TALKIN' BLOGS

摘要

Like rice and beans or peanut butter and jelly, librarians and blogs are a natural combination. Blogs, as librarians have be'en quick to discover, are great tools for com- municating information, citing sources (through URLs), comparing facts (like differing versions of the same news story), and giving it all context-through links to previous stories, for example. But unlike a transaction at the reference desk, blogs needn't be neutral. In fact, many librarian-authored blogs are personal, opinionated, humorous, and scathing. Although typically written by one person, blogs-especially those by librarians-cross-reference each other, creating what Karen Schneider, the Free Range Librarian, has dubbed the "bib-lioblogosphere." Diving into this sometimes raucous online conversation is often more invigorating, rewarding, timely, and fun than any panel discussion at a conference. At the recent American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, LJ gathered a group of bloggers (see "The Bloggers," p. 40) to discuss the impact of blogging on library practice. Our bloggers ranged from LIS students to university professors, from those who blog for personal pleasure to others who view it as professional communication. We wanted to know why people blog, how blogs create social networks, and what part they play in continued learning.