the idea of the ‘conversation’ or discussion has he calls it, was of importance. Miller (2001, p.77) regards conversational technologies of great significance and which ‘provide a comfortable medium in which knowledge flows in both directions, and where contributors share an inherent context through their subjects and relationships.’ Weber (Kelly, 1999, p.133) has also said that online conversations ‘reveal who we are to others. And for that reason, they depend on the bedrock human qualities: authenticity, character, and integrity. In the end conversation comes down to trust.’ This seems indicated by the bloggers response. The blogger also discusses that previously emails were his form of contact, but, as Tapscott says (2006, p.262) because blogging its more ‘effective, more personable, and more transparent way of communicating….than sending an….email.’ An email is also only to a limited amount of people in one’s address book, whilst blogs are published on the web and accessible to all. As Rheingold (2002, p.121) has indicated ‘the liberating news about virtual communities is that you don’t have to be a professional…in order to express yourself to others…Many-tomany communications media have proved to be popular and democratic.’ The advocate blogger in his response to the interview question added ‘my friends in publishing and some other authors have brought their readers and members of 45

the public to the site which is good.’ This indicates the importance of networks that I have discussed previously. The American bloggers responded to this question by saying ‘For me, blogging is a great way to learn, express ideas, and gain feedback from the library community. It is, also, a great way for me to stay active within the library community.’ This is reminiscent of what other library bloggers like Lorcan Dempsey have said on the subject and others have said to this question in Sauers (2006, p.60) book. How many hours a week do you spend blogging? My second question to my three interviewee’s was ‘How many hours a week do you spend blogging?’. In asking this question, I wanted to see how much time was used blogging. The American Blogger said ‘I have not been blogging as much as I’ve wanted due to time constraints but try to post at least once a month….. When it comes to individual posts, I will spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours on a post (depending on the number of references to other blogs or websites).’ The advocate blogger responded by saying ‘When it comes to individual posts, I will spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours on a post (depending on the number of references to other blogs or websites).’ The search engines and web design blogger responded by saying ‘I would estimate about 5 hours a week blogging.’ Rebecca Blood (2002) in 'The weblog handbook' discusses 4 types of blogs. 1. Self expression. A blog to discuss or be silly on. 2. Keeping in touch. Used so friends and family can see what your doing/thinking etc.

46

3. Information Sharing. To explain new idea's, or to filter other idea's to an audience. 4. Reputation building. A blogger who wishes to gain recognition by discussing area's of interest and becoming an expert in that area. Which would you describe your blog as and why? The responses to this question from the American blogger felt ‘, I am a mixture of all Blood’s types of blogs. In reality all blogs are a form of self expression which gains a positive and/or negative reputation through information sharing.’ The advocate blogger unfortunately left this question out, and therefore no response can be deduced here. The search engines and web design blogger said ‘My main weblog would be a combination of 4&3. I mainly write it to keep my audience up to date with what’s happening in the world of search engines, but equally it keeps my name at the forefront of their minds when it comes to getting speakers.’ Both responses seem to indicate that reputation and gaining employment have been underline by other authors. Blood (2002, p.63) wrote that ‘individuals make names for themselves, going from unknown to ‘expert’ in a year by providing a hub of information about a specific profession.’ As both work in the library profession, this seems explainable. The advocate, as a non-librarians response obviously would have been different, but as he provided no answer, that can only be for conjecture. As a blogger that is dealing with the political ramifications of government investment in libraries, do you feel blogging has assisted in your campaign?' Can/has it achieved anything? This question was for the advocate blogger. His response was as follows:‘Friends of libraries use the site to gather their alliances and on several occasions 47

