Perspective
Investigating the Biblioblogosphere
What’s going on in the biblioblogosphere? I hate the term, but it’s convenient. Jon Garfunkel at Civilities (civilities.net) gave me the idea with his “Social Media Scorecard” and related posts—but this isn’t directly comparable to his evaluation of 25 “online political writers.” Instead, this is an informal study of a “top 50” library-people blogs, including some metrics.
Note that qualifier: a “top 50”, not the top 50—and there are actually 60 blogs in the full investigation, which began with more than 230 candidates. Here’s the initial process, as noted in Walt at Random:
Ø The “list of candidates” came from three obvious sourcesy: LISFeeds, the Open Directory LIS Weblogs and Collaborative Weblogs subdirectories at Open Directory, and the Libdex Library Weblogs list.
Ø I clicked to each blog (printing out lists to avoid duplication), clicked on “Sub with Bloglines” on the FireFox Bloglines toolbar, and subscribed to up to three of the most general feeds (if there were multiple feeds).
Ø I reset Bloglines to show all listings, clicked on each feed, added up the numbers, jotted down the total on the printed list, then unsubbed all but one feed for each blog.
Baseline criteria for inclusion: Blogs by one or a small group (up to four) of self-identified library people (not “official library” blogs or large-group blogs such as PLA Blog and LISNews), with at least one posting in 2005 (some of the lists don’t weed dead blogs) and at least one RSS/ATOM feed (because it’s too hard to investigate otherwise).
The first pass resulted in 238 blogs, narrowed to 231 during initial testing.
The next step was to consider “reach” beyond apparent Bloglines readership, particularly because Bloglines numbers can be tricky.
The usual metric for blog reach is the Technorati result. I didn’t focus on that, partly because I found it difficult to keep Technorati going long enough to do many searches at once, partly because I think Technorati overvalues blog linking and, specifically, blogrolls. I did get Technorati linked-site numbers for the 60 “finalists” in the study, and only a few of them vary much in rank from the Reach score I prepared.
I did “link:” searches on three major open-Web search engines that support such searches: Google, MSN and AllTheWeb (one of several Overture-owned sites using the same search engine).
The results were startlingly varied, although blogs at or near the top of the list in one measure tended to stay there in others. But the numbers! For The Shifted Librarian, Google showed 9,430 links; MSN showed 76,676; and AllTheWeb showed 449,000! Totaling all 231 sites, here’s how extreme the differences were:
Ø Bloglines showed a total of 31,636 feeds (which I extrapolated to 126,544 readership).
Ø Google showed a total of 71,401 links.
Ø MSN showed a total of 297,345 links.
Ø AllTheWeb showed a total of 2,295,436 links.
While links tended to be proportional across search engines, that wasn’t always the case. I could suggest at least half a dozen rankings based on that set of raw data. In the end, I calculated a “Reach” figure based half on apparent direct readership (Bloglines times 4), half on a weighted average of reported links, where weighting was proportional to the overall numbers:
Reach = (4 * Bloglines) + (0.67 * Google) + (0.16 * MSN) + (0.02 * AllTheWeb).
The spreadsheet for this analysis is available at http://waltcrawford.name/liblograw.xls. Feel free to manipulate the calculations to arrive at your own rankings and draw your own conclusions.
Any metric such as Reach, which runs from 6 to 47,602 for a group of 231 items, will have obvious breaks in the sequence—gaps that can be used to separate groups of entries. I was looking for 50 to 60 blogs for further analysis. One of several gaps was in that range. After eliminating a few blogs (for reasons noted below), there were 48 blogs in the “top 50.”
I added blogs that, while not scoring in the top 50 on Reach, were either in the top 40 of Bloglines subscriptions or the top 30 in Google links, MSN links, or AllTheWeb links. Any of these—and, arguably, others as well—could belong in the “top 50.”
For the brief writeups that end this Perspective, I’ve arranged blogs by descending Reach within three broad groups. The first group has the broadest reach, with a Reach in excess of 2,000. The second group includes the remainder of the “top 48” based on Reach. The third group includes those that score high on specific measures but lower on Reach.
A few blogs that made it through the initial filter were removed from the final group, either because they’re large-group blogs, I could not reach the blog on several tries, or there have been no posts since March 31, 2005. Five candidates disappeared for those reasons. In two other cases the design of the blog was such that I couldn’t do reasonable metrics. I was able to prepare metrics for 60 blogs.
