Simon Chamberlain’s library weblog

A number of New Zealand libraries are now using blogs to communicate with their users.  Most interesting, for me, was to see that the National Library now has not one but two blogs - a technology-focused blog (LibraryTechNZ) and Create Readers, which aims “to help create motivated and engaged young readers”. It looks as though both blogs will be updated regularly (both have multiple authors). The relationship between the blog, their authors and the library could be interesting: both state “the National Library accepts no liability for the content of this blog… but they wished us well” - which could be problematic given that the blogs are hosted on the National Library’s site: will readers really make the distinction between a named Library staffer, posting on an ‘unofficial’ blog, and the Library itself? The blogs do seem to have some clear guidelines in place, which should help.

Great to see NatLib staff in this area, though. In the TechNZ post I linked to above, Courtenay mentions going to a brief bloggers meeting at the LIANZA conference. I was there too, and there seemed to be a lot of interest in comparing ideas. Hopefully we’ll all be able to make something of it. We’ve made a start over at the LIANZA IT-SIG Wiki, with a list of blogs and a discussion of sorts (I know, a wiki isn’t really the best tool for such a discussion, but it will do for now). Anyone interested, please come and join us.

After taking what seems like a very long break, I’m back blogging. No real reason I was away - a combination of a temporary loss of interest/motivation, and doing other things. (Can I still say ‘life trumps blogging’, or is that passe?).   “Other things” includes traveling to Rarotonga for the wedding of some good friends, and continuing education  - two MLIS courses, meaning I’m studying half-time and working full-time; not conducive to blogging as well. The courses, if you’re interested: Advanced Reference Services and Competitive Intelligence.

Oh, and I’m an uncle which is pretty cool; my brother and his girlfriend have had a baby son: the first of that generation for either family.

The reason backups (and regular checks of your site) are good? Back in July, my webhost had a server crash, and some files became corrupt, including my blog (you can see where this is going….). As I haven’t been checking the blog, I was unaware of the crash. By the time I noticed, it was too late to retrieve the uncorrupted version, because their backups didn’t go back that far. I’m somewhat sad (I can re-import the really old posts from my Bloglines blog; I’m also hopeful that I can somehow grab the newer ones from a full-text version of the RSS feed; we shall see).

Coming soon: some long long posts giving my write up of the LIANZA conference (guaranteed Paula Ryan free! ;)).