Library Revolution

She** is frustrated. She and her colleagues spent a lot of time designing their library’s blog, determining content, establishing tone, making sure that every aspect projected the correct image for the library. It was supposed to open up communication with the patrons. It was supposed to bring in new users and make the community more aware of the library and its services. It was supposed to just work.

When I spoke to her the other day, she was ready to throw in the towel.

“Nobody comments. Nobody reads. I don’t think anyone even knows it’s there.”

And I know that she isn’t alone… I’ve heard the “Library Blog Blues” many times before. Unfortunately, there isn’t one single answer. Does blogging work for businesses and libraries? Yes. Is it easy? NO. Creating a “successful” blog is an extremely complex endeavor, and I think that too many libraries are suckered by the myth that if you put a blog together for your organization, the right people will just find it and use it. But in real life it’s not nearly that easy.

We discussed this, and talked about some of the thing she might experiment with to jump start things a little. We talked about the blogs we personally liked to read, the things we perceive as making a blog “successful.” We talked about some of the things other libraries are doing that they felt were really working for them. She still seemed daunted.

Then I mentioned marketers and how they always talk about “telling a story.” You know, presenting something authentic and compelling that your readers can identify with. Not necessarily a narrative (or maybe so!), but writing something your readers can connect with emotionally and that will engage people.

“We don’t really tell stories,” She said with a thoughtful expression, “We just tell people what’s new in the library. Maybe there’s something to that…”

So we brainstormed.

Instead of a post like this (I see these posts every day!):

“XYZ Public Library has just expanded their collection of knitting books. If you are interested in learning more about knitting, take a look at these new titles: (List Of Books)

Also, out Tuesday Night Knitting Club is always looking for new members. Contact the Reference Desk for more information – XYZReference”

What if the post read more like this:

“Not long ago, while doing my regular Wednesday night reference shift, I realized I had helped seven different patrons that week track down books about knitting. As I was helping them, I realized that only one of the seven knew that our XZY Library has a knitting group that meets on Tuesday evenings!

As an avid knitter myself, I helped coordinate this group about four years ago. We have about 9 men and women from all over CommunityXYZ who just love getting together each week to knit and talk. It’s a great social experience and the members are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to knitting. Just last week, one of our members had a problem with an afghan she was working on, and the rest of the group put their heads together to help her get out of the jam. Just look at the beautiful finished product! (Picture of afghan)

This group is always ready to welcome new members, and since it looks like we may have a knitting craze going on, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some new faces! Drop in on Tuesday evening around 6 pm, or for more information, make sure to contact us at xzylibraryreference@xzylibrary.com .

With the run on our knitting books, I also thought it might be time to refresh our collection a little and add some more current books to interest knitters. Here are just a few of the books we now have to offer our growing population of avid knitters. (List of titles with links to catalog – maybe a short blurb on each?)

Don’t worry about availability on these books. Put one of them on hold if it is checked out!

–Emily the Librarian”

OK, OK. It’s not the perfect post. And it took a lot longer to write. But this is the sort of thing we brainstormed that day, and it definitely tells more of a story. A story about the library, the community, the individuals involved, and the resources available. (Plus, if I’m a knitter in XYZ Community and I Google XYZ knitting, maybe just maybe I’ll come up with this!!)

She and I brainstormed what other kinds of stories her current library blog might tell, and I think something clicked. She was excited again.

I got an email from her today:

“I got 6 comments yesterday!!! :)”

Does your Library’s blog tell a story?

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** This librarian didn’t want to be identified… yet.

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With libraries venturing into the world of “official library blogs” left and right, there is a persistent theme I hear emerging from the behind-the-scenes discussion of these blogs. I can’t even count the number of times that I have heard library staff and directors comment that their blogs don’t get any comments.

 “You know, we’ve been working so hard to keep up our library blog, but nobody leaves any comments!”

In response, I would like to offer a bit of unsolicited advice to frustrated library bloggers who are upset over the silence they get in return for their blogging efforts.

1. First and foremost, write something worth commenting on.

A lot of library blogs I read feature posts that go something like this:

 “Please join us next Tuesday for an art exhibit opening. We are so excited about this event, and there will be food!!”