the blog has prevented library closures. indeed I believe that the mood of 18 months ago in councils was to close a lot of libraries and while it was Dalya Alberge in The Times who blew that open, the blog has continued to make it difficult for councils to do silly things to their libraries without being exposed’. The response seems to indicate, even though bloggers have been perceived as amateurs by Keen (2007), others have seen this as an advantage, with Shirky (2003) saying ‘Mass amateurization is the web's normal pattern. Travelocity doesn't make everyone a travel agent. It undermines the value of being a travel agent at all, by fixing the inefficiencies travel agents are paid to overcome one booking at a time. Weblogs fix the inefficiencies traditional publishers are paid to overcome one book at a time, and in a world where publishing is that efficient, it is no longer an activity worth paying for.’ 'More generally what do you think blogging can assist library professionals or library users? Can you give an example where this is happening? This question was for the advocate and the search engines and web design blogger. In this question I wanted to see if librarians were also ‘advocates’ when blogging or whether the respondent thought this was possible. Unfortunately, there was no response to this question. The search engines and web design blogger responded by saying ‘Weblogs are having a huge impact in providing quick access to information, promoting the library and the profession, involving information professionals in IT. Librarians are in the forefront of using information, and this is an excellent way of using and manipulating it.’ The blogger here indicates that one of the uses of blogging can advocacy of the profession. What advantages do you see of a blog in libraries or for the library profession? And what impact if any is it having an impact now? 48

This question was aimed at the UK and American blogger. In this area, as they both worked (directly and indirectly) within libraries, I wanted to see how it had impacted on each of their jobs (if any). The American blogger’s response was ‘for libraries, blogs provide an easy way to keep the patron informed about what is going on within the library. What makes this atypical is it provides the information in a more personalized form than the usual library website. For libraries that have begun to adopt blogs, the impact is a personal way to communicate with the patron.’ The respondent seemed to indicate that communicating with the client is what a blog should do. Is blogging what is termed the 'echo chamber', in which only a few individuals are listening, and the majority is left wondering what may be going on? This question was again aimed at the American blogger. There view was that ‘as a blogger I’ve come to the realization that all blogs start out as “echo chambers” and nothing is an instant success. If a blogger is presenting quality information core readers will grow over time and what starts out a small number of people listening can quickly grow into a significant amount. In a way it is a Darwin effect within blogs; bad ones remain echo chambers and others begin to effect the profession.’ The blogger seems to see that quality will be the final definition in a good or bad blog, and those in the echo chamber seem part of the bad ones. Does a blog have to have an audience or are there other benefits to blogging? This question was set to all respondents. In this question I wanted to see if the bloggers wrote for themselves or for a specific audience. The advocate bloggers response was ‘I honestly don't know who reads it… I don't know about any other blogger- but this will go on until it is no longer needed and I can't foresee that at 49

the moment’ The search engines and web design blogger responded by saying ‘I have hundreds of people who read my weblogs, and it’s a small audience. Some weblogs have many thousands of listeners, so I wouldn’t call that a ‘few’.’ The American blogger said ‘No; if everyone stopped going to [name of blog] today I would still continue to blog. The benefit of actively learning, by hammering out one’s own ideas, is in some ways the greatest benefit of blogging.’ All bloggers did not seem concerned about audience size, although all are relatively well known in the library blogosphere. This seems to respond to Clay Shirky’s (2003) idea that ‘the vast majority of weblogs are amateur and will stay amateur, because a medium where someone can publish globally for no cost is ideal for those who do it for the love of the thing…weblogs are becoming a vast and diffuse cocktail party, where most address not "the masses" but a small circle of readers, usually friends and colleagues. This is mass amateurization, and it points to a world where participating in the conversation is its own reward.’ What do you think the future holds for bloggers? This was the final question to all three. In this question I wanted to see what other new technologies they may discuss. My response from the American blogger was ‘I’m excited for the future of blogging, as niche blogs begin to appear not only within the library profession but within other interests. These specialized blogs could turn out to be a great reference point for future research and ideas. I continue to be amazed with the number of quality blogs currently available and believe this will be the same case years from now.’ The search engines and web design blogger felt that ‘Blogging is becoming a completely standard way of working, providing information, promoting a person/product/organization, so it’s really just as mainstream as any other web 50

