Should your public library have a blog—or more blogs than it already has?
I can’t answer that question. I can say there’s a good chance your library could benefit from one or more blogs.
If anyone tells you that your library must have a blog, they’re wrong. Very few solutions apply to every public library, no matter how large or small.
On the other hand, hundreds of public libraries (serving as few as 400 people and as many as 2.3 million) already use blogs to good effect. I believe thousands of public libraries could serve their communities well by initiating blogs or adding new blogs.
This book won’t tell you how to start and maintain a blog. You can find plenty of advice within the library literature and elsewhere, including sources as diverse as Michael P. Sauer’s Blogging and RSS: a librarian’s guide (Information Today, 2006) and the first week’s content in the Five Weeks to a Social Library course (www.sociallibraries.com/course/week1). For that matter, you can go to blogger (blogger.com) or wordpress (wordpress.com) and try one out, just to get started: It doesn’t take long and it’s absolutely free.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking about a blog for your library or considering adding more to what you already have. Or you’re at one of the 196 libraries included here and want to see how your blogs compare to others.
You could check out every public library blog listed in the two major sources (the “Weblogs – Public Libraries” page of LISWiki at liswiki.org/wiki/Weblogs_-_Public_Libraries and the “Public libraries” page of Blogging Libraries Wiki at www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/ links/index.php?title=Public_libraries). But that’s more than 530 links (in early August 2007)—a lot of blogs to go through.
The purpose of this book is to guide you to blogs that you might find particularly useful when thinking about your own library’s case—blogs from nearby libraries, blogs from libraries with similar service populations or blogs that specialize in topics or work in ways that you’ll find interesting.
Most of this book is examples: 252 blogs from 196 libraries, arranged geographically. It’s not a comprehensive survey (I did exclude non-English blogs for reasons of practicality), but I did attempt complete coverage given a few basic criteria. I was impressed by the diversity and quality of what’s out there.
A blog is a web site or portion of a web site consisting of multiple entries organized in reverse chronological order—that is, with the most recent entry at the top.
That’s it—as much as I want to define blogs for the purpose of this book and maybe as tightly as you should define blogs in general. Here are other elements frequently included in definitions of blogs—and why I don’t include them here:
A website: Some of the blogs here function within larger websites, and that can be appropriate for library purposes.
Archived by date: Some library blogs, typically those devoted to library events, don’t have visible archives—and that can be appropriate.
Relatively brief entries: While most library blogs run to one-paragraph entries, sometimes very brief paragraphs, there are also interesting blogs consisting of longer essays.
Links: It’s possible to have worthwhile library blogs that don’t have any links at all.
Permalink for each post: In some cases, permalinks serve no purpose in specialized library blogs.
Built with blogging software: Just as blogging software can be used for very different purposes, blogs can run on content management software or custom-built software.
Comments: While comments can increase community interaction and may be a sign of blogs as social software, many public library blogs don’t allow comments, sometimes for excellent reasons—and even more blogs don’t have any comments.
Categories or tags: Whether categories or tags are needed or useful depends on the purpose of the blog and its relationship to the library’s website in general.
Dated entries: There are very few occasions in which undated blog entries make sense—but “very few” does not equal “none.”
As general as I’m trying to be in defining a blog, it’s true that two or three candidate blogs were excluded from this survey if they did not have dated entries—and if they did not have any form of archive, unless the home page itself ran back to December 2006 or earlier.
My intent was to include a broadly representative sample of successful and active English-language public library blogs. Here’s how I went about it.
I activated every English-language public library blog link in the two wiki lists noted above—the LISWiki public library blog list and the Blogging Libraries public library blog list. I added selective blogs from the “Library director” page of Blogging libraries if the blogs showed links to public libraries.
If the blog couldn’t be reached or it was obvious that it had ceased by February 2007 or began in 2007, I crossed it off the printed checklists I’d made of each blog list. Otherwise, I subscribed to its feed in a special Bloglines section for this purpose.
Baseline criteria: The blog must have at least one post before calendar 2007 and must have at least one post in two of the three months used for evaluation: March, April and May 2007. If a blog began in 2007, it’s a little early to call it “successful”—while official library blogs seem less prone to enthusiastic starts and quick fadeouts than individual blogs, it still happens all too often. If a blog didn’t include posts in at least two of the three spring months, it seemed fair to call it inactive. I can think of reasons why a blog might be silent for most or all of the summer; it’s hard to imagine why an active blog would go silent for all of March and April, all of April and May, or all of March and all of May.
Quick examination yielded a set of 238 blogs out of roughly 360 candidates (excluding duplicates). I encountered at least 68 defunct blogs and another 19 that weren’t reachable. Sixteen blogs on the lists began in 2007—and I’m sure many more have, but aren’t yet in the wikis. At least eight were non-English. Nine or more either weren’t blogs at all or weren’t from public libraries.
Exporting the Bloglines section containing the 238 blogs, I imported the OPML to Excel, stripping out unnecessary columns and adding new columns for the metrics used in this study.
I went through each blog, measuring the number of posts during March-May 2007, total length of posts, number of comments received on those posts (in some cases correcting for spam comments) and the number of illustrations (photos, book jackets and others) in those posts. I stored the name of the library and its Zip code (or Canadian postal code) and looked for the library’s service area population using Worldcat Registry (and other sources when that didn’t work). I also looked at the relationship of the blog to the library website and noted interesting blog template choices. Finally, I looked at two crude measures of blog visibility, although those measures are even less interesting and meaningful for library blogs than they are for personal liblogs.
In the course of studying the blogs, another 29 fell by the wayside, most commonly because they failed to have at least one post in at least two of the three study months. One turned out to be a mischaracterized academic library blog; a few had gone missing between the initial pass and the second pass. In a couple of cases, I couldn’t verify the age of the blog or analyze its contents because posts were undated or there was no archive of any sort. I note a few of those blogs in a later chapter: While they didn’t fit the study, they might still be worth checking out.
That left me with 209 blogs representing 196 libraries. I then went back through these 196 libraries to add other blogs that met my criteria but weren’t listed in either wiki. I limited each multi-blog library to a maximum of five blogs, which was only an issue with one or two libraries.
The final list, represented in the last twelve chapters of this book, is 252 blogs from 196 libraries.
If that’s too much detail for you, here are the criteria in brief: Each blog had to be English-language, beginning no later than December 2006, with at least one post in two of the three months March, April and May 2007—and with enough internal evidence to demonstrate those criteria.
What “type” is a blog? In some cases it’s clear from the name of the blog. In others, I assigned a type based on content of the posts within the study period. (Note: The Zip or Postal code would guide you to the blog discussion within the book.)
This catchall includes most multipurpose blogs that aren’t aimed at an age group—blogs that include library news and hours, events, new materials, reviews, what have you. This catchall type also includes those cases where the library webpage is a blog.
Blog................................................................... Serves........................ Zip
Wetmore Public Library.................................... 400................... 66550
Seldovia Public Library..................................... 400................... 99663
Sodus Free Library blog.................................. 1,700................... 14551
Hopewell Public Library................................ 1,900................... 08525
Madison Library news and links................ 2,000................... 03849
Whitewright Public Library.......................... 2,700................... 75491
Galway Public Library................................... 3,600................... 12074
Oak Bluffs Public Library.............................. 3,800................... 01557
Wabasha Public Library................................ 4,000................... 55981
Library Ledger Online.................................... 5,000................... 53040
Pioneer Memorial Library Blog.................... 5,200................... 67701
Warsaw Public Library Happenings......... 5,400................... 14569
AliceBakerBlog.................................................. 5,500................... 53119
The Short List.................................................... 5,600................... 06426
Richards Free Library News from Richards Free Library
..............................................................................
