Our Book Blog to Attend NJ Librarian Convention - sort of

The BHPL Book Blog will celebrate its 5th anniversary this May and to celebrate that momentous occasion, the Reference Department bloggers wanted to share their collective wisdom and experience about library blogging with our colleagues at the annual NJ librarian convention 2010. First we had to submit a proposal to the Poster Board Session Committee. For all you laymen (non-librarians) out there, librarians are known to be amongst the most technologically connected professional groups and we like to attend professional meetings dressed in sensible shoes and dirt-resistant outfits whilst texting, blogging, podcasting and sending singing Gorilla telegrams.

Blogging as a Team Presents Unique Challenges
Working as a team on a blog and poster board session requires compromise. Let us share our decision-making process about the title for the poster board session application, keeping in mind that once submitted to the committee, the title is carved in stone- ie: printed on the NJLA program if they choose to accept our proposal. This process almost derailed the project from the git-go. Herewith, Ellen and Anne batting around ideas about the application title.

Proposed Titles
Possible Title #1:Anne- ‘Librarians from around the country call and say, ‘My director wants me to start a library blog, but what can I possibly write about day after day?’ Ellen –‘Too long.’(Eye roll)

Possible Title #2: Anne –‘Seriously Practical Ideas for Library Bloggers.’ Ellen- ‘meh! Too short.’

Possible Title #3: Anne,(exasperated) ‘21st Century Modes of Communicating Effectively to Targeted Library Demographics using Web 2.0 Mash-ups, Social Media Applications and other Solutions too Technical to mention in a Short Title.’ Ellen (also exasperated)-‘Anne, be serious.’

Brainstorming: What do we think we know about blogging which might be helpful for other librarians to know? 1. We know there are blogs which are way more sophisticated technologically, but we stand by the pretty good quality of our original content over time; our pretty consistent methods of producing content on a pretty regular basis; and the fairly readable and often, we hope, pretty funny style of our content. So that’s what we are going to present on our poster board: how to be pretty good, pretty painlessly?
Possible Title #4: Anne- ‘Content, it’s all about the Content. Except for a few bits about the Geeky stuff like our Side Bar RSS feeds.’
Possible Title #5: Ellen- ‘Will Blog for Readers: Tips & Tales from a Library Blog.’
Anne- ‘bingo!We've got our title!’
And so you see, single author blogs can devolve into the I & Me Show, but our blog involves brainstorming, compromise and, yes, Anne admitting that Ellen’s ideas are almost always better than hers.
Having decided on a title, finished the application, amazingly, the unsuspecting NJLA PBS Committee (librarians love acronyms) accepted our application and we are now beginning to think about the actual content of what I have come to think of as, our 21st Century Blogging Triptych. Ellen has made me promise not to put too much gilding on the frame or Carolina Blue as the background and will have to generally keep me in line. Just because Duke is doing better than UNC this year, I have to defer more than usual. Meh!