activity.’ The advocate blogger never responded to this question. Those two that did respond seemed to look indicate a positive attitude towards blogging as a personalised tool. It was interesting that no one mentioned new technologies (such as twitter, podcasting, mobile blogging or anything else). The anti-blogger You have been a critic of bloggers in libraries. Can you say why you do not agree with bloggers per se? The response I got to this was ‘I had a specific problem with the bloggers who took my criticism of Google's Book Search digitization program and of Google's search evidence as being anti-technology and Luddite. I am more than ready to discuss different points of view but the blog entries I read were characterized by bad writing, ad hominem attacks, and mindless technophilia, as well as ignoring the point I was making.’ Therefore, in this question I wanted to see the respondent’s reasons for his disdain of blogging and bloggers. Andrew Keen in his book ‘the cult of the amateur’ has said of bloggers: ‘When a medium like the web is unchecked by regulation or Professional editors or filters, and when we’re left to our own amateur devices, we don’t always behave well.’ Would you agree with this sentiment, especially after the criticism your [anti-blogger] comment caused? The response to this question was ‘I think Andrew's point, and the main thrust of his argument about the myths of "Web 2.0" and cult of the amateur, are spot on.’ In this question I wanted to see if Keen and the respondent agreed upon what has been termed the cult of the amateur. Shenk (1999, p.73) has discussed this previously, noting that the personalisation 51

of information or news is ‘one of the great ironies of the Net is that it plugs us into the entire universe of information, it also encourages isolation. You can spend all breakfast reading your customised newspaper. But what are you going to talk about at the carpool.’ Do you feel blogs in libraries can be of any use to both users and Workers? The response to this query was ‘I am sure they can be. It's a question of priorities and how one wants to spend one's money and time.’ In asking this question I wanted to see how the respondent felt that libraries per se could be used at all. Blogger’s like Rebecca Blood (2002) have said people can blog for a mixture of 4 reasons. These reasons being: a. Self expression- A blog to discuss or be silly on. b. Keeping in touch- Used so friends and family can see what You’re doing/thinking etc. c. Information Sharing- To explain new ideas or to filter other Ideas to an audience. d. Reputation building- a blogger who wishes to gain recognition By discussing areas of interest and becoming an expert in that area. Do you feel this is true? If not, why? The respondent wrote: 52

‘I have never heard of Rebecca Blood but the first three reasons have been around for ever--expressed in diaries, telephone calls, and other informal means of communication. The fourth is different. One does not "become an expert" by expressing opinions. You become an expert by study and learning and are recognized as an expert because of your writings, speeches, academic qualifications, etc. Even opinion writers in papers and magazines (the lowest form of journalism most akin to blogging) are recognized because large numbers of people read and are interested in their opinions and express that interest by buying the papers and magazines.’ In asking this question, I wanted at least one question that connected with the questions I had asked the bloggers. As Keen (2007, p.44) has said on this subject ‘by empowering the amateur, we are undermining the authority of the experts who contribute to a traditional resource[s].’ What do you think the future (if any) holds for bloggers? The response to this question was: ‘I imagine their future will be the same as the future of all of us. They will become successful and well-known--probably graduating from this particular form of expression--in a small minority of cases; and, like the rest of us, the majority will lead lives of quiet desperation in comparative obscurity.’ The last question was also a continuation of a question I had asked the bloggers. In this area I wanted to see if the respondent had any positive outlook for blogging future. They did discuss that ‘a small minority’ could make a success of blogging. Criticisms of interviews Overall, the interviews answered my questions. But there were problems with it. The main problem was the interview being via email. The problem here was, 53

unlike a voice-to-voice interview, the answers I would get were only those that the respondents answered and wrote back. When I asked one blogger a question and there was no response, this made it difficult to ascertain certain results. A second problem with email interviews is that you cannot follow up a question like you can if you’re speaking to them. Bell (2006, p.157) says its fine to get ‘a response in an interview can be developed and clarified.’ This was impractical in an email interview, as although all respondents would have responded if asked, the continuity of the thread of conversation would be lost. Thirdly, the problem with the interviews was similar to the questionnaires, in that it would have been more effective to set up a test interview. Although the responses were satisfactory, some could have been clearer or better worded. As Bell (2006, p.157) says ‘wording the questions is almost as demanding for interviews as it is for questionnaires.’ Fourthly, a problem with interviews is biased in the questions you ask. Although I tried not to be biased (note I looked at both bloggers and anti-bloggers), this is not always possible. Bell (2006, p.156) points out that ‘many factors can result in biased and there are always dangers in research carried out by individual researchers, particularly those who have strong views on the subject.’ As I do blog, then my questions are consciously or unconsciously going to be affected. The final problem with the interviews was the smallness of responses. With a group of just four it was difficult to see if there was any correlation in their results. A larger group of interviews would have assisted, but time was a constraining factor, as it takes longer to collate the results than a questionnaire. 1.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the dissertation’s questionnaire seems to indicate a similar amount of bloggers as previous research had indicated. I do feel the research for the 54