5,800................... 03773
h20boro lib blog................................................ 6,300................... 04030
Check out the Lyons Public Library!.......... 7,000................... 14489
West Long Branch Public Library............... 7,600................... 07764
Ye Old Village Library Blog.......................... 9,200................... 19543
River Rouge Public Library........................... 9,900................... 48218
Latest entries from lakevillelibrary.blog-city.com
............................................................................
10,000................... 02347
HCL News....................................................... 10,000................... 49242
Carver Public Library . blog........................ 11,000................... 02330
Fiske Free Library........................................... 12,000................... 03743
Off the Shelves................................................ 13,000................... 60526
Lane Memorial Library Blog...................... 14,000................... 03842
Pburg Free........................................................ 14,000................... 08865
Parma Kids...................................................... 15,000................... 14468
Three Rivers Public Library News Blog
.............................................................................
16,000................... 60410
Brooks Public Library................................... 16,000............... T1R 1B9
Hibbing Public Library................................ 17,000................... 55746
What's New/Hot Topics............................. 18,000................... 01301
BLog................................................................... 18,000................... 11576
Brookfield Public Library - Recent News
............................................................................
19,000................... 60513
Mansfield Public Library............................. 23,000................... 02048
Lucy Robbins Welles Library News ........ 24,000................... 06111
Southlake Public Library............................. 24,000................... 76092
What's New @ Roselle Public Library .... 25,000................... 60172
Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library Blog
.............................................................................
25,000.............. L3Z 2A7
Dover Public Library news......................... 26,000................... 03820
Neptune Public Library............................... 26,000................... 07753
West Islip Public Library............................. 29,000................... 11795
Homer Township Public Library.............. 29,000................... 60491
Albert Lea Public Library............................ 30,000................... 56007
City of Monterey | Monterey Public Library Blog
.............................................................................
30,000................... 93940
Madison-Jefferson County Public Library - Library-Buzz
............................................................................
31,000................... 47250
The eStory......................................................... 33,000................... 19380
Chelmsford Library Blog............................. 34,000................... 01824
Woonsocket Harris Public Library........... 35,000................... 02895
Bartlesville Public Library News.............. 35,000................... 74003
Whitley County Public Library.................. 37,000................... 40769
Half Hollow Hills Community Library
.............................................................................
43,000................... 11747
Highland County District Library Weblog
.............................................................................
43,000................... 45133
New at Hackley Public Library................. 44,000................... 49440
The Perrot Memorial Library Blog............ 51,000................... 06870
Old Bridge Library Weblog......................... 56,000................... 08857
Danbury Library Blog................................... 63,000................... 06810
Waterloo Public Library Reference........... 69,000................... 50701
Madison County Public Library News
............................................................................
69,000................... 40475
LibLog............................................................... 75,000................... 94063
Hot Topics........................................................ 86,000................... 54901
Palatine Public Library District................. 90,000................... 60067
Fargo ................................................................. 91,000................... 58102
TCPL News...................................................... 96,000................... 14850
HOOPLA........................................................ 105,000................... 66061
Burbank Library Blog................................. 105,000................... 91502
the New Cybrary.......................................... 106,000................... 54911
WPLINFOSTUFF......................................... 113,000.............. N2L 5E2
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog
...........................................................................
118,000................... 87501
Reading Public Library.............................. 127,000................... 19602
In the stacks................................................... 130,000................... 27203
By the Park: Archdale Public Library.... 130,000................... 27263
Marin County Free Library Blog............. 137,000................... 94903
Small Talk . . . KFPL.................................... 137,000.............. K7L 1X8
Birmingham Public Library's Latest News, Reviews & Info
...........................................................................
146,000................... 35203
Kenton County Public Library................. 152,000................... 41011
Ann Arbor District Library -..................... 155,000................... 48104
PaperCuts...................................................... 167,000................... 66604
McBook........................................................... 170,000................... 74501
SJCPL Blog..................................................... 173,000................... 46601
Wellington City Libraries.......................... 180,000..... NewZealand
CMRLS News............................................... 190,000................... 39043
The Atrium.................................................... 197,000................... 49503
Sutherland Shire Libraries News........... 205,000............. Australia
Galway Public Libraries Blog.................. 231,000................. Ireland
YARRA PLENTY LIBRARY BLOG........ 306,000............. Australia
acpl.info.......................................................... 324,000................... 46802
Johnson County Library............................ 380,000................... 66212
What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries
...........................................................................
392,000............. Australia
Santa Clara County Library-The Latest SCCoop
...........................................................................
406,000................... 95032
The Blog @ ppld.org.................................... 495,000................... 80903
Austin Public Library Blog....................... 672,000................... 78701
Hennepin County Library: Catalog News
...........................................................................
709,000................... 55305
Free Library Blog...................................... 1,511,000................... 19103
Invisible Ink............................................... 2,350,000............. Australia
These blogs focus on books—including new items and summaries. Note several other book-related types that follow.
Inside the Pages................................................ 3,800................... 53010
International Falls Public Library Happenings
...............................................................................
6,100................... 56649
Connections - Books...................................... 16,000................... 06820
Westport Public Library BOOK blog ....... 22,000................... 06880
Monroe Township Public Library - Staff Picks
.............................................................................
27,000................... 08831
Georgina Reads.............................................. 45,000............... L4P 3P7
MADreads..................................................... 260,000................... 53703
Memphis Reads........................................... 892,000................... 38111
These blogs primarily deal with books but include related posts.
Book Comments............................................. 17,000................... 20912
Hinsdale Public Library Reading Corner
.............................................................................
18,000................... 60521
Lansing Library Adult News & Reviews Blog
.............................................................................
28,000................... 60438
Emporia Public Library Blog...................... 32,000................... 66801
HPL Book Hunt.............................................. 34,000................... 11743
Book Lovers Online Guide.......................... 97,000................... 95678
Cambridge Libraries Blog......................... 124,000.............. N1S 2K6
Clymer Book Blog.......................................... 11,000................... 18350
Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog
.............................................................................
12,000................... 07922
52 Books, 52 Weeks....................................... 24,000................... 60106
SAPL Book Clubs........................................... 58,000.............. T8N 3Z9
Norwalk Public Library's Laid Back Book Club
.............................................................................
69,000................... 06850
Book Discussion............................................. 80,000................... 03060
These appear almost entirely devoted to book reviews; there may be some overlap with book clubs.
Delphi Public Library's Read Spot.............. 7,900................... 46923
WLPL ONLINE BOOK CLUB.................... 10,000................... 06096
book bits............................................................ 14,000................... 02090
What We're Reading..................................... 17,000................... 10924
Juneau Public Library Book Blog.............. 46,000................... 99801
Pete's Picks....................................................... 58,000.............. T8N 3Z9
Newton Reads................................................ 84,000................... 02459
Guelph Public Library Book Buzz.......... 115,000.............. N1H 4J6
BookFix........................................................... 150,000................... 66101
Henderson Libraries Novel News.......... 232,000................... 89012
Yarra Plenty Book Blog.............................. 306,000............. Australia
Mostly NF Blog............................................. 497,000................... 98446
These blogs focus on reviews of all sorts of material.
What We're Readin' and Watchin'........... 24,000................... 06111
Lost in the Stacks........................................... 69,000................... 50701
the Cybrary Reviews................................... 106,000................... 54911
Turning the Page…..................................... 815,000................... 45202
Movies and Music
Connections - Movies & Music.................. 16,000................... 06820
Seen Scenes...................................................... 21,000................... 44087
Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC blog
.............................................................................
