Links: a blog directory for librarians

The national and state libraries across the country are producing some excellent blogs that are worth subscribing to. In particular, that National Library of Australia discusses the ‘Michael Jackson Effect’ in its Library labs Blog. It focuses on the same questions discussed in last week’s CAN Outreach Blog about whether the cultural sector should be reacting to international events to attract audiences. The State Library of Queensland engages in an active and dynamic dialogue between its library and exhibition space and its community. The John Oxley Library Blog is very connected with its community, focusing on social history. At Our Table publishes recipes and stories from the people of Queensland. There is a childrens book club and exhibitions blog.


Links: Film star Helen Twelvetrees on an elephant, Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, 1936-7, photograph by Sam Hood, Flickr Commons/ State Library of NSW

Here is a list of the blogs from their peers around the country
National Library of Australia
State Library of Queensland
State Library of Victoria
State Library of Western Australia
State Library of New South Wales has embarked on their blog sites with limited enthusiasm. A successful exhibition promotion used a blog to promote Andrew Zuckerman’s Wisdom by running a competition for the person who could submit the best ‘words of wisdom’. The entries can still be read online. My favourite is: ‘Wisdom is a measure of how much you know you do not yet know’. Posted by: Austin Caffin, 18 October 2008 12:55.

As an aside, I thought I would publish two wiki library blog directories. Blog Without a Library is an international wiki for public libraries. It breaks down the blogs into categories: academic, public, school, special libraries which includes corporate and government or anything that is not part of the former libraries listed. There is a list of blogs for internal staff communication within a library, library associations and library directors.

There is also the Australian public library blog directory Aussie Library Blogs: Libraries Interact. Many of these blogs have not been updated for a while but it is interesting to see how individual librarians are using Web 2.0 compared with public institutions. While this article focuses on cultural institutions Lorcan Dempsey’s blog is highly regarded and has pride of place on the CAN Outreach Blogroll.

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