OK, so you got your announcement out. Mission accomplished on that goal. If you want to use your library blog as an e version of your newsletter, you’re in business. But do you really expect anyone to comment on that? What are your users supposed to say, when your posts are structured like a broadcast? Thing about broadcasts is that they don’t really encourage commentary.

Comments take effort. Not much effort, but in the world of the Internet, effort is effort. I’m not taking the time and effort to leave a comment unless there is something interesting an engaging to comment on. Otherwise, I skim my eye across it, read half of the words (maybe!) and move on.

How about a post discussing the artist whose exhibit is opening at your library? Or the type of art being displayed? Or a more general discussion of the kinds of events that go on in your library (with a not-so-subtle plug for this one)? Sure, those are a little more difficult to write, but if you’re looking for comments, they’d be a much better bet than a bland, uninteresting announcement.

2. Get Linky.

Blogs are about conversation. Community. Interaction.

If you’re looking for comments, I’d like to think you’re looking to foster conversations, community, and interaction. So what better way to encourage dialog than to join in on or continue a conversation already in the works?

By linking to other blogs, you encourage comments on your blog in a couple of different ways. For one, you’re attracting readers by getting yourself out there in the blogosphere. Whenever someone links to my blog, I go and read what they have to say, and I often comment or link back. The conversation can really get going… and spread!

Besides attracting new readers, linking to other sites gives your blog posts context, and maybe even more legitimacy in the eyes of your readers. Hey, look! What we’re doing here in our library is relevant in the larger scope of the world! What we’re doing is interesting to people other than us! We are relevant!

Get more readers, join the conversations already out there, and give yourself some context, and you may see more comments coming your way. Bring on the links!

(And for God’s sake – if you’re going to blog about the materials in your collection, PLEASE include links to the materials in your catalog! It’s all good and fine to recommend a book, for instance, but without a link into the catalog, I’d have to go to way too much trouble to place a hold on it. Put the resource right there where I can make an “impulse purchase”!)

3. Make people feel comfortable

Does you library’s tone make readers feel comfortable enough to comment? Is your voice friendly and approachable? Do you give the impression that you genuinely want to hear what people have to say?

As I’ve discussed before, I tend to have a pretty negative view about the impersonal, “corporate persona” type library blog. Sure, it works OK in some cases, but in general, I’m among the segment of Web users who tend to be really cynical about blogs that seem too official. To me, it just reads as phony.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t project a professional image whenever you represent your organization. But I just don’t see what’s so bad about librarians projecting their true individual personalities. To me, and to a large segment of blog readers (as L’Oreal found out the hard way!!), official corporate personas or made up characters read as fake, and they’re a huge turnoff.

I actually think it’s a measure of respect to your readers to be honest with them, and as a blog reader, I definitely feel disrespected and condescended to by corporate blogs that are too impersonal or that I feel aren’t really being honest. We want some measure of authenticity.

If your blog reads like a press release, good luck getting comments.

If it reads like a cold, impersonal institution, don’t bet on replies.

If it sounds like a naggy old lady with a bun, I wouldn’t comment on it. Would you?

4. Actively Invite Commentary

Besides developing an authentic, inviting voice, I might also suggest taking David Lee King’s advice and creating posts that actively invite readers to give their input.

If you really want comments, it’s simple. Just ask.

His tips:

• Think like a dj: You know - you’ve all heard a dj at a radio station announce “be the 10th caller and win a [fill in the blank].” While I don’t think we should give away cars and trips to Japan, I think we can adapt that mentality of dangling carrots in order to gain participation.  Even simple things, like asking people to click a link, read a short article, or to watch a video are great ways to “direct” customers into participation.  And a blog is the perfect place to do this.
• Figure out the goal for your post: What do you want the customer to do after they’ve read your blog post? Why not tell them what they should do to make that thing happen. An easy (well, maybe not TOO easy) way to do that is to figure out what the end result of your blog post should be, and then write the post to support that goal.
• Ask for Opinions: Opinions are always great, because people are more willing to share… so ask for them! Ask things like: what’s your favorite movie/book?  What’s your favorite genre? Why? Asking these things is a great way to start a discussion.
• Use polls and surveys: Not really sure why (other than referring to my last point on opinions), but people tend to fill out online polls and short surveys - especially if they’re about more trivial stuff. You can simply do these within a blog post.
• Use props: When supplementing the text in your blog post with images and links, make sure to invite readers to click on them. This tells readers “ooh - I can click on this!”