22,000................... 06880
Music at HBPL............................................. 199,000................... 92648
These blogs list new items with little or no annotation.
What's New at Carter Memorial Library
...............................................................................
4,600................... 54963
S. W. Smith Library.......................................... 9,200................... 16743
New Materials @ Menasha Public Library
.............................................................................
24,000................... 54952
These blogs list and discuss new items of all sorts.
What's New @ Coloma Public Library...... 1,700................... 54930
New Materials at the Poy Sippi Public Library
...............................................................................
1,700................... 54967
Shelf Scene....................................................... 59,000................... 20186
Business Lines.............................................. 213,000................... 46410
eBranch Blog.............................................. 1,321,000................... 77054
Musings from Vermont.................................. 9,700................... 05301
Darien Library Directors Blog.................... 16,000................... 06820
Administratively Speaking......................... 17,000................... 10924
Hinsdale Director's Blog.............................. 18,000................... 60521
Monroe Township Public Library............ 27,000................... 08831
She Said/He Said:Kankakee Public Library Blog
.............................................................................
27,000................... 60901
Director's Blog................................................. 29,000................... 60491
CFPLDirector................................................... 38,000................... 50613
WPLDirector.................................................... 69,000................... 50701
Director's Blog................................................. 80,000................... 03060
Library Leader.............................................. 971,000................... 32801
These blogs feature almost exclusively library event listings.
Osage City Public Library.............................. 2,900................... 66523
Parsons Public Library................................. 11,000................... 67357
Carnegie Public Library of Steuben County
.............................................................................
14,000................... 46703
Connections – Events.................................... 16,000................... 06820
Library Staff Weblog..................................... 17,000................... 20912
Harford County Public Library News & Events
.............................................................................
22,000................... 21017
Delta Township District Library............... 30,000................... 48917
Buena Park Library District News............ 81,000................... 90620
C-Scapes......................................................... 110,000................... 33755
Fresno County Library Events & Book Clubs
...........................................................................
836,000................... 93721
History & Genealogy at the Culver Union
-Twp. Public Library....................................... 3,100...................
46511
Ancestor Research Log................................. 37,000................... 48170
Columbus Public Library Genealogy & Local History
.........................................................................
197,000................... 31906
Yarra Plenty Geneaology.......................... 306,000............. Australia
Technically Speaking................................... 17,000................... 10924
Sites and Soundbytes.................................... 24,000................... 54952
Tuesday Technology Talks @ PPL............ 28,000................... 08542
Lansing Public Library Technology Blog
.............................................................................
28,000................... 60438
Iosco-Arenac District Library Technology Blog
.............................................................................
44,000................... 48730
Webmaster Blog........................................... 497,000................... 98446
Children's Books from Wright Memorial Public Library
..............................................................................
9,100................... 45419
The Children's Room.................................... 17,000................... 20912
Kids Lit.............................................................. 24,000................... 54952
Wilmette Public Library Staff Book Reviews
(Children's Books) ........................................
28,000................... 60091
Galesburg Library Kids................................ 34,000................... 61401
Lisa's Blog...................................................... 101,000................... 33401
Kid's Blog....................................................... 495,000................... 80903
Toronto Public Library LOUD for Kids
.......................................................................
2.300,000........... M4W 2G8
Teen Scene.......................................................... 9,100................... 45419
Teen Blog@Brooks............................................ 9,700................... 05301
LWTeens........................................................... 11,000................... 14103
Highland Park Public Library Teen Blog
.............................................................................
13,000................... 08904
Parma Teens.................................................... 15,000................... 14468
Goshen Teens.................................................. 17,000................... 10924
Teen Book Buzz.............................................. 17,000................... 20912
teen blog............................................................ 18,000................... 60521
MGPL Teen Zone Blog................................. 22,000................... 60053
What's happening for teens at the library?
.............................................................................
25,000.............. K0K 2K0
Lansing Library Youth News & Reviews Blog
.............................................................................
28,000................... 60438
Lansing Public Library Teen News & Reviews
.............................................................................
28,000................... 60438
Stuff for Teens................................................. 35,000................... 74003
JMCPL Teen Scene......................................... 41,000............... S6V 1B7
Orland Park Public Library Teen Blog
.............................................................................
51,000................... 60462
The Loft online................................................ 54,000................... 60477
tuftsstuff teens................................................. 55,000................... 02188
SAPL Teen Corner Reviews........................ 58,000.............. T8N 3Z9
in the teen zone............................................... 59,000................... 02860
Worthingteens................................................ 59,000................... 43085
HTFLteens........................................................ 65,000................... 19083
FPL Teen Blog................................................. 67,000................... 01702
Teens @ Waterloo Public Library.............. 69,000................... 50701
NPL Teen Reads............................................. 80,000................... 03060
Sellers Library Teens..................................... 97,000................... 19082
Blogging Vortex............................................ 123,000................ L4J 8C1
FCL Teen Talk............................................... 128,000................... 29506
Teen Corner Blog......................................... 130,000................... 27203
Graffiti............................................................. 167,000................... 66604
JMRL Young Adult Services..................... 184,000................... 22922
Camden County Library Teen Zone
...........................................................................
224,000................... 08043
GVPL Book Picks for Teens...................... 300,000............ V8W 3H2
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Teen
...........................................................................
457,000................... 15213
Teen Zone Blog!........................................... 495,000................... 80903
Teen Blog ....................................................... 497,000................... 98446
B&ECPL Teen Space Blog......................... 947,000................... 14203
MGPL 5th and 6th Graders........................ 22,000................... 60053
Winfield Library's Y.A. Blog......................... 8,700................... 60190
The Young Adult Loft................................... 38,000................... 60068
The Zoo Informer........................................... 40,000................... 40004
PML YA Yakkers!.......................................... 51,000................... 11772
YA Library News........................................... 56,000................... 43050
YA KNOW @ BCL....................................... 110,000................... 97005
Project Read of the San Francisco Public Library
...........................................................................
793,000................... 94102
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books................. 16,000............... L0S 1E0
The In-Site Bank................................................ 5,600................... 06426
Latest entries from lucys-webrarians...... 24,000................... 06111
Darien Community Matters....................... 16,000................... 06820
SkokieTalk –..................................................... 63,000................... 60077
What’s New With The Renovation Project
.............................................................................
18,000................... 60521
Lafayette Public Library South Regional Library
...........................................................................
195,000................... 70501
Birmingham Public Library's digital collections
...........................................................................
146,000................... 35203
These two blogs don’t fit any other category—they’re essays.
Wayne County Public Library................. 114,000................... 27530
The Librarian's Own Grove...................... 277,000................... 92501
I suspect more Friends of the Library groups have blogs, but they’re not in the library weblog wikis.
Friends of the Lacey Library....................... 31,000................... 98503
GameBlog...................................................... 173,000................... 46601
Newton's Quick Job Search Blog............... 84,000................... 02459
Library Musings: Kankakee Public Library
.............................................................................
27,000................... 60901
Children's Department Paperless Notebook
.............................................................................
33,000................... 15102
Currency..................................................... 1,000,000................... 66049
Yarra Plenty Library Local History Blog
...........................................................................
306,000............. Australia
Springfield-Greene County Library Nonprofit Prophet
..........................................................................