questionnaire would have been improved upon, if I had used a test questionnaire, and looked more closely at the questions and results that Meredith Farkas’ research had found in 2005. The questionnaire did assist in finding out whether blogs were being used in libraries, which Laura Clyde (2004) research put at a lower area than my own research found in 2001/2. This seemed to indicate (from my small study) that blogging as platform has reached some tipping point. The interviews were more problematic in my research. Although Sauers’ (2006) work gave me an idea of some questions he had asked, I only used a few that he had used. My interviews were also affected in that they were email responses. This obviously gave me advantages of speed and being to able contact people abroad in an inexpensive manner. Unfortunately, some of my questions could not be crossed checked in person. Also, the interview needed to be more focused on similar questions that I could compare and contrast. I should have used more of the research that Farkas’ had previously conducted. My interviews did discover that the bloggers were not concerned about audience sizes. They seemed more concerned with having a conversation with their audience. As Anderson (2006, p.124) points out ‘what they [bloggers] may lack in polish and scope they more than make up in credibility: Their readers know that there is a real person there that they can trust.’ An interesting area in the interviews with the bloggers was when I asked what they thought the future of blogging, and all spoke of the social context rather than the technological ones (such as twitter). Bloggers seem more interested in contacting people, and not the technology that would be used. The anti-bloggers response gave an insight to the backlash to the web 2.0 and also what has been termed library 2.0 which is described as ‘a loosely defined model 55

for a modernized form of library service that reflects a transition within the library world in the way that services are delivered to users. The concept of Library 2.0 borrows from that of Business 2.0 and Web 2.0 and follows some of the same underlying philosophies. This includes online services such as the use of OPAC systems and an increased flow of information from the user back to the library.’27 One blogger has been critical of this area; especially what has been called the library 2.0 manifesto28 saying ‘Like almost all documents with "manifesto" in the title, it's pretentious and silly at the same time.’29 As in previous generations, blogging is not a new phenomenon, although many seem to feel it is30. This has not changed with any tool that allows others to communicate with each other. Standage (2003, p.197) points out in the nineteenth century that ‘because of its ability to link together distant peoples the telegraph was seen as a panacea. Given its potential to change the world, the telegraph was soon hailed as a means of solving the world’s problems.’ Others have also noted that blogging is not new, with Alex Wright (2007, p.83) feeling the original bloggers were the Celtic Church’s scribes who ‘in the archetype of the Irish scribe – the original literary interwingler – can we recognise a distant ancestor of today’s blogger? Working outside of any traditional institutional hierarchy, engaging whatever topics interest him, interpolating words, and images using a newly introduced communication technology, the scribe and the blogger seem like kindred literary souls.’ I mention this, as the bloggers I interviewed looked upon blogging as a new phenomenon, with one respondent saying of nonbloggers ‘they’re not at the forefront of what’s happening.’ In the event of being able to follow up on my research, I would look into the area of specific librarians using blogs for their libraries, and how users find them. I would also like to see how staff find using this tool. Another area that could do with more investigation is whether blogs have any impact on library policy, as 56

this seems to lack any coverage. An area of interest that seems to need further investigation in the area of library and blogging would be to interview libraries that do not have blogs and comparing them to those that do have blogs. One could discuss this with managers, staff and patrons. One could then determine if there is any advantage (or not) in the utilisation of blogging. From the non-blogging libraries, one could look at the concerns that managers may feel in utilising a blogging platform in their libraries. As my interviews looked at bloggers who blogged, but were not affiliated to their libraries, this area does seem to need more research. One area that may need more coverage is what is the future of blogging, and other social media within the library framework. For example the idea that twitter maybe used as a platform within a library. Finally, an area that deserves more investigation is the idea of libraries starting their own niche market. Therefore this would look into such areas as library networks, marketing and the effect of the long tail for readers.

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2.