Actually, read his whole series of posts about inviting participation in Web 2.0 projects. Great ideas!

I couldn’t agree more. What are some ways you can invite participation in your blog? 

5. React to Comments

If you do start getting comments, I think it’s really important to encourage the comment train to keep on a-rollin’. When someone takes the time to comment, try to acknowledge them and respond. I’m not personally as good at this as I should be… I really hope that everyone who comments here knows that I really appreciate them taking the time to do so!!!

But if you have a whole team of librarians working on a collaborative blog, I don’t see why it should be so hard to respond regularly. It’s just one more way to seem less like a cold, impersonal institution and more like a group of real people who genuinely care what their patrons have to say.

Again, it’s about respect. If I feel strongly enough to take the time to put a bunch of words together in a coherent way and comment on the library blog, then I deserve to be heard. And letting people know that they have been heard and that their input is respected and appreciated is an excellent business practice.

6. Embrace Negative Comments!

If you’re in the habit of responding to comments, you’ve put yourself in a great position to deal with negative comments… and come out the better for it!

Many would-be library bloggers have mentioned to me their fear of getting negative comments. We’re so used to closely guarding our library’s public image and keeping a tight reign on anything that is said about the library in a public forum that it’s really hard for many librarians to imagine just letting go and seeing what people really have to say.

The thing I always remind folks about, however, is that it is your blog. So, if you get a negative comment, it’s on your terms and it can really give you a great chance to react to the comment on your own terms. Responding to negative comments can actually put your library in an extremely positive light. It shows that you are really listening, that you’re happy to discuss complaints, and often an honest, well thought-out response to criticism may bring out library supporters who have been lurking.

I was talking to a friend whose business blog (non-library) received a whole slew of negative comments at one point. He took the bull by the horns and posted a few well-written, well-argued replies. BAM. Suddenly his supporters came out of the woodwork to back him up. Not only because they agreed with him, but also because by addressing the bad comments openly he proved himself as an honest, conscientious person who doesn’t blow off complaints. His business has benefited from the experience immensely.

Need more evidence? Read this.

Don’t overmoderate comments- let folks express their disagreement or disapproval. Then be sure not to blow off these comments. A bad comment sets you up to deliver a good response. This is a winning proposition, and a positive response to a negative comment will put both you and your library in a good light.

Actually, there are a lot of good posts out there with good ideas for handling negative comments. For example, here, here, here and here.

The last thing I’d like to say is that library bloggers really shouldn’t rely on comments alone as an indication of total readership. Librarians love use statistics – but don’t misuse comments in this way. Comments are a very important aspect of blogging because in the end blogs are really all about conversation.

Without that conversational quality, it’s just a bunch of press releases. Don’t call it a blog. Call it an online newsletter.

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I haven’t had much blogging time in the past week or so, but I hope to remedy that soon. In the meantime, I just want to mention one thing. Call it a little pet peeve I have developed in the past 16 months or so.

If your business caters to parents and small children, for God’s sake make your space stroller friendly. And that means your library (or at least your children’s room!), too.

Yes, yes space is at a premium.  But it just pisses me off when I can’t fit the stroller through the maze of chairs, displays, racks, and random crap that both businesses and libraries seem to enjoy arranging between me and the stuff I want to get to. It’s got to be a fire hazard of some kind, too.

Once again, it’s time to think more like our customers. What is important to them?

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I had a really great compliment paid to me the other day by John Klima of Library Angst.

What he said is that sometimes I make him angry.

While I really appreciate all of the supportive comments from everyone who agrees with what I have to say here (who doesn’t like knowing they are not alone in their opinions??), I feel like this is one of most promising best responses I have gotten so far.

