If you’re one of the 3 readers of this blog, you may have noticed that the content of this blog has shifted quite a bit over the past year. When I wrote the “About” section of Library Voice three years ago, I said the following:
My primary purpose for this blog is to keep current with issues and changes in the library environment. As a Reference & Instruction Librarian, web manager, and Business & Economics Bibliographer, my interests (and job duties) tend to be all over the map. As such, the writings of this blog may cover a lot of different areas as well. Technology, reference and instruction, library budgets, even my own guitar playing (although not very good) may be discussed in this blog.
Over the years I’ve mostly written about libraries and technology, as evidenced by the categories of posts on my blog. However, like many folks, I’ve started losing interest in simply limiting my blogging to library issues. There’s quite a few library blogs out there now, so it seems that many of the topics are being covered pretty adequately. In looking at my blog statistics, it’s interesting to see that the most popular posts are generally not library-related. For example, there are posts that deal with resetting a Flip Mino, gaming, using the Plam Treo Browser effectively, and even Guitar Hero on South Park.
With the coming of spring, I’m getting really geared up for riding my bike. I’m trying to be better about logging my rides, and taking pictures or videos of the rides. One of the things I have contemplated the idea of just using this blog for library-related posts, and starting another blog for cycling-specific topics, and perhaps another for video blogging. The problem with three blogs is trying to figure out what content to post where. For example, if I take a video on a bike ride, would it go on the cycling blog or the video blog, or both? I’ve been trying the dual blog approach with a blog set up to write about cycling, but I’ve been ignoring it quite a bit. I’ve also found that I haven’t been giving this blog as much attention as I’d like to either. I know some librarians have one blog for library things, and another for other topics (knitting comes to mind for some reason). I don’t have enough time/content/ideas to keep two or more blogs running all the time, so, if I went the multiple-blog route, I probably would wind up having a bunch of dead blogs. However, with so excellent niche blogs out there, it is tempting to start a new blog for every single topic you’re interested in.
Several months ago I changed the tagline of this blog to say “Libraries, Tech, Games, and Bikes” to reflect the many topics that interest me, and started down the path moving this blog from a professional librarian blog to a more personal/professional blog that covers the topics in the tagline. I’ve probably shyed away from writing too much about bikes and games, mostly because the name of the blog is “Library Voice.” I’m going to be posting more content here that may not necessarily relate to Library things, but since I’ve got the domain name for another 2 years at least, I’m not likely to change the name anytime soon. I also have no idea what I’d change the name to, as ChadBoeninger.com sounds both boring and a little vain.
I suppose this is yet another example of how our professional and personal lives are merging. I’ve found that trying to keep the personal and professional separtate is too much work. In an effort to reduce that work while blogging more, Library Voice will now cover more of my personal interests as well as professional topics. If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, I hope you’ll stick around during this transition. Thanks for reading.
When the time comes, you should change the name to something like “Hanging(with)Chad” and see if anyone gets the 2000 election reference. OK, that probably wasn’t all that helpful. Sorry, it’s really hot in our library today. 🙂
Ha. Yeah, anyone with the name “Chad” would love to forget those days. Particularly if your name is Chad and you’re a democrat. Thanks for stopping by, Gary.
It is interesting that you post this. For me, it was timely, since I am going through a similar introspective stage. I do have a professional blog (which I use for library, instruction, and literacy issues), and a personal blog (for everything else). There are times when I wonder as well what goes where, or what would be appropriate. By setting up for myself the professional versus the personal blog, it creates the need to be selective. Plus the professional blog is the one I would use to make an impression on people who may one day hire me. Sure, those folks may jump over to the personal blog, but the professional one is where I want them to see I reflect on my practice as an academic librarian and the profession.
So, a bit more for me to think about. At the end of the day, as a blogger and writer, you have to go with what works. Good luck, and I think I will hang around a bit longer to see what you come up with.
Best, and keep on blogging.
Bloglines alone reports 78 subscribers, so I think you’re doing better than 3 😉