Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Professional Meets Personal
What I love most about blogs and blogging is when you get a glimmer of human nature or about the inside thoughts and values about a person when you read their professional blog.
A blog that is 100% professional, in my opinion, is often dull. In the library world, 100% professional means that all blog posts sound like "There's a new electronic database that you can use for this," or "There's a new privacy law that is limiting access to information there". Ho hum.
But when a librarian writes a blog that occasionally says "Help - I'm insane today! I should really go and hide under my bed instead of trying to help someone do their research!" or "Don't you just hate it when someone grips a computer mouse so hard for an hour that it's hot to the touch afterwards?!" - somehow that's wildly interesting. I think it's about suddenly knowing a tiny bit more about the writer and how they think or how they feel.
Stories about people are so powerful. The big stories AND the little stories. If you're going to blog and you want me to read it, give me a little bit about yourself. Not too much information, of course. Just a little.
A blog that is 100% professional, in my opinion, is often dull. In the library world, 100% professional means that all blog posts sound like "There's a new electronic database that you can use for this," or "There's a new privacy law that is limiting access to information there". Ho hum.
But when a librarian writes a blog that occasionally says "Help - I'm insane today! I should really go and hide under my bed instead of trying to help someone do their research!" or "Don't you just hate it when someone grips a computer mouse so hard for an hour that it's hot to the touch afterwards?!" - somehow that's wildly interesting. I think it's about suddenly knowing a tiny bit more about the writer and how they think or how they feel.
Stories about people are so powerful. The big stories AND the little stories. If you're going to blog and you want me to read it, give me a little bit about yourself. Not too much information, of course. Just a little.