Appendix

Part.1 Hi Les, I just heard via another blog (http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2007/07/have-a-library.html) About a survey - was that yours? I wasn't sure if it was meant to be released Publicly yet, because the title and description were still blank. Also I remember that when I did my own research for my MLIS, my school insisted on us getting human ethics approval even for anonymous surveys and on identifying ourselves and letting survey participants know what the results would be used for. I don't know if your school is that strict but I did find that people were more willing to take part if they knew who I was and what the research was for. I had a quick glance at the questions and noticed a couple of them weren't quite clear on what you were wanting to know, eg "Is your Blog run in conjunction with the library and/or library services?" - are you asking whether it's an official blog vs a personal one? or whether it's integrated into the library website? "Does your blog have reciprocal links with the library and/or library services?" - I guess you mean does it have links between blog and library website, but it could be useful to clarify that to make sure everyone understands "Is your blog accessible online or internal only?" - current available answers are "yes" and "no" instead of "online" and "internal" (and I'd probably phrase the question as "accessible to the public" rather than "online" to be as clear as possible) "Which country are you based in?" - the "Other" option doesn't have a text field to specify which country in. "Is there more than one person who contributes on your blog? Please specify?" - it took me a while to figure out you wanted the number of people who contributes; could be a good idea to clarify that. Hope this helps! 58

Cheers, Deborah Fitchett.D. [email protected], 2007. RE: Query on blog [online] 03 July 2007 00:05:41 [cited on 12th September 2007]. Part.2 Interviews American blogger Why do you blog? For me, blogging is a great way to learn, express ideas, and gain feedback from the library community. It is, also, a great way for me to stay active within the library community. I tend to compare blogging to teaching as the phrase goes, “the best way to learn is to teach.” Similarly, the best way to learn from the blogosphere is to blog. Since starting my blog, I’ve found that I’m much more informed with current library trends- something I wouldn’t want to give up. How many hours a week do spend blogging? I have not been blogging as much as I’ve wanted due to time constraints but try to post at least once a month. The main habit I try to avoid is posting for the sake of having content. When it comes to individual posts, I will spend anywhere 59

from 30 minutes to 3 hours on a post (depending on the number of references to other blogs or websites). To get an idea of how that adds up; my highest volume of postings took place in October of 2006 with 12 posts. Rebecca Blood in 'The weblog handbook' discusses 4 types of blogs: 1. Self expression- A blog to discuss or be silly on. 2. Keeping in touch- Used so friends and family can see what you’re doing/thinking etc. 3. Information Sharing- To explain new ideas or to filter other ideas to an audience. 4. Reputation building- a blogger who wishes to gain recognition by discussing areas of interest and becoming an expert in that area. Which would you describe your blog as and why? For my blog, [not added due to privacy], I am a mixture of all Blood’s types of blogs. In reality all blogs are a form of self-expression, which gains a positive and/or negative reputation through information sharing.

Also, (unless

anonymous) all blogs provide a way of keeping in touch with friends, family and other professionals. As you work in a public library, what do you feel may be the impact of blogging on libraries and librarians? 60

An impact of blogs on the library profession will, hopefully, be an increase in the sharing information among librarians.

I’ve mentioned this before when

explaining my ambitions for [not added due to privacy]; I find it ironic that in a field of information science professionals are generally weary of sharing ideas. I believe blogging will break through this barrier as more and more librarians begin to express their views, ideas, and criticisms. [not added due to privacy], What advantages do you see of a blog in libraries or for the library profession? And what impact if any is it having an impact now? For libraries, blogs provide an easy way to keep the patron informed about what is going on within the library. What makes this atypical is it provides the information in a more personalized form than the usual library website. For libraries that have begun to adopt blogs, the impact is a personal way to communicate with the patron. This communication, combined with RSS feeds, makes it is easier for the patron to stay actively informed. How important is it to use blogs to reach what’s been termed the 'digital natives'? What are the challenges? Reaching out through blogs is useful in order to get in touch with digital natives since blogs are a main source of information via the web. The challenge with this is competing with the sheer amount of information already available within the blogosphere and on the web. An additional challenge is to avoid getting so set on 61

