Gina

The blog is coming along well.  I’m trying to get staff members to contribute book reviews so that we have a good mix when we’re ready to publicize it.  I am also planning to take pictures of the contributors so that I can create trading cards to link to on flickr.

At this point, I should probably describe the library and the patrons we serve.  Kent is a town with a population of about 15,000.  It’s a mixed socio-economic community, and our patrons reflect that.  In addition, our patrons run the gamut when it comes to computer literacy.  I feel there are a lot of people who are very unaware of what the library has to offer, especially when it comes to online services (databases, etc.).  I’m hoping this project will encourage people to visit our website more often, and perhaps increase circulation, as we plan to review mostly books in our own collection.

The staffing needed to keep the blog up and running is minimal.  Initially, I will be adding all of the reviews on my own time since it is technically a school project at this point.  We’re hoping that staff members will eventually contribute their posts on their own, and this can be done in any downtime during work hours.  I do anticipate a little bit of hesitancy with some of the less “tech-savvy” employees at first, but hopefully, when they’re shown how easy it is, they will be on board.

For my final project, I am setting up a book review blog for the library where I work.  It’s a work in progress, but I figured I’d write as I go, rather than trying to sum it all up at the end.  I thought it would be much better to actually implement my project rather than doing a hypothetical one, and when I approached my director on the subject, he was all for it.  In fact, he had decided to start a blog in May, but never did anything with it.  This seemed like the perfect way to introduce Web 2.0 services to our library. 

I have begun the initial set-up procedures, but I am not ready to unveil the blog to the world yet.  Stay tuned for more updates!