The blog for Ann Arbor [Public] District Library serves as an excellent example of the way libraries can make optimum use of a blog. Their blog makes up the majority of the library’s home page. While there are links to static content, blog posts about news and events are the first thing the patron sees when going to the home page. The posts include color and photographs/images which make the home page visually appealing and draw the patron’s focus to the content.
Blog posts are short, typically summarizing the advertised event in 1-2 sentences. It includes well-explained links to events, authors pages, podcasts, etc. Each blog post has easy-to-see tags in the upper righthand corner, making it easy to find comparable content. Further exploring the site reveals that the library uses a number of different blogs to advertise a variety of content. Among the blogs employed: a director’s blog, a books blog, an audio blog, a video blog, a services blog, a community blog and a research blog.
Three features could make the site even more useful to its community. First, it is currently difficult to access older posts. A clear “older posts” link at the bottom of the home page would be helpful for those who want to see what the library has been doing and publicizing over the past few months. Second, a comprehensive list of tags would also help patrons additional material. At present, patrons can only see the tags used in the most recent stories posted on the home page. Finally, the library could update their material even more frequently. On Feb 21st, the last three posts were published on the 20th, the 18th and the 9th. But if the home page content is frequently updated, patrons will more frequently check the home page. This would provide a great marketing strategy, by keeping the library’s presence front and center in the user’s mind.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s library uses a blog to answer user questions. In contrast to AADL’s has a rather bland layout, with a small typeface, no images, and poor use of color. The website also has poor navigation capabilities, with only the most generalized tags offering organization to the content. This is particularly problematic considering the content of the blog: it is aimed at answering suggestions and FAQs to library users. A user wondering about the library’s audiobook collection wouldn’t necessarily scroll back to September 2006’s blog postings, or scroll through numerous other postings, to find what they are looking for.
While the headlines are well-constructed and offer major insight into the content of the letter, they are difficult to read because of small typeface similar to the body of the posts and because of the length of the blog posts. Simply by shortening the blog posts to a more legible headline and a brief blurb on the content of the post, the library could improve navigability exponentially.
Another major marketing problem with the blog is that it really doesn’t offer content which will readily draw in the reader and make it worth his/her while to navigate the bulky outline. Whereas AADL’s library site uses blogs to update the patron on events and other timely material, using a blog to address suggestions made in a suggestion box does not really exploit the medium. Instead, if the library feels the need to use Web 2.0 technology, responses to suggestions and answering FAQs demand better organization than time-sensitive posts, and therefore seem more suited to wikis.
VCU’s main blog is geared more toward traditional blogging purposes. It provides time-sensitive updates on information on technical problems, such as system downtime, etc. However, it is almost extensively used for the purpose, and thus is rarely updated.