There was a lot of talk in the library blogoshphere a short time ago about things being a bit echo chamber-y and nicey-nice with everyone just loving what everyone else had to say without much critical commentary. I don’t know that I 100% agree with that (See! Disagreement!).

Of course there is going to be a certain level of agreement among Library bloggers as we all come to blogging with a certain amount of shared assumptions. For example, that blogging (and libraries) are worthwhile. So a lot of agreement on basic points is to be expected.

But debate is healthy in any field, and to be desired. Disagreeing and then discussing our disagreements is the way that a profession grows and flourishes. Intellectual discourse is exactly what most of us are really looking for. So it’s great to see that many people don’t agree with a lot of what I have to say here.

Not only that, but I was happy to see that John didn’t just disagree with me. I make him angry. How flattering!

I was a great fan of Kathy Sierra’s Creating Passionate Users, which is now, sadly, no longer an active blog. (Go back and read through her archives if you are unfamiliar with this blog. I guarantee you will learn loads.) One of the great lessons I learned from her is that to create passion (and by extension, motivation and discussion!), you have to avoid the “Zone of Mediocrity.”

Having people love you (or agree with you) is great. Having people hate you (or in this case, making people angry) is great, too. What you want to avoid is “Eh.” Passion and motivation come from love and hate – everything in the middle is apathy-inducing drivel.

So I hope that I can keep on making people angry, and I hope that other members of the Library blogging community will strive to do the same. With all due respect, I want to piss some of you off. And I’ll do my best to do so – so that we can discuss what’s pissing us all off… and hopefully make some changes.

I should say that I think the same could be said about libraries. Make your users love you by making them hate you.

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I have heard from Hunter, the “corporate persona” of the reader’s advisory blog I wrote about the other day! I was so glad to hear their (his?) response. Please read the comment that was left on this post. I’m so glad that this has turned into a real discussion topic, and I’d love to hear other people’s views!!

Here is my reply:

Hi Hunter!!!

I’m so glad to have you chime in on this one!

I wouldn’t really say it’s “controversial” per se – just something I think worth discussing and something I was thinking about while I watched the presentation the other day. And discussion is good, right?

There are lots of official library blogs out there that have adopted the strategy of using the personalities of individual librarians on their blogs. My opinion (for what it’s worth) is that this is a great way to give the library a more personal face and make both the library and its staff more approachable.

I understand it’s not a personal blog, but I think that individuals who represent your library in other public forums (including working with the public in your building) could do so on your blog as well, without it becoming unprofessional. Lots of libraries do this.

Many blogging corporations have found that having employees blog as individuals while still representing the company is a successful strategy, while many have had complete failures using a single, fabricated corporate persona.

People who grew up blogging, IM’ing, etc. as you say, tend to find made up characters somewhat disingenuous and often have a bad reaction to them. If you’re trying to reach that demographic, then I wonder how Hunter would come across. For me, he sort of reads as yet another “phony” marketing tool fabricated by a corporate entity to make me buy something… like Colonel Sanders or Rosie the Riveter. A pitch man. A propaganda tool. People of my generation and younger have grown up skeptical and distrusting of marketing tools like these. We tend to want to hear from “real people.”

But if, as you also say, you’re aiming for a broader demographic, maybe he’s just the ticket. Maybe patrons who are more comfortable with more of a “press release” model of marketing (I’m trying not to say “old people” ) find him appealing. You know better than I do!

If you have found that Hunter is successful for you (and it sounds like he is!) then you may have found just the strategy for you! This really, really, really isn’t meant as an attack of any sort! I love that you’re blogging and I love the idea of readers advisory blogs! But I think it’s worth really examining who you are really reaching with this character and how approachable and “un-companylike” it could make you… without losing the professionalism.

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Now that I have pumped out my long-winded conference impressions, I’d just like to point out that my little blog has been going for one month now. I can’t believe how supportive people have been of my dumb little rants and how fast I’ve been able to gather a little readership. In the past month I have had visits from ten countries as well as from all over the U.S. And people appear to be coming back for more. Astounding. I’m really flattered and I hope to hear more from you all soon!