reaching digital natives that inadvertently digital immigrants are left in the dark. Is blogging what is termed the 'echo chamber', in which only a few individuals are listening, and the majority is left wondering what may be going on?' As a blogger I’ve come to the realization that all blogs start out as “echo chambers” and nothing is an instant success. If a blogger is presenting quality information core readers will grow over time and what starts out a small number of people listening can quickly grow into a significant amount. In a way it is a Darwin effect within blogs; bad ones remain echo chambers and others begin to effect the profession. Going on statics from [not added due to privacy] I can say with certainly that people aren’t just “wondering what is going on.” Searches are being performed daily looking for information ranging from roving reference to library 2.0. Does a blog have to have an audience or are there other benefits to blogging?' No; if everyone stopped going to [not added due to privacy] today I would still continue to blog. The benefit of actively learning, by hammering out one’s own ideas, is in some ways the greatest benefit of blogging. What do you think the future holds for bloggers? I’m excited for the future of blogging, as niche blogs begin to appear not only within the library profession but within other interests. These specialized blogs could turn out to be a great reference point for future research and ideas. I 62

continue to be amazed with the number of quality blogs currently available and believe this will be the same case years from now.

Advocate Blogger My main purpose for the blog was and is to keep the problems of the library service in public discussion. Before it started I was writing a lot of emails which allowed me to work out what I thought about different issues, but obviously the audience for them was limited and often to people who didn't really want to know. The blog allows discussion of all those things with anyone who wants to join in One advantage is that my friends in publishing and some other authors have brought their readers and members of the public to the site which is good. The host is an American publisher, so she, too has brought quite a lot of international traffic, which adds a good dimension and perspective I blog about an hour each day. Occasionally longer The blog has helped hugely with the campaign. It has opened up all kinds of areas which weren't being discussed. It gives information which the press use; it has generated several news items. I am able to embarrass and be quite openly critical of people who hide from public scrutiny. Moreover because the blog comes up on Search engines I can be pretty sure that people pick up named messages. 63

When journalists call- which they often do-- there is a load of background information for them- which makes it easy for them to grasp the subject and speak with authority Library officials have been terribly resistant to change but the blog has brought forward several individuals who can speak anonymously if they wish and express their views. I know of one specific council where the blog made a great deal of difference to what they decided to do. Friends of libraries use the site to gather their alliances and on several occasions the blog has prevented library closures. indeed I believe that the mood of 18 months ago in councils was to close a lot of libraries and while it was Dalya Alberge in The Times who blew that open, the blog has continued to make it difficult for councils to do silly things to their libraries without being exposed I honestly don't know who reads it. I've been told that officials in the DCMS and MLA look at it every day and so do many different councils. Of course these people don't comment unless they think I have been terribly unfair. I don't write things that I believe to be unfair- I am careful about that- so these people often walk into a bigger storm when they try to justify themselves. far too much government activity is secret and I can't approve of that I don't know about any other blogger- but this will go one until it is no longer needed and I can't foresee that at the moment

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Search Engine and library Blogger 1. I would estimate about 5 hours a week blogging. 2. My main weblog would be a combination of 4&3. I mainly write it to keep my audience up to date with what’s happening in the world of search engines, but equally it keeps my name at the forefront of their minds when it comes to getting speakers. 3. Weblogs are having a huge impact in providing quick access to information, promoting the library and the profession, involving information professionals in IT. Librarians are in the forefront of using information, and this is an excellent way of using and manipulating it. 4. Most people use blogs to write and keep up to date – it’s the new email in one sense. If people don’t have weblogs I’m really not that interested in them to be honest; they’re not at the forefront of what’s happening. 5. I have hundreds of people who read my weblogs, and it’s a small audience. Some weblogs have many thousands of listeners, so I wouldn’t call that a ‘few’. However, I certainly think that a lot of people feel a discontinuation as some of us go on about Web 2.0 resources etc. and others are still trying to get to grips with email. 6. Blogs are a useful repository of information, a base for other information, an easily created webpage/site, easy to add more information to, so yes, a much wider benefit than just providing information to a group. 7. Blogging is becoming a completely standard way of working, providing information, promoting a person/product/organization, so it’s really just as mainstream as any other web activity. Anti-Blogger 65