240,000................... 65801
MGPL Parents................................................. 22,000................... 60053
Sunnyvale Public Library Podcasts....... 132,000................... 94086
Readers' Advisory Knapsack..................... 84,000................... 02459
Hinsdale Reference....................................... 18,000................... 60521
From the Reference Desk............................. 80,000................... 03060
What's New in Newton Reference?.......... 84,000................... 02459
The list above should challenge some of your assumptions as to what smaller libraries can and can’t do. Book review blogs when your library serves fewer than 15,000? See 46923, 06096, 02090. Do directors of under-20,000-user libraries do their own blogs? Maybe even 10,000! See 05301, 06820, 10924, 60521—and, a little larger, the remarkable back-and-forth blog at 60901.
Surely only larger libraries could devote blogs to genealogy? 46511: Service area 3,100. A children’s book blog from a 9,100-person library: 45419. Teen blogs for libraries of under 20,000? Eight of them—go look at the list (and don’t forget the YA blog for a library serving 8,700 people).
As for doing blogs at all—well, the two libraries “under 1,000” actually have service area populations of fewer than 400 each. In both cases (as in a couple of other cases), the blog is the library’s homepage—and it works well.
I didn’t include blogs that clearly began in 2007 or gave no evidence of starting earlier. Given the rate of failure for very young blogs, it didn’t seem realistic to include these startups. I also didn’t include blogs that had no posts after February 2007—or, for that matter, that only had one post within the March-May 2007 period. They’re definitely dormant and may have ceased.
Here are a few special cases that might be worth a look—blogs and bloglike sites that have been around for a while (or may have been around for a while) but didn’t work for the body of this book.
Champaign Library Events (www.champaign.org/ events) began in August 2006. It provides either a “month view” with color-coded items for days with events, or a “day view” with a little more information—but for past months, you can only see one day view at a time. All but two of the 91 days in the study quarter had events, and there are probably more than 200 posts. It’s an interesting approach that just didn’t fit.
Morrill Public Library (www.hiawathalibrary.org) appears to be using a blog as its home page (each entry has a “Posted in” mark with categories and “No comments” note). It’s another clean example of using blog software as a library website. But the entries aren’t dated and there’s no archive whatsoever—which may work perfectly well for the library’s purposes (and is certainly worth a look), but meant I couldn’t verify eligibility or track posts during March-May 2007.
Pontiac Public Library (www.pontiacpubliclibrary. org/drupal/) is also in one of the library blog wikis and has the look of a blog-populated front page (again with no dates and no archive), but “drupal” suggests that it’s driven by an open-source content management system rather than blogging software. Also clean, open, worth a visit.
The PVLD Director’s Blog (Palos Verdes Library District, pvlddirectorsblog.typepad.com/kathy/) looks to be an interesting Directors’ Blog, including some feedback—but there’s no archive or other way to retrieve older posts and the earliest visible post is from July 2007.
Consider Library Events from the West Branch Public Library (www.westbranchlibrary.com/events.htm): The clean, open page says “Powered by Blogger” and a big “87” above a list of events suggests a blog entry—but there’s no navigation at all. Again, this may work just fine for the patrons of West Branch—after all, do you really need to look back at old events?
What makes a library blog a success? That depends on the library. Each of the blogs may qualify as a success for the people who produce it and the patrons who read it. I’m not planning to praise specific blogs. I’m certainly not planning to critique the writing.
What I can do as an outside observer is describe the blogs. A few metrics help flesh out that description. Here, I’d like to explain the metrics used and list the outliers—the blogs in the top quintile (top 20%) of a given metric.
I noted and calculated the following metrics, in all cases based on tracking blog posts from March 1 through May 31, 2007.
Number of posts: A simple count of blogging frequency. There were 91 days and 13 weeks in the quarter. You can calculate other frequencies based on that, although some blogs clump several posts on one day then go several days without posts. In one or two cases (noted in the profiles), I counted posts for one month and multiplied by three—because it was too cumbersome to count posts for all three months.
Number of comments and comments per post: Many blogs don’t support comments. Many more didn’t have any. In a couple of cases where there were quite a few comments on one post and none on others, I found that the comments were spam and discounted them. Blog profiles include comments per post when that ratio is at least 0.3 (that is, three comments for every 10 posts), the mean figure for all blogs.
Number of illustrations and illustrations per post: Quite a few blogs don’t use illustrations. Others have at least one illustration for every post. I include illustrations per post within the blog profile when that ratio is greater than 0.7, the mean figure for all blogs.
Total words and average post length: I included blog overhead within posts (e.g., “No comments” and “Posted on…”), but not around posts (sidebar contents). In a few cases (noted in profiles) where it was difficult to copy-and-paste blog archives, I determined the length of the most recent 10 (in one case 20) posts and extrapolated the overall length from that figure. Profiles don’t include total words, but the most voluminous blogs are noted later in this chapter.
Longevity: The profile includes the month in which the first post appeared, based on internal evidence.
Visibility: This may be an entirely meaningless figure for public libraries, since blog visibility within a community may show up in ways that don’t influence this number. Profiles only include a visibility note when the visibility factor (described below) was at least 1.0.
The Visibility Factor is a SWAG—a statistical wild-ass guess as to a blog’s visibility within the broader community. It’s become more difficult to estimate visibility over time, as search engines have made it more difficult to count actual links to a blog. It’s also clear that visibility isn’t a linear issue: A blog with 1,200 Technorati links and 1,000 Bloglines subscriptions is not “ten times as visible” as one with 120 links and 100 subscriptions; it’s perhaps twice as visible.
The Visibility Factor used for this book is a logarithmic measure: Log10 (that is, logarithm to base 10) of the sum of Technorati links and Bloglines subscribers, as reported by the website popuri.us. For 209 of the blogs, the popuri.us check was done on the same day in late May 2007. For the other 43 (“additional blogs” from the 196 libraries in the study), the check was done during the last week of July 2007. Visibility factors less than 1.0 are not reported.
I’m calling visibility factors between 1.0 and 1.9 “slightly visible” (the sum of links and subscribers is between 10 and 99). 2.0 to 2.9 “visible” (the sum is between 100 and 999). 3.0 to 3.9 “quite visible” (the sum is between 1,000 and 10,000). If there are any in the 4.0-4.9 range, they’re labeled as “highly visible.” In the broader blogging world, “A-list blogs” have visibility factors in the 5.0 to 6.9 range.
For any set of metrics this large and varied, two “averages” both have meaning and tend to be different. What’s usually called the average is the mean: The total of all values divided by the number of values. A few high values can throw off the mean significantly. Another average worth paying attention to is the median—the value for which half of the values are higher and half are lower.
I counted or extrapolated 5,976 posts among 253 blogs for the three months of March, April and May 2007. That’s a mean of 23.7 posts—a bit less than two posts a week, not a bad average for blogs. But the median was 12.0 posts: Slightly under one post a week.
Working up from the least frequent (and noting that any blog with fewer than two posts was excluded), 26 of the blogs had two or three posts—no more than one a month on average. Another 40 had four to six posts, still less than one every two weeks. Thus, just over 26% of the blogs had very infrequent posts. Sixty-six more blogs (another 26%) had seven to 12 posts—more than one every two weeks, less than one a week.
Getting from median to mean, 49 blogs had 13 to 23 posts—more than one but less than two per week. Another 20 had 24 to 32 posts—and that brings us up to the 20% of blogs with most frequent postings (shown in descending order):
Blog...................................................................... Posts........................ Zip
Ann Arbor District Library -............................. 400................... 48104
Inside the Pages................................................... 211................... 53010
SJCPL Blog............................................................. 203................... 46601
PaperCuts.............................................................. 159................... 66604
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog
...................................................................................
112................... 87501
SkokieTalk -........................................................... 108................... 60077
Santa Clara County Library - The Latest SCCoop
...................................................................................
