Blogs in American Academic Libraries: An Overview of Their Present Status and Possible Future Use

摘要

Academic libraries have embraced a new media tool, the weblog or blog, for various purposes. However, some librarians have raised concerns. Are academic library blogs overly personalized and often opinionated journals? Are they constantly dynamic, challenging, newsworthy, and entertaining? How often can they be updated to add and share new content in a timely manner? How effectively are they used in marketing a library's resources effectively and for promoting when the library updates its resources and services? Who controls the content so that interesting opinions and controversial issues can be presented thoroughly and fairly? What is the next step for academic library blogs? This article summarizes the value of blogs that academic librarians bring to their academic communities. Although it cannot cover all the developments in weblog phenomena, the article aims to discuss the issues that academic library blogs face and their potential future in academic and research libraries.