1. You have been a critic of bloggers in libraries. Can you say why you do not agree with bloggers per se? I had a specific problem with the bloggers who took my criticism of Google's Book Search digitization program and of Google's search evidence as being antitechnology and Luddite. I am more than ready to discuss different points of view but the blog entries I read were characterized by bad writing, ad hominem attacks, and mindless technophilia, as well as ignoring the point I was making. Beyond that, there is an almost solipsistic air to many of the bloggers, a self-centeredness and arrogance that seems to have no rational foundation. I have no problem with people who want to spend their lives reading and writing blogs--it is not my choice of how to spend my time. 2. Andrew keen in his book ‘the cult of the amateur’ has said of bloggers:‘when a medium like the web is unchecked by regulation or professional editors or filters, and when we’re left to our own amateur devices, we don’t always behave well.’ Would you agree with this sentiment, especially after the criticism your [not added due to privacy], comment caused? I think Andrew's point, and the main thrust of his argument about the myths of "Web 2.0" and cult of the amateur, are spot on. 3. Do you feel blogs in libraries can be of any use to both users and workers? I am sure they can be. It's a question of priorities and how one wants to spend 66

one's money and time. 4. Blogger’s like Rebecca Blood have said people can blog for a mixture of 4 reasons. These reasons being:a. Self expression- A blog to discuss or be silly on. b. Keeping in touch- Used so friends and family can see what you’re doing/thinking etc. c. Information Sharing- To explain new ideas or to filter other Ideas to an audience. d. Reputation building- a blogger who wishes to gain recognition by discussing areas of interest and becoming an expert in that area. Do you feel this is true? If not, why? I have never heard of Rebecca Blood but the first three reasons have been around for ever--expressed in diaries, telephone calls, and other informal means of communication. The fourth is different. One does not "become an expert" by expressing opinions. You become an expert by study and learning and are recognized as an expert because of your writings, speeches, academic qualifications, etc. Even opinion writers in papers and magazines (the lowest form of journalism most akin to blogging) are recognized because large numbers of people read and are interested in their opinions and express that interest by buying the papers and magazines.

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5. What do you think the future (if any) holds for bloggers? I imagine their future will be the same as the future of all of us. They will become successful and well-known--probably graduating from this particular form of expression--in a small minority of cases; and, like the rest of us, the majority will lead lives of quiet desperation in comparative obscurity. Life (family, friends, etc.) is the reward for the vast majority of people, not how you express yourself or to whom.

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References & Bibliography

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culture and assaulting our economy Nicholas Brealey publishing, London Kelly. K (1999) New rules for the new economy : 10 ways the networking economy is changing everything Fourth Estate, London, Levine. R, Locke.C, Searls. D & Weinberger. D, (:1999) The cluetrain manifesto : The end of business as usual Perseus press, Cambridge, MA, USA Miller. J. (2001) ‘Conversational technologies, in Peer-to-peer : Harnessing the power of disruptive technology, Sebastopol, CA, USA : O’Reilly press : Morville. P, (2005) Ambient findability, Sebastopol, CA, USA : O’Reilly Press Negroponte.N, (1995) Being Digital Vintage books, London O’Reilly.T, (2001 ) ‘Remaking the peer-to-peer meme’, in Peer-to-peer : Harnessing the power of disruptive technology Sebastopol, CA, USA Rheingold. H, (2002) Smart Mobs : The next social revolution, Perseus publishing, Cambridge, MA, USA Sauers. M.P, (2006) Blogging and RSS: A Librarian’s Guide, Information Today inc., New Jersey, USA Shenk. D, (1999) The end of patience Indiana book Press, Bloomington, IN, USA Standage. T, (2003) The Victorian Internet : The remarkable story of the telegraph and the nineteenth century’s online pioneers Phoenix Press, 3rd edn., 70

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Endnotes

1

Electronic Source, Retrieved 4th September 2007 in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network

2 Electronic Source, Bowles, W. 400 Years of Blogging, 14th March 2005, Retrieved 4th September 2007 in http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0316.html 3 Electronic Source, Papas, J. Bloggers: The Pamphleteers of Today, 14th January, 2006, retrieved 4th September 2007 in http://libertyandculture.blogspot.com/2006/01/bloggers-pamphleteers-of-today.html 4

Electronic Source, Retrieved 4th September 2007 in http://www.links.net/

5

Gladwell. M, (2005, ) The tipping point : How little things can make a big difference

Abacus books, 3

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Electronic Source, Moskalyuk. A , Age demographics of Myspace visitors , 30 th October 2006 Retrieved 4 th

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Electronic Source,

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