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I love the idea of a readers advisory blog for a public library. There are a lot of these blogs out there, and some of them really seem to have met with some success. One of our local libraries gave a presentation at the LILC about theirs – and I was mostly very impressed by what they have done. But there was one big thing that left me… well, puzzled.

The presenter kept referring to their strategy of using a single “corporate persona” on their blogs. In the case of their reader’s advisory blog, they had invented a young person named Hunter to be the voice of their blog. Every staff member contributing to the blog signs in and writes as Hunter.

The presenter explained her library’s justifications for adopting this strategy. She cited the necessity of creating a professional “feel” to the blog, as it was representing the organization. She spoke about the desire to present a consistent tone from post to post and throughout the blog, especially as a way to keep the readers from “getting confused.” She also cited the need for many staff members to be able to contribute (this one I simply didn’t get. How many blogs out there have multiple contributors???) They also seemed to have a lot of concerns about preserving the anonymity of the librarians.

I understand wanting to sound “professional” and the anxiety that may come from representing your organization in a public forum. We always want our organization to come across well in the public mind, especially when we’re talking about a high profile service based profession like ours. But I would be inclined to encourage contributing bloggers to follow a set of loose content guidelines in their posts and trust them in their own sense of professionalism.

One of the main strategies driving corporate blogging is the trend towards presenting organizations with more “human” faces. Blogging is a great way for companies to seem less corporate, less distant from customers, and to become more of something that the customers can identify with on a personal level. Companies are finding out that customers are looking to deal with “kinder, gentler” organizations with a certain level of transparency. Imagine that! People want to deal with other people, not just big, scary corporations!

This is a strategy that I think libraries could easily use, since most users already have some sort of personal connection or association with library use. So let’s take advantage of this connection and help it grow by letting our blogs take on real, authentic, human personalities our users can identify with. Maybe that means taking a true multi-user approach where contributors all have their own voices – an approach I really don’t think folks would find confusing at all, especially in the context of the larger blogosphere!

The part of the presentation that really didn’t sit well with me was the fact that the presenter kept referring to the idea (and I am definitely paraphrasing!) of keeping a level of anonymity for the blogging librarians, preventing those pesky patrons from bothering them because of the blog. This really bothered me, because I really firmly believe in blogging as a way to open lines of communication between libraries and patrons – crating the means for a conversation that goes both ways. Blogging, for me, is all about community building. It’s about reaching out to people who you hope will reach back. And encouraging them to reach back.

In order to do that, you need to be approachable. In fact, in order to be an effective public services librarian, you need to be approachable. Anonymous, in my opinion, is not approachable. It really doesn’t do much to encourage communication with your customers. Doesn’t the adoption of a single corporate persona bring us right back to the old newsletter/press release broadcast model of corporate communication – you know, the one where communication means talking to, but not necessarily with your customers?

I don’t want to sound like I am bashing the particular readers advisory blog being discussed at the conference. I think most of what they were doing with it was so terrific. And it’s obviously a success for them. I just wonder about this one aspect of the project, which is an aspect I see reflected in many “official” library blogs. Is a “corporate persona” the right way to go when trying to engage your customers? Could taking a different approach help a reasonably successful blog then become something remarkable? Could opening up communications help an already wonderful library (and this one is!) reach new heights in the hearts and minds of their community?

Many companies have found out the hard way that hiding behind a made up corporate persona when blogging not only doesn’t work as well as they thought it would, but they can even backfire. Required reading for any libraries considering organizational blogging: Naked Conversations.

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I spent today (along with many, many other library professionals) at the Long Island Library Conference. This is a great conference because it gives you a great chance to see so many of the folks from the area libraries… and just when I think I know everyone, I get to meet someone new. Or finally put a face to the voice I’ve been talking to on the phone or months. So it’s really a nice to attend.

I have a lot of blogging material from today… coming conversations I had in the hall,  the “electronic communication” session, and the excellent session given by Sophie Brookover and Liz Burns from Pop Goes the Library. So there’s tons I want to mull over and discuss here. Later on.
Of course, now I’m exhausted. So I’m going to bed, and I’ll post later on about some of the issues that came up at the conference and what my take on all of it. Some thought provoking stuff, so stay tuned.

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