108................... 95032
Kids Lit................................................................... 105................... 54952
Sellers Library Teens.......................................... 103................... 19082
Turning the Page…............................................... 92................... 45202
Dover Public Library news................................. 86................... 03820
Sites and Soundbytes............................................ 83................... 54952
Southlake Public Library..................................... 83................... 76092
MADreads................................................................ 80................... 53703
From the Reference Desk..................................... 74................... 03060
Burbank Library Blog........................................... 69................... 91502
52 Books, 52 Weeks............................................... 66................... 60106
Graffiti....................................................................... 66................... 66604
Columbus Public Library Genealogy & Local History
.....................................................................................
63................... 31906
What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries.... 62............. Australia
The Perrot Memorial Library Blog.................... 60................... 06870
Free Library Blog.................................................... 60................... 19103
Birmingham Public Library's Latest News, Reviews & Info
.....................................................................................
60................... 35203
Albert Lea Public Library.................................... 60................... 56007
Wellington City Libraries.................................... 60..... NewZealand
The Blog @ ppld.org.............................................. 56................... 80903
The Atrium.............................................................. 55................... 49503
West Long Branch Public Library..................... 54................... 07764
YA KNOW @ BCL.................................................. 52................... 97005
Westport Public Library BOOK blog................ 51................... 06880
FPL Teen Blog......................................................... 49................... 01702
The Short List.......................................................... 47................... 06426
Old Bridge Library Weblog................................. 46................... 08857
HPL Book Hunt...................................................... 45................... 11743
Sodus Free Library blog....................................... 45................... 14551
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books......................... 45............... L0S 1E0
The In-Site Bank..................................................... 44................... 06426
h20boro lib blog...................................................... 42................... 04030
Warsaw Public Library Happenings............... 39................... 14569
Wilmette Public Library Staff Book Reviews
(Children's Books).................................................
39................... 60091
Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog... 38................... 07922
Children's Department Paperless Notebook. 38................... 15102
Memphis Reads..................................................... 37................... 38111
Norwalk Public Library's Laid Back Book Club
.....................................................................................
36................... 06850
Marin County Free Library Blog........................ 35................... 94903
Toronto Public Library LOUD for Kids........... 35........... M4W 2G8
Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC blog
.....................................................................................
34................... 06880
Connections - Events............................................ 33................... 06820
New at Hackley Public Library......................... 33................... 49440
Small Talk . . . KFPL.............................................. 33.............. K7L 1X8
Blogs may be a great way to increase community involvement—but don’t be too surprised if your library blog doesn’t get many comments. While there were 1,768 comments on the posts—an average (mean) of seven per blog—that’s a wildly misleading average. Nearly one-quarter of those comments were attached to gaming-related posts at Ann Arbor District Library’s blog. The three most-commented blogs had 647 comments between them: 37% of the total, leaving 1,121 for the 249 other blogs, or an average of 4.5 per blog.
That number’s also misleading. Only 118 of the 252 blogs had any comments at all, and another 25 had one comment each. The median number of comments is zero, since more than half the blogs had no comments. Many didn’t allow them (entirely reasonable for an events blog) and many others just didn’t have any. Fact is, it can be tough to get comments on an official blog—particularly if it doesn’t involve trash-talking teenagers.
Blogs with more than five comments over the three-month period make up just less than 20% of the blogs. Here they are, in order by descending number of comments:
Blog........................................................... Comments........................ Zip
Ann Arbor District Library -............................. 392................... 48104
SJCPL Blog............................................................. 153................... 46601
The Loft online..................................................... 102................... 60477
PaperCuts................................................................. 72................... 66604
MADreads................................................................ 71................... 53703
Kids Lit...................................................................... 70................... 54952
GameBlog................................................................. 67................... 46601
Monterey Public Library Blog............................ 46................... 93940
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books......................... 45............... L0S 1E0
Mostly NF Blog....................................................... 40................... 98446
Graffiti....................................................................... 36................... 66604
Sellers Library Teens............................................. 34................... 19082
Teen Blog ................................................................. 27................... 98446
Lucy Robbins Welles Library News................. 26................... 06111
Dover Public Library news................................. 23................... 03820
The Perrot Memorial Library Blog.................... 20................... 06870
The Blog @ ppld.org.............................................. 19................... 80903
Kid's Blog................................................................. 19................... 80903
Turning the Page…............................................... 18................... 45202
Toronto Public Library LOUD for Kids........... 18........... M4W 2G8
Worthingteens........................................................ 16................... 43085
The Atrium.............................................................. 16................... 49503
52 Books, 52 Weeks............................................... 16................... 60106
She Said/He Said:Kankakee Public Library Blog
.....................................................................................
15................... 60901
Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC blog
.....................................................................................
14................... 06880
Lisa's Blog................................................................ 14................... 33401
Teen Scene................................................................ 14................... 45419
Norwalk Public Library's Laid Back Book Club
.....................................................................................
13................... 06850
Birmingham Public Library's Latest News, Reviews & Info
.....................................................................................
13................... 35203
Hennepin County Library: Catalog News..... 13................... 55305
Teen Zone Blog!...................................................... 12................... 80903
Webmaster Blog..................................................... 12................... 98446
Half Hollow Hills Community Library.......... 11................... 11747
Burbank Library Blog........................................... 11................... 91502
PML YA Yakkers!.................................................. 10................... 11772
Free Library Blog.................................................... 10................... 19103
Connections - Events............................................... 9................... 06820
C-Scapes...................................................................... 9................... 33755
Memphis Reads........................................................ 8................... 38111
Brookfield Public Library - Recent News.......... 8................... 60513
Georgina Reads........................................................ 8............... L4P 3P7
From the Reference Desk........................................ 7................... 03060
The In-Site Bank........................................................ 7................... 06426
Darien Community Matters.................................. 7................... 06820
FPL Teen Blog............................................................ 6................... 01702
The Short List............................................................ 6................... 06426
Connections - Movies & Music............................ 6................... 06820
Inside the Pages........................................................ 6................... 53010
What's happening for teens at the library?...... 6.............. K0K 2K0
If the median number of comments is zero, the median comments per post must also be zero. The mean number of comments per post—the average—is a modest 0.3, and only 45 blogs manage to beat that average. Instead of listing the 20% of blogs with the highest ratio, here are the 41 blogs (16%) with at least half a comment per blog during the three months:
Blog.......................................... Comments per Post........................ Zip
Teen Blog .............................................................. 13.5................... 98446
GameBlog................................................................ 5.6................... 46601
Hennepin County Library: Catalog News.... 4.3................... 55305
The Loft online....................................................... 3.3................... 60477
Monterey Public Library Blog........................... 3.3................... 93940
JMRL Young Adult Services.............................. 2.5................... 22922
Mostly NF Blog...................................................... 2.5................... 98446
Kid's Blog................................................................ 1.9................... 80903
Webmaster Blog.................................................... 1.7................... 98446
She Said/He Said:Kankakee Public Library Blog
....................................................................................