A word about median and mean, for those who haven’t dealt with statistics much lately. What’s usually called the “average” is the mean—the sum of all figures for a given measure divided by the population. It can be a wildly misleading figure. For example, the mean or “average” AllTheWeb link count for the 231 blogs was close to 10,000—but only 38 of the 231 blogs had at least that many links. Given that level of heterogeneity, I also calculated the median, another form of “average”: the value at which half of the population will be higher and half lower.
I noted the following for each blog, based only on internal evidence:
Ø Starting date (from archives or About page). One blog began in 1998, two in 1999, and two in 2001 (none in 2000). Nine began in 2002, 27—almost half of the group—in 2003, and 12 in 2004. Seven new blogs (begun January 2005 or later) have already established reasonable reach.
Ø Frequency of posts, April-June 2005. I counted them, going through each archive (except for blogs with numbered posts). The “average” is 85 posts; the median is 58.
Ø Total length of posts, April-June 2005. I measured using Word’s word count; in some cases, sidebars were included. For ten blogs, where the archives collapse all or most of each entry, I assigned an arbitrary length based on 100 words per post, knowing that this is a relatively low number. Mean total words for that quarter: 14,852 words; median: 11,640 words.
Ø Average length of posts, April-June 2005. Which bloggers are essayists and which ones believe in terse comments? For ten blogs, there’s no real number. The mean length across all 60 blogs is 250 words per post, just about a screen’s worth; median is 188.
Ø Number of comments, April-June 2005. Eighteen of the 60 blogs don’t support comments or didn’t have any during this period. That helps explain the gulf between the mean (48 comments) and the median (22).
Ø Comments per post, April-June 2005. Discounting 18 blogs with no comments, this is a measure of the conversational intensity of the blog. There’s a substantial gap between the mean (0.85 comments per post) and the median (0.58).
Ø Blogroll on home page. Only 32 of the blogs have blogrolls on the home page (I didn’t require the word “blogroll,” just a set of links to other blogs.) Mean: 23. Median: 10.
Ø Link-based postings. Most blogs, within libraryland and elsewhere, involve links in most posts, although the posts may or may not be link-based. I looked at the current home page, or the first 10 posts on that page; these are such crude measures that I hesitate to say much about them.
Ø Technorati sites as of July 25-26. For what these are worth, here they are. I couldn’t get consistent technorati link numbers at all. Mean: 98. Median: 49.
Ø BlogPulse rank as of July 25. This number is so dependent on activity during July and the very end of June that it’s somewhere between meaningless and misleading in terms of the reach and readership of any blog. Only 21 of 60 blogs had any BlogPulse rank at all—and those 21 leave out six of the 20 blogs with the broadest reach.
An expanded spreadsheet for these 60 blogs, including all the numbers shown above (and the BlogPulse citation number), along with the URL for each blog, is at http://waltcrawford.name/liblog60.xls.
These aren’t necessarily leaders, but they’re significant exceptions from the norm.
The oldest blogs in the study—those started prior to August 2002—are ResearchBuzz, Aug-98; oss4lib, Feb-99; librarian.net, Apr-99; LibraryPlanet.com, Jan-01; Scholarly Electronic Publishing Blog, Jun-01; The Shifted Librarian and Infomusings Blog, Jan-02; Caveat Lector and Catalogablog, Mar-02; eclectic librarian, Jun-02; and The Aardvark Speaks, Jul-02.
