Library Revolution

From the great blog Customers are Always, here is a terrific article about using a blog as a sort of a newfangled, interactive version of a F.A.Q. page. I really think that libraries could put this suggestion for corporate blog use to work for them in very effective ways.

The article comes at it from the perspective that companies can use a blog to communicate with their customers with the answers to the questions they are always being asked… in a way that invites participation, promotes that idea of “corporate transparency”, and will also serve as another line of advertising as the blog gets crawled and linked to on the Internet.

And all of that is fine and good for libraries. On a FAQ blog, we could start by answering questions about our hours, our facilities, our loan policies. I’d actually be pretty interested to see any comments our customers might leave regarding these topics… call it an online suggestion box. Then start answering questions about the library as they come in and watch the resource grow into something that patrons and staff alike can refer to.

But that doesn’t have to be the end of this idea… After all, we’re in the business of answering questions.

With the proliferation of library blogs, I’m always surprised to see how few libraries blog their reference questions… especially the common ones. Instead of a library blog consisting of a list of library events or books to read, why not show the world what we really have to offer?

A common theme I keep hearing lately from the public library Reference librarians I know is that they are getting fewer “easy” ready-reference type questions nowadays… and more really tough, time consuming, reasearch intensive ones. Which, in the words of one of my colleagues, means “More of the interesting stuff.”

Why not keep an ongoing blog where your reference staff can contribute some of the common, interesting, or downright bizarre questions they have worked on recently – with the answers and links to the resources that finally answered the questions? I think this would make another great, valuable resource for patrons to consult, Web surfers to trip over, and librarians to look to when faced with a similar tough question. And it’s one situation where I think comments would really work – conversation enriching the content of the post as folks share additional resources, tips, and feedback.

I can really see this sort of a blog becoming a real resource adding a lot of value to the library Web site. Posts that include actual information that people (or at least one person!) really want? This kind of content has value. And value attracts readers, comments, and customers.

Are we concerned with patron privacy on this one? I think there needs to be some judgment used when deciding what questions to include and how to phrase it – you obviously don’t want to share any personal information that the customer might not want “out there.” But I can’t imagine that this would be too hard to overcome, if even in conversation with the patron: “This is such an interesting question! Do you mind if I write about it on our library blog?” and with some internal policy about how and when (if ever) patrons are identified or discussed.

All too often, I don’t think that the public really knows much about the wonderful set of professional skills we librarians have to offer. Sharing the questions, the process, and the fruits of our efforts in a public forum like a blog would be great advertising for what we have to offer at the library: skills and information, not just books!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 11:06 am and is filed under Library Marketing, Library Service, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.