1.5................... 60901
Teen Zone Blog!..................................................... 1.5................... 80903
Teen Scene............................................................... 1.3................... 45419
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books........................ 1.0............... L0S 1E0
Ann Arbor District Library -.............................. 1.0................... 48104
Worthingteens....................................................... 0.9................... 43085
Lucy Robbins Welles Library News................ 0.9................... 06111
MADreads............................................................... 0.9................... 53703
What's happening for teens at the library?... 0.9.............. K0K 2K0
The Young Adult Loft.......................................... 0.8................... 60068
Georgina Reads..................................................... 0.8............... L4P 3P7
SJCPL Blog.............................................................. 0.8................... 46601
PML YA Yakkers!................................................. 0.7................... 11772
Musings from Vermont....................................... 0.7................... 05301
Teen Blog@Brooks................................................ 0.7................... 05301
Kids Lit..................................................................... 0.7................... 54952
Juneau Public Library Book Blog..................... 0.7................... 99801
Currency.................................................................. 0.6................... 66049
Darien Library Directors Blog........................... 0.6................... 06820
WPLINFOSTUFF................................................... 0.6.............. N2L 5E2
Graffiti...................................................................... 0.5................... 66604
Brookfield Public Library - Recent News....... 0.5................... 60513
Lisa's Blog............................................................... 0.5................... 33401
Toronto Public Library LOUD for Kids.......... 0.5........... M4W 2G8
tuftsstuff teens........................................................ 0.5................... 02188
Richards Free Library News…......................... 0.5................... 03773
Goshen Teens......................................................... 0.5................... 10924
WPLDirector........................................................... 0.5................... 50701
YARRA PLENTY LIBRARY BLOG................. 0.5............. Australia
SAPL Book Clubs.................................................. 0.5.............. T8N 3Z9
What We're Readin' and Watchin'.................. 0.5................... 06111
PaperCuts................................................................ 0.5................... 66604
Some book and book review blogs use book covers to illustrate almost every post. Some blogs include a fair number of photographs. Some use icons. A few blogs appear to use original miniature landscapes as illustrations. And, of course, some blogs don’t use illustrations at all—70 of the 252 blogs had not a single illustration during the three-month study period. In all, there were 4,691 illustrations attached to the 5,976 posts.
The average number of illustrations is 18.6—but the median is 5.0. The top quintile begins at 24 illustrations over three months—almost five times the median and about one-third more than average.
Blog......................................................... Illustrations........................ Zip
SJCPL Blog............................................................. 814................... 46601
PaperCuts.............................................................. 235................... 66604
The Short List........................................................ 143................... 06426
Ann Arbor District Library -............................. 133................... 48104
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog
...................................................................................
130................... 87501
Kids Lit................................................................... 113................... 54952
Santa Clara County Library - The Latest SCCoop
.....................................................................................
95................... 95032
Southlake Public Library..................................... 93................... 76092
YA KNOW @ BCL.................................................. 90................... 97005
MADreads................................................................ 89................... 53703
Turning the Page…............................................... 83................... 45202
Connections - Movies & Music.......................... 80................... 06820
Graffiti....................................................................... 79................... 66604
Dover Public Library news................................. 78................... 03820
Fresno County Library Events & Book Clubs
.....................................................................................
64................... 93721
Wellington City Libraries.................................... 60..... NewZealand
Birmingham Public Library's Latest News, Reviews & Info
....................................................................................
59................... 35203
The Perrot Memorial Library Blog.................... 58................... 06870
Connections - Books.............................................. 50................... 06820
Connections - Events............................................ 49................... 06820
Hopewell Public Library..................................... 49................... 08525
Albert Lea Public Library.................................... 49................... 56007
Old Bridge Library Weblog................................. 48................... 08857
Madison County Public Library News........... 43................... 40475
SkokieTalk -............................................................. 43................... 60077
Burbank Library Blog........................................... 41................... 91502
What's happening for teens at the library?.... 41.............. K0K 2K0
FPL Teen Blog......................................................... 40................... 01702
The In-Site Bank..................................................... 40................... 06426
Sodus Free Library blog....................................... 40................... 14551
Wilmette Public Library Staff Book Reviews
(Children's Books) ................................................
39................... 60091
The Atrium.............................................................. 37................... 49503
Sites and Soundbytes............................................ 37................... 54952
Winfield Library's Y.A. Blog............................... 37................... 60190
Sellers Library Teens............................................. 36................... 19082
Cambridge Libraries Blog................................... 36.............. N1S 2K6
Warsaw Public Library Happenings............... 35................... 14569
Free Library Blog.................................................... 35................... 19103
Memphis Reads..................................................... 35................... 38111
Worthingteens........................................................ 33................... 43085
Westport Public Library BOOK blog................ 31................... 06880
MGPL Parents......................................................... 31................... 60053
Mostly NF Blog....................................................... 31................... 98446
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books......................... 29............... L0S 1E0
Homer Township Public Library...................... 28................... 60491
eBranch Blog........................................................... 28................... 77054
Lucy Robbins Welles Library News................. 27................... 06111
Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC blog
.....................................................................................
27................... 06880
the New Cybrary.................................................... 25................... 54911
Parma Teens............................................................ 24................... 14468
As with comments, the raw number of illustrations can be misleading—very busy blogs tend to have more illustrations. The average number of illustrations per post may be a more meaningful number. Here, the median and the mean are close together: the average or mean is 0.7 illustrations per post, while the median is 0.5 illustrations per post.
Too many blogs have 1.0 illustrations per post to draw a boundary anywhere near the 20% mark. That makes sense: What’s more natural for some types of blog than to have exactly one illustration per post? (Actually, for a variety of reasons, “one illustration per post” tends to mean anywhere from 0.8 to 1.1 illustrations per post.)
The top group in this case is 44 blogs with at least 1.1 illustrations per post—17% of the blogs.
Blog........................................ Illustrations per Post........................ Zip
Fresno County Library Events & Book Clubs
..................................................................................
12.8................... 93721
What's happening for teens at the library?... 5.9.............. K0K 2K0
Highland Park Public Library Teen Blog...... 5.0................... 08904
Wetmore Public Library...................................... 4.5................... 66550
SJCPL Blog.............................................................. 4.0................... 46601
Pioneer Memorial Library Blog........................ 4.0................... 67701
Lafayette Public Library - South Regional Library
....................................................................................
3.8................... 70501
MGPL Parents........................................................ 3.1................... 60053
The Short List......................................................... 3.0................... 06426
Connections - Movies & Music......................... 3.0................... 06820
Madison County Public Library News.......... 2.9................... 40475
Hopewell Public Library.................................... 2.6................... 08525
eBranch Blog.......................................................... 2.5................... 77054
Connections - Books............................................. 2.4................... 06820
YARRA PLENTY LIBRARY BLOG................. 2.3............. Australia
MGPL Teen Zone Blog........................................ 2.1................... 60053
Parma Teens........................................................... 2.0................... 14468
Galesburg Library Kids....................................... 2.0................... 61401
SAPL Book Clubs.................................................. 2.0.............. T8N 3Z9
Worthingteens....................................................... 1.9................... 43085
Mostly NF Blog...................................................... 1.9................... 98446
Cambridge Libraries Blog.................................. 1.9.............. N1S 2K6
YA KNOW @ BCL................................................. 1.7................... 97005
Connections - Events........................................... 1.5................... 06820
PaperCuts................................................................ 1.5................... 66604
Kid's Blog................................................................ 1.4................... 80903
Parsons Public Library........................................ 1.4................... 67357
Pete's Picks.............................................................. 1.4.............. T8N 3Z9
By the Park: Archdale Public Library............. 1.4................... 27263
Teen Blog@Brooks................................................ 1.3................... 05301
Hennepin County Library: Catalog News.... 1.3................... 55305
Darien Library Directors Blog........................... 1.3................... 06820
Winfield Library's Y.A. Blog.............................. 1.3................... 60190
Music at HBPL....................................................... 1.3................... 92648
Graffiti...................................................................... 1.2................... 66604
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog
....................................................................................