Most frequent postings (at least twice the median):
|
beSpacific |
723 |
|
Library Stuff |
291 |
|
Collecting my Thoughts |
233 |
|
The Ten Thousand Year Blog |
211 |
|
LibrarianInBlack |
206 |
|
Phil Bradley's Blog |
175 |
|
Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology |
169 |
|
librarian.net |
163 |
|
ResearchBuzz |
142 |
|
Beyond the Job |
141 |
|
Professional-Lurker: Comments by an academic in cyberspace |
135 |
|
It's all good |
120 |
|
Caveat Lector |
120 |
|
scitech library question |
117 |
|
LibraryPlanet.com |
117 |
|
Catalogablog |
116 |
The wordiest bloggers—those with total text longer than the mean length:
|
Collecting my Thoughts |
61,823 |
|
Professional-Lurker: Comments by an academic in cyberspace |
44,460 |
|
Library Stuff |
39,858 |
|
Free Range Librarian |
38,093 |
|
beSpacific |
37,227 |
|
Tales from the “Liberry” |
35,664 |
|
The Shifted Librarian |
34,682 |
|
Walt at Random |
34,379 |
|
Caveat Lector |
33,902 |
|
Beyond the Job |
32,262 |
|
It's all good |
28,561 |
|
The Invisible Library |
25,439 |
|
LibrarianInBlack |
21,425 |
|
The Ten Thousand Year Blog |
21,100 |
|
Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology |
20,878 |
|
Pop Goes the Library |
20,292 |
|
librarian.net |
19,889 |
|
The Distant Librarian |
18,464 |
|
A Wandering Eyre |
17,885 |
|
TangognaT |
16,983 |
The essayists—those whose posts average longer than the mean length:
|
LibraryCog |
2,362 |
|
Scholarly Electronic Publishing Blog** |
578 |
|
Tales from the “Liberry” |
532 |
|
Feel-good Librarian |
482 |
|
Walt at Random |
446 |
|
The Days & Nights of the Lipstick Librarian! |
400 |
|
The Invisible Library |
391 |
|
Pop Goes the Library |
383 |
|
Free Range Librarian |
381 |
|
The Shifted Librarian |
361 |
|
Professional-Lurker: Comments by an academic in cyberspace |
329 |
|
The Pod Bay Door |
306 |
|
Confessions of a Mad Librarian |
295 |
|
Mamamusings |
288 |
|
TechnoBiblio |
284 |
|
Caveat Lector |
283 |
|
Library clips |
278 |
|
Collecting my Thoughts |
265 |
|
LawLibTech |
255 |
I would originally have suggested that the cutoff for “essays” was twice the median, or at least 376 words (the first seven blogs in this list), but I think that leaves out too many blogs where posts are a mixture of shorter items and relatively long essays. The “**” next to Scholarly Electronic Publishing Blog is because those aren’t essays—they’re fortnightly entries consisting of many links and brief descriptions.
The terse posters are:
|
beSpacific |
51 |
|
Phil Bradley's Blog |
57 |
|
blogwithoutalibrary.net |
64 |
These blogs had the most conversations in all, with a clear gap between the least of these and the next highest (just above the mean):
|
The Aardvark Speaks |
255 |
|
Collecting my Thoughts |
238 |
|
Walt at Random |
225 |
|
TangognaT |
175 |
|
Free Range Librarian |
172 |
|
tinylittlelibrarian.blog-city.com |
159 |
|
LibrarianInBlack |
146 |
|
It's all good |
142 |
|
Mamamusings |
131 |
|
A Wandering Eyre |
109 |
|
Feel-good Librarian |
94 |
|
The Invisible Library |
66 |
|
LibraryLaw Blog |
66 |
|
The Pod Bay Door |
65 |
|
The Distant Librarian |
62 |
|
Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology |
60 |
|
Pop Goes the Library |
60 |
|
Librarian Avengers |
60 |
Given the relatively low rate of comments in general, I’ve included every blog that averaged at least one comment per post during this quarter:
|
LibraryCog |
3.60 |
|
Feel-good Librarian |
3.48 |
|
Librarian Avengers |
3.16 |
|
The Aardvark Speaks |
3.11 |
|
mamamusings |
2.98 |
|
Walt at Random |
2.92 |
|
tinylittlelibrarian.blog-city.com |
2.37 |
|
The Pod Bay Door |
2.32 |
|
TangognaT |
1.97 |
|
Information Wants To Be Free |
1.95 |
|
walking paper |
1.81 |
|
blogwithoutalibrary.net |
1.75 |
|
Free Range Librarian |
1.72 |
|
LibraryLaw Blog |
1.40 |
|
It's all good |
1.18 |
|
Confessions of a Mad Librarian |
1.15 |
|
Pop Goes the Library |
1.13 |
|
blogdriverswaltz.com |
1.06 |
|
Collecting my Thoughts |
1.02 |
|
Library Web Chic |
1.02 |
|
The Invisible Library |
1.02 |
|
A Wandering Eyre |
1.01 |
These blogs had 79 or more sidebar links, with the first six having more than 100 each: tinylittlelibrarian.blog-city.com, Professional-Lurker: Comments by an academic in cyberspace, Open Stacks, Librarian's Rant, commons-blog, Collecting my Thoughts, The Ten Thousand Year Blog, The Invisible Library, scitech library question.
