Head Tale

A recent post on Librarian.net reminded me that this year's list of Library's Journal's 2008 Movers & Shakers is now out. 

Congrats to Amy Buckland for getting the nod! (<old man voice>I remember when Amy was just a wee lass, firing off e-mails to library school-focused blogs asking about the merits of various schools.</old man voice> Obviously I didn't do a good enough sales job for UWO and she landed at McGill. London's loss is Montreal's gain.) 

Looking at the list of recipients and seeing how many of those named have blogs (and/or are doing work focused on technology and Web 2.0 stuff), it made me wonder what sort of relationship there is between having a blog and the “real world” of libraries?

Classmate John Miedema of the Slow Reading blog recently presented at Salt Lake City Public Library's “Thinking Ahead” conference.  I'm not sure if his blog was how they found him and/or if it helped lend credibility to his application if he “cold called” them as a potential speaker but I'm sure it didn't hurt.

Maybe that's part of it – you need to have a certain specialty or theme that you're “known” for?  (See #4 here.) Amy runs Library Student Journal, John has become a leading proponent of the Slow Reading movement. 

I haven't won any awards or been invited to any conferences because of my blog (yet! ) but as I recently blogged about, it's been an amazing way to become connected to a wider library community that I wouldn't otherwise have in the pre-Internet days. 

(Of course, I also have my days when I think bloggers are a lot like poets and professors – namely, a group of people who are mostly interested in what other people in the same area are doing while no one else gives a toss.  I've organized enough poetry readings in my life to know that 99% of the people who come to them are other poets.  And the citation count wars of academics trying to get their papers cited by other academics often seemed like more of an academic circle jerk than anything. )

Er, anyhow, ranty tangents aside, being a part of the conversation has been useful, even if it hasn't paid off in awards, conference invites or Google-buyout offers.  Even something as simple as being able to post the full version of my essay that won second place in the CLA student essay contest last year since CLA didn't have room to print anything but the winner in Feliciter has generated the a couple hits from people who searched for it after the winners were announced last year.  And who knows – it may do so into the future as well.  And then?  That CLA conference invite can't be far off!  (How can you tell it's conference season?  I'm hoping to go to SLA this year – and to maybe get a chance to meet the famous Jessamyn West of librarian.net and MetaFilter.com – but CLA looks like it's not going to happen, what with the price of diapers and whatnot.)