1.2................... 87501
Galway Public Libraries Blog........................... 1.2................. Ireland
Southlake Public Library.................................... 1.1................... 76092
Homer Township Public Library..................... 1.1................... 60491
MADreads............................................................... 1.1................... 53703
Johnson County Library..................................... 1.1................... 66212
Waterloo Public Library Reference.................. 1.1................... 50701
McBook.................................................................... 1.1................... 74501
Kids Lit..................................................................... 1.1................... 54952
Here’s a metric that doesn’t appear directly within blog profiles: Total words in all posts for March through May 2007. “Words” includes internal post overhead such as “Permalink” or “x Comments” or “Posted on…” but not sidebar material. In a few cases, overall words are extrapolated from a sample of the first 10 or 20 posts…
The complete set of posts totaled 1,038,237 words—roughly ten full-length novels. The average blog had 4,120 words in all its posts, but the median was less than half that number: 1,968 words. That’s not too surprising: 69 blogs had fewer than 1,000 words each.
In this case, the set of “long blogs” is a little more than 20% of all blogs, using 5,000 words as a cutoff:
Blog........................................................ Total Words........................ Zip
Ann Arbor District Library -....................... 53,520................... 48104
PaperCuts......................................................... 50,006................... 66604
SJCPL Blog....................................................... 44,839................... 46601
Turning the Page…....................................... 42,118................... 45202
From the Reference Desk............................. 27,455................... 03060
52 Books, 52 Weeks....................................... 20,657................... 60106
MADreads........................................................ 20,404................... 53703
Sellers Library Teens..................................... 19,130................... 19082
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog
.............................................................................
18,882................... 87501
Kids Lit.............................................................. 18,796................... 54952
SkokieTalk -..................................................... 16,600................... 60077
Birmingham Public Library's Latest News, Reviews & Info
............................................................................
16,375................... 35203
Dover Public Library news......................... 15,490................... 03820
Southlake Public Library............................. 14,025................... 76092
Burbank Library Blog................................... 12,577................... 91502
Westport Public Library BOOK blog........ 12,006................... 06880
Graffiti............................................................... 11,798................... 66604
Connections - Events.................................... 11,729................... 06820
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books................. 11,300............... L0S 1E0
The Atrium...................................................... 10,670................... 49503
Santa Clara County Library - The Latest SCCoop
.............................................................................
10,654................... 95032
Memphis Reads................................................ 9,842................... 38111
What We're Reading....................................... 9,578................... 10924
The Perrot Memorial Library Blog.............. 9,510................... 06870
Free Library Blog.............................................. 9,200................... 19103
Columbus Public Library Genealogy & Local History
..............................................................................
8,978................... 31906
Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC blog
...............................................................................
8,565................... 06880
the New Cybrary.............................................. 8,542................... 54911
Sites and Soundbytes...................................... 7,962................... 54952
Seldovia Public Library.................................. 7,818................... 99663
Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog
...............................................................................
7,791................... 07922
What's New @ Coloma Public Library...... 7,782................... 54930
What's New @ Eastern Regional Libraries
...............................................................................
7,662............. Australia
YA KNOW @ BCL............................................ 7,582................... 97005
Sutherland Shire Libraries News................ 7,515............. Australia
Mostly NF Blog................................................. 7,309................... 98446
Albert Lea Public Library............................... 7,218................... 56007
The Blog @ ppld.org........................................ 7,014................... 80903
New at Hackley Public Library.................... 6,975................... 49440
Three Rivers Public Library News Blog.... 6,860................... 60410
Austin Public Library Blog............................ 6,820................... 78701
Austin Public Library Blog............................ 6,820................... 78701
FPL Teen Blog.................................................... 6,348................... 01702
HPL Book Hunt................................................ 6,284................... 11743
Darien Community Matters.......................... 5,857................... 06820
Lisa's Blog.......................................................... 5,797................... 33401
C-Scapes.............................................................. 5,717................... 33755
The Short List.................................................... 5,649................... 06426
History & Genealogy at the Culver Union-Twp.
Public Library....................................................
5,410................... 46511
West Long Branch Public Library............... 5,196................... 07764
Connections - Movies & Music.................... 5,184................... 06820
Old Bridge Library Weblog........................... 5,114................... 08857
Small Talk . . . KFPL......................................... 5,077.............. K7L 1X8
Toronto Public Library LOUD for Kids..... 5,019........... M4W 2G8
Traditional blog advice—if there is such a thing as tradition for blogs—is that posts should be brief, no more than a paragraph or so. While you can turn almost anything into a single paragraph, typical paragraphs run 75 to 150 words, frequently much fewer. This paragraph, for example, is 53 words.
The “average average” post length—that is, the average of all words-per-post figures for the blogs—was 187.3 words, roughly two typical paragraphs. The median was 153.8 words, roughly one long paragraph.
Uniquely for this metric, it makes sense to point out two outlying groups: The blogs with considerably longer-than-average posts…and the blogs with considerably shorter-than-average posts (“terse blogs”).
Blog........................................ Average Post Length........................ Zip
What's New @ Coloma Public Library......... 865................... 54930
Highland Park Public Library Teen Blog..... 863................... 08904
Wayne County Public Library......................... 822................... 27530
Fresno County Library Events & Book Clubs
...................................................................................
789................... 93721
Administratively Speaking.............................. 596................... 10924
Seldovia Public Library..................................... 558................... 99663
History & Genealogy at the Culver Union-Twp.
Public Library.......................................................
541................... 46511
Business Lines...................................................... 462................... 46410
Turning the Page…............................................. 458................... 45202
Mostly NF Blog..................................................... 457................... 98446
What We're Reading........................................... 435................... 10924
SAPL Book Clubs................................................. 406.............. T8N 3Z9
Tuesday Technology Talks @ PPL................. 401................... 08542
Guelph Public Library Book Buzz.................. 387.............. N1H 4J6
From the Reference Desk................................... 371................... 03060
Library Musings: Kankakee Public Library
...................................................................................
367................... 60901
Library Leader...................................................... 366................... 32801
Director's Blog...................................................... 365................... 60491
Ye Old Village Library Blog.............................. 363................... 19543
Connections - Events.......................................... 355................... 06820
S. W. Smith Library............................................. 353................... 16743
Whitewright Public Library............................. 350................... 75491
Sutherland Shire Libraries News................... 327............. Australia
Pete's Picks............................................................ 322.............. T8N 3Z9
Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library Blog
...................................................................................
321.............. L3Z 2A7
Carver Public Library . blog.............................. 321................... 02330
Friends of the Lacey Library............................. 318................... 98503
YARRA PLENTY LIBRARY BLOG................ 315............. Australia
PaperCuts.............................................................. 315................... 66604
52 Books, 52 Weeks............................................. 313................... 60106
Book Comments................................................... 304................... 20912
WPLINFOSTUFF................................................. 298.............. N2L 5E2
Project Read of the San Francisco Public Library
...................................................................................
295................... 94102
Lane Memorial Library Blog............................ 288................... 03842
the New Cybrary.................................................. 276................... 54911
Iosco-Arenac District Library Technology Blog
...................................................................................
274................... 48730
Birmingham Public Library's Latest News, Reviews & Info
..................................................................................
273................... 35203
Highland County District Library Weblog.. 273................... 45133
International Falls Public Library Happenings
...................................................................................
271................... 56649
CFPLDirector........................................................ 269................... 50613
Invisible Ink........................................................... 268............. Australia
New Materials at the Poy Sippi Public Library
...................................................................................
268................... 54967
Memphis Reads................................................... 266................... 38111
She Said/He Said:Kankakee Public Library Blog
...................................................................................
