Alice in InfoLand

The cover story of the March issue of American Libraries was “Mattering in the blogosphere; observations from the well-connected.”  Unfortunately, although school librarians constitute one of the largest divisions of ALA, the association’s official journal treated us like … chopped liver.
After a barrage of angry letters-to-the-editor, that omission is being rectified with a follow-up article about school librarians who blog.  FWIW, here are my responses to the questions from the AL editors:

What differentiates blogging for library media specialists from writing for the generalist biblioblogs?
There are three general kinds of biblioblogs:

1. Practical: links to useful info and reviews of new resources
2. Philosophical: essays exploring controversial issues and new information technologies
3. Point-of-view: reports of events and happenings in a local library

Examples of those different blog-genres can be found across the biblioblogosphere.
 
School librarians, however, work under very different conditions than public, academic, or corporate librarians.  School librarians are considered educators first, librarians second, and their customer base is a primarlly captive (even occasionally hostage) population in a space that is often co-opted (often on very short notice) for non-library purposes.  
Given those constraints, it’s important to recognize the difference between:

• school librarY blogs, which usually function as a venue for practical and local info, and
• school librarIAN blogs, which are often more philosophical discussions about information literacy and curriculum issues, educational policies and procedures, technology and collection management concerns in the face of limited funding and understanding by administrators, and school politics.

For links to an assortment of school library/librarian blogs, see
http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=School_libraries
And
http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/Links%20to%20our%20blogs
 
What are your professional objectives for blogging?
To keep myself current, and to share ideas and issues that tickle my professional and/or personal fancies.
 
How much time do you devote to blogging?

• Keeping up with a wide variety of other professional and special interest blogs via Google Reader: 2 hours per day.
• Managing the AASL blog: 1-2 hours per week
• Maintaining the aliceinfo blog:  varies greatly, but probably averages 3-5 hours per week, depending on what’s happening in my personal life and/or the profession and/or society in general.
  

How does having a professional blog impact your work with students?
N/A, since I’m retired from building-level work.  Now my ‘students’ are adults taking grad courses to prepare for a career in school librarianship, and one of their assignments is to explore the edu/biblioblogosphere for current information and insights.
 
What are the pitfalls for a school librarian to be writing a blog?
Many school librarians can’t even access (much less read) blogs at work, because anything with the word “blog” has been blocked by their district’s filters, so writing a school-based blog may require dealing with all kinds of technological hassles.  School bloggers need to understand that community members may be reading their blog, and thus be circumspect about what they post.
 
How does blogging affect your interaction with nonlibrarian colleagues?
My personal blog reflects my somewhat cynical take on life in general, not just libraries.  It’s just another publication format for sharing my values and reflections of the world around us.
 
What has been the response of your faculty and/or administration to your blog?
N/A:  I’m a free agent these days.  I can — and do — say anything I want.
 
What is the greatest benefit to blogging about school libraries?
Because so many school librarians are running one-person operations, librarY blogs are a fast and flexible way to maintain a virtual presence for your facility.  LibrarIAN blogging combats isolation, offering a way to share ideas and issues with like-minded colleagues without geographic or time constraints.
 
How do you see the evolution of blogging (i.e., the growth of online video) as intersecting with the job of school media professionals?
The Read/Write web is drastically changing the way our world functions.  School librarians are responsible for teaching students how to be effective information consumers and producers. We need to know how to use these new formats and technologies so that we can continue to be effective and vital elements in the educational infrastructure.