The use of Weblogs (blogs) by librarians and libraries to disseminate information

Introduction. Blogging is a relatively new phenomenon but it has already gained high popularity. This paper reports the use of blogs (a.k.a. Weblogs) by libraries and librarians. Method. The list of blogs was compiled from data obtained from several lists/directories at two points in time, in December 2003 and in February 2005. The blogs and the content of one month of postings were characterized using multifaceted content analysis. The blogs identified in 2003 were compared to the blogs listed in 2005. Results. In general, the findings indicate that blogs have an impact on the activities of information professionals and they are a novel information channel for transferring information both to fellow professionals and to other users of the Web. In addition they also serve as an efficient tool for "marketing" library events and resources. Librarians use blogs to disseminate professional and general information, while libraries often use blogs for announcements. Conclusions. Libraries utilize blogs in a novel way that allows them to disseminate information to their patrons. Even though there has been a considerable increase in the number of libraries with blogs, further growth can be expected, since as of February 2005 only a minority of the libraries utilized this tool.