262................... 60901
Director's Blog...................................................... 261................... 03060
Lost in the Stacks................................................. 260................... 50701
Galway Public Libraries Blog.......................... 257................. Ireland
MADreads............................................................. 255................... 53703
Clymer Book Blog................................................ 255................... 18350
Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC blog
...................................................................................
252................... 06880
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books....................... 251............... L0S 1E0
Blog........................................ Average Post Length........................ Zip
What's New at Carter Memorial Library........ 11................... 54963
Inside the Pages...................................................... 19................... 53010
Teens @ Waterloo Public Library...................... 39................... 50701
Wetmore Public Library....................................... 45................... 66550
HCL News............................................................... 45................... 49242
Galesburg Library Kids........................................ 49................... 61401
Off the Shelves........................................................ 49................... 60526
Newton's Quick Job Search Blog....................... 50................... 02459
Bartlesville Public Library News...................... 53................... 74003
Orland Park Public Library Teen Blog............ 53................... 60462
Wellington City Libraries.................................... 53..... NewZealand
Whitley County Public Library.......................... 55................... 40769
Brookfield Public Library - Recent News........ 60................... 60513
Warsaw Public Library Happenings............... 61................... 14569
MGPL Parents......................................................... 61................... 60053
Goshen Teens.......................................................... 63................... 10924
West Islip Public Library..................................... 63................... 11795
Readers' Advisory Knapsack............................. 67................... 02459
LibLog....................................................................... 68................... 94063
tuftsstuff teens......................................................... 68................... 02188
Hot Topics................................................................ 70................... 54901
River Rouge Public Library................................. 71................... 48218
MGPL 5th and 6th Graders................................ 71................... 60053
Check out the Lyons Public Library!................ 72................... 14489
Wabasha Public Library...................................... 74................... 55981
Osage City Public Library................................... 76................... 66523
Norwalk Public Library's Laid Back Book Club
.....................................................................................
76................... 06850
The In-Site Bank..................................................... 77................... 06426
Fargo ......................................................................... 77................... 58102
FCL Teen Talk......................................................... 77................... 29506
Latest entries from lakevillelibrary.blog-city.com
.....................................................................................
80................... 02347
Fiske Free Library................................................... 85................... 03743
Sodus Free Library blog....................................... 86................... 14551
Monroe Township Public Library - Staff Picks
.....................................................................................
86................... 08831
Lafayette Public Library - South Regional Library
.....................................................................................
86................... 70501
h20boro lib blog...................................................... 86................... 04030
Birmingham Public Library's digital collections
.....................................................................................
86................... 35203
Yarra Plenty Geneaology..................................... 87............. Australia
Carnegie Public Library of Steuben County
.....................................................................................
88................... 46703
Neptune Public Library....................................... 88................... 07753
Palatine Public Library District......................... 89................... 60067
All of these blogs have been around since at least December 2006—that’s one of the rules for inclusion. Some have been around a while longer.
Most of these blogs began in 2006—155 of the 252. Another 38 began in the last half of 2005. That leaves the blogs that had been around for at least two years by the end of the study.
There’s a special case at the start of this list: Waterboro’s h20boro lib blog. You can’t date the blog by internal evidence—but I know this blog has been around since the start of the millennium, since I wrote about it then. Within a year, blogs are arranged by the month in which they began.
h20boro lib blog............................................................................... 04030
LibLog................................................................................................ 94063
TCPL News....................................................................................... 14850
Sites and Soundbytes..................................................................... 54952
FPL Teen Blog.................................................................................. 01702
Kids Lit............................................................................................... 54952
PaperCuts.......................................................................................... 66604
Marin County Free Library Blog................................................. 94903
Children's Department Paperless Notebook.......................... 15102
Off the Shelves................................................................................. 60526
eBranch Blog.................................................................................... 77054
the Cybrary Reviews...................................................................... 54911
Wilmette Public Library Staff Book Reviews
(Children's
Books)..........................................................................
60091
Old Bridge Library Weblog.......................................................... 08857
SJCPL Blog........................................................................................ 46601
BLog.................................................................................................... 11576
Parma Teens..................................................................................... 14468
Parma Kids....................................................................................... 14468
Book Comments.............................................................................. 20912
Library Staff Weblog...................................................................... 20912
Friends of the Lacey Library........................................................ 98503
What's New @ Roselle Public Library...................................... 60172
What's New/Hot Topics.............................................................. 01301
in the teen zone................................................................................ 02860
Sellers Library Teens...................................................................... 19082
The Children's Room..................................................................... 20912
Lafayette Public Library - South Regional Library............... 70501
CMRLS News................................................................................... 39043
Homer Township Public Library............................................... 60491
Santa Clara County Library - The Latest SCCoop................. 95032
What's happening for teens at the library?........................ K0K 2K0
New Materials at the Poy Sippi Public Library 54967
Madison Library news and links............................................... 03849
Delta Township District Library................................................ 48917
Whitewright Public Library......................................................... 75491
JMCPL Teen Scene...................................................................... S6V 1B7
Hot Topics......................................................................................... 54901
What's New @ Coloma Public Library..................................... 54930
Buena Park Library District News............................................. 90620
Lansing Library Adult News & Reviews Blog....................... 60438
Lansing Library Youth News & Reviews Blog...................... 60438
Lansing Public Library Teen News & Reviews 60438
Lansing Public Library Technology Blog................................ 60438
The Loft online................................................................................. 60477
ICARUS... the Santa Fe Public Library Blog........................... 87501
Library Ledger Online................................................................... 53040
What's New at Carter Memorial Library................................. 54963
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books.............................................. L0S 1E0
Musings from Vermont................................................................. 05301
In the stacks...................................................................................... 27203
New at Hackley Public Library.................................................. 49440
Johnson County Library............................................................... 66212
Pioneer Memorial Library Blog.................................................. 67701
Bartlesville Public Library News............................................... 74003
book bits............................................................................................. 02090
Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog............................ 07922
JMRL Young Adult Services........................................................ 22922
Ann Arbor District Library -........................................................ 48104
This crude measure of blog visibility is, as noted earlier, even less useful for public library blogs than for liblogs and others. That said, there are a handful of public library blogs with more general visibility than most, possibly because they’ve been around a while, they’ve been used as examples in various articles, books and sessions, or they have unusually compelling content:
Blog.............................................................. Visibility........................ Zip
Ann Arbor District Library -.............................. 3.4................... 48104
SJCPL Blog.............................................................. 3.1................... 46601
h20boro lib blog..................................................... 2.5................... 04030
PaperCuts................................................................ 2.4................... 66604
MADreads............................................................... 2.3................... 53703
Marin County Free Library Blog....................... 2.3................... 94903
Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books........................ 2.3............... L0S 1E0
Kids Lit..................................................................... 2.2................... 54952
Library Leader....................................................... 2.1................... 32801
Worthingteens....................................................... 2.0................... 43085
Darien Library Directors Blog........................... 2.0................... 06820
Bartlesville Public Library News..................... 2.0................... 74003
Sites and Soundbytes........................................... 2.0................... 54952
Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, Volume 9, Number 6, Whole Issue 116, ISSN 1534-0937, a journal of libraries, policy, technology and media, is written and produced by Walt Crawford, Editorial Director of the Library Leadership Network.
Cites & Insights is sponsored by YBP Library Services, http://www.ybp.com.
Opinions herein may not represent those of Lyrasis or YBP Library Services.
Comments should be sent to waltcrawford@gmail.com. Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large is copyright © 2009 by Walt Crawford: Some rights reserved.
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