This is an awfully small sample, but these five blogs had outbound links within fewer than half of the first ten entries on their home pages: Caveat Lector, Librarian Avengers, The Aardvark Speaks, Feel-good Librarian, Tales from the “Liberry.”
These blogs showed more in-linking sites than the mean, but given that one well-read blog (LibraryCog) had no Technorati count at all, I question the significance of this measure:
|
The Shifted Librarian |
1,019 |
|
librarian.net |
540 |
|
Mamamusings |
424 |
|
Library Stuff |
403 |
|
ResearchBuzz |
343 |
|
Collecting my Thoughts |
294 |
|
beSpacific |
285 |
|
The Pod Bay Door |
155 |
|
Free Range Librarian |
135 |
|
Catalogablog |
133 |
|
Caveat Lector |
118 |
|
Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology |
109 |
|
The Aardvark Speaks |
101 |
Here’s the full list of those showing up in Blogpulse:
|
The Shifted Librarian |
359 |
|
beSpacific |
745 |
|
Library Stuff |
1,148 |
|
LibrarianInBlack |
1,308 |
|
librarian.net |
1,416 |
|
ResearchBuzz |
1,418 |
|
It's all good |
1,702 |
|
Caveat Lector |
1,999 |
|
Mamamusings |
2,229 |
|
Free Range Librarian |
2,503 |
|
Library clips |
3,343 |
|
Catalogablog |
3,810 |
|
The Distant Librarian |
4,261 |
|
Open Stacks |
4,591 |
|
LawLibTech |
4,995 |
|
The Aardvark Speaks |
5,255 |
|
Walt at Random |
5,398 |
|
blogwithoutalibrary.net |
5,721 |
|
blogdriverswaltz.com |
6,729 |
|
scitech library question |
6,753 |
|
Professional-Lurker: Comments by an academic in cyberspace |
7,908 |
The blogs below are listed in descending Reach order as measured in late July 2005. I was tempted to list them in alphabetic order, but that seemed silly. For each blog, I’ve provided the motto or subtitle (if there is one), the mission (if there is one), the author as named in the blog, and my own impression of the overall mix of professional, topical, and personal postings. My note about “voice” has to do with how much you “hear” the blogger in these entries—whether they’re neutral in tone or like listening to the author. I add a note about interesting metrics if any are distinctly above average or, for average post length, below average—but you should recognize that what makes a blog worthwhile is not its metrics but its content.
Where there are categories with counts of posts for the categories, I list up to five of the most frequently used categories in descending order. If there’s no list of categories it’s because there aren’t categories or the categories don’t include counts.
I’m not going to call these bloggers the “A list” because I don’t believe that term is helpful. This group reaches fairly far down the “Power Law,” such as it is, with a 23:1 ratio in “Reach” between the first and the last in the group.
Motto: Shifting libraries at the speed of byte! Mission: One-page discussion, “What is a shifted librarian?” Author: Jenny Levine. Mix of technology, library, and personal entries, strong voice.
Metrics: By far the broadest reach by any measure: #1 in every link search. #1 BlogPulse rank (359), the only four-digit Technorati site count (1,019). Many posts, essay-length posts, seventh-highest overall word count. Relatively old (January 2002).
The start date is probably wrong: Earlier archives have disappeared.
Motto: The library blog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development. No mission page. Author: Steven M. Cohen. Primarily topical, some personal; mild voice.
Metrics: Second most frequent poster (291), third highest word count, third highest BlogPulse ranking, fourth highest Technorati site count (403).
Long-established specialty blog. Motto: Search Engine News and More Since 1998. Mission: “ResearchBuzz is designed to cover the world of Internet research. To that end this site provides almost daily updates on search engines, new data managing software, browser technology, large compendiums of information, Web directories -- whatever. If in doubt, the final question is, "Would a reference librarian find it useful?" If the answer's yes, in it goes!” Author: Tara Calishain. Almost entirely professional resource postings, limited voice.
Metrics: Frequent posts, fifth highest Technorati site count, sixth highest BlogPulse ranking. The oldest blog in the study (August 1998).
No current motto; one-page discussion includes mission. Author: Jessamyn West. Professional and some personal posts with strong voice.
Metrics: Frequent posts, fairly high overall word count, second highest Technorati site count (540), fifth highest BlogPulse rank. Very old blog (April 1999).
Motto: Accurate, focused law and technology news. Mission: “beSpacific focuses on the expanding resources in the public and private sector related to law and technology news. Daily postings provide updates on issues including copyright, privacy, censorship, the Patriot Act, ID theft, and freedom of information.” Author: Sabrina L. Pacifici. Primarily resource listings with comments; subdued voice. (Pacifici also founded and runs LLRX.)
Metrics: Most frequent postings (723), shortest average post length (51 words), fifth highest overall word count; second highest BlogPulse rank (745), seventh highest Technorati site count.
Current motto: elizabeth lane lawley: yet another proud member of the reality-based community. No mission statement. Author: Elizabeth Lane Lawley. Varied academic, topical (social software), and personal posts; strong voice,
Top categories by number of posts give a sense of Lawley’s range: technology, on blogging, teaching, travel, idle thoughts.
Metrics: Fifth most intense conversations (2.98 comments per post), ninth most comments overall; longer than average posts; third highest Technorati site count (424).
Motto: Just-in-time librarianship, from K.G. Schneider. The About page implies a “mission” based on Schneider’s work and life. Mix of professional and personal posts with strong voice.
Metrics: Fourth largest overall word count, fairly long posts; fifth most comments overall, fairly high conversational level; more than 100 Technorati sites.
Subtitle: Technology & libraries (or “libraries and technology” in the metadata title). Mission: “The blog includes topics such as current and future technology uses in libraries, training tips, staff development and various other interests concerning library settings.” Author: Michael Stephens, with resume and other info directly from home page. Mostly professional and topical posts, including personal travels on professional business; strong voice.
Most frequent categories: librarians, libraries & the profession; top tech trends; LIS blogs rule!; instant messaging & chat; pursuing the PhD.
Metrics: Frequent posts and comments, high overall word count (but relatively brief posts), more than 100 Technorati sites.
Motto: resources and discussions for the “tech-librarians-by-default” among us… Mission: “I hope this site can serve as a one-stop-shop for all us Techie Librarians...web design, technology news, library world news, reference stuff, funky gadgets, and other useful (or simply amusing) sites and posts.” Author: Sarah Houghton, who chooses not to use it on the blog. Mix of professional and personal posts; moderate voice.
Metrics: Fifth most frequent poster, seventh highest comment count, high overall word count (but relatively brief posts), fourth highest BlogPulse rank.
Subtitle: “Library cataloging, classification, metadata, subject access and related topics.” Author: David Bigwood. Primarily focused professional posts strongly related to the subtitle, with subdued voice.
Metrics: Frequent posts, more than 100 Technorati sites. Relatively old blog (March 2002).
Mission: “commons-blog is an American Library Association-sponsored site collecting news, discussion, and commentary related to the information commons in theory and practice, along with announcements of updates to the info-commons.org main site.” While the editor is Frederick Emrich, most recent posts come from “misseli” (see Confessions of a Mad Librarian). Mostly topical posts with a fair amount of personal commentary and opinion, moderate voice.
Motto: Reader beware! No mission statement. Author: Dorothea Salo. Mixture of personal, professional, and topical posts, with very strong voice. Uses Latin dates and division headings on the page.
Metrics: Frequent posts, ninth highest overall word count, longer than average posts, eighth highest BlogPulse rank. Relatively old (March 2002). Generally self-contained posts (few outlinks).
Current motto: Technology + Libraries = Here. Mission (in part): “TechnoBiblio was originally created to be a resource where librarians could keep up on technology news. Since its first post in May 2003 the scope has expanded to include news and opinions that relate to technology and any part of the information science realm.”
Group blog by four authors, three of them currently or formerly associated with the Gates Foundation. Mostly professional with some personal comments; mild voice.
Metrics: Longer than average posts.
Motto: On libraries, services and networks. No stated mission. Author: Lorcan Dempsey. Professional postings with personal commentary; assured voice.
The first single-writer blog from OCLC, and the first with OCLC’s logo.
Motto: Essence, effervescence, obscurity. Mission: There is a blog manifesto