Blogging and Internal Communications

Steven Cohen and Meredith Farkas have recently posted about using blogs for internal communications. At my library, we use a blog to disseminate library news, and I have a blog that I use to complement my library instruction, reference, and liaison activities. Both blogs are primarily used to communicate information to the library’s public users.

We also have a blog that our reference department uses for internal communication. Like many libraries, we used to have tough assignments, access issues, community information, etc., crammed into this big white binder on the desk. The binder was on this nice book pedestal that even rotated when needed. It was organized by subject and had colorful tabs to keep things organized. It was quite a masterpiece. Unfortunately, no one ever really looked at it, and it was very difficult to find needed information quickly. Also, due to our innate desire as librarians to save and catalog everything, much of the information in the book was outdated and obsolete. This in turn, increased the difficulty of finding information.

Last summer I created a blog for our reference department to experiment with a different mechanism to communicate departmental information. The primary purpose in setting up the blog was to replace the big white binder. We also wanted a mechanism that could be organized by date and by category or subject, and could be searchable as well. For this purposes, a blog seemed like the perfect thing to try.

After creating the blog, we had two reference librarians weed the white binder. After weeding, they transferred the most up-to-date, relevant information in the binder to the Reference Blog. All the old, obsolete stuff was discarded. All information that was put in the blog was assigned a category based upon the scope of the information. Categories for our Reference Blog include: Access Issues, Assignments, Campus Info, Community Info, Databases, General, Library Info, Print Resources, Stumpers, and Technology. The blog is primarily used as a mechanism for reporting database access problems, hints for tough assignments, and changes in library equipment, policies, or procedures. We also include hints on dealing with some of the technology that we have in our reference area. Currently we have about 15 people who are contributing to the blog.

Reference staff and student assistants are able to receive notifications of blog updates via RSS and email. Unfortunately, I have yet to get many of my colleagues hooked on RSS, but I am working on it. Most staff currently subscribe to our blog via email, as we have implemented an email notification plug-in for WordPress. The way the plug-in works is that an email is sent to all subscribers as soon as a story is published. Unfortunately, the email is often sent before the author has had a chance to proofread his or her post. This can result in some fairly interesting emails.

Today one of my colleagues just added to 169th post to the Reference Blog. One of the obvious issues that we will have to face is when and how to weed the blog. Because we use the blog as a knowledgebase, having too many out-of-date posts may interfere with the future efficiency of the blog. We currently weed on an ongoing, case-by-case basis. As soon as a post is out of date or an issue is resolved, someone usually updates or deletes the post. However, I imagine that a time will come when we will have to establish more stringent weeding criteria.

Overall, the Reference Blog has been a huge success. Searchable, organized information can be found easily in our blog. Reference staff are freely contributing to the blog, so it truly is a resource of collective knowledge. Our student assistants receive the email notifications, and their being in the loop helps them to serve our patrons better. Our blog serves as a knowledgebase for our department and is used as such. Countless times I have heard a colleague say, “Oh, yeah, I remember reading about that in the blog.” The colleague can quickly find the information and answer the question quickly. Or others often say, “I really think this should be in the blog.” Five minutes later, there is a post about that particular issue. Being able to create, disseminate, and find information quickly is a beautiful thing.

2 thoughts on “Blogging and Internal Communications

  1. I AM LOOKING INTO CREATING AN INTERNAL BLOGGER SITE FOR STUDENTS TO USE. WHAT PROGRAM ARE YOU USING AND WHAT PLATFORM DOES IT RUN ON?
    THANKS,
    STEVE TRODLER
    DISTRICT TECHNOLOGY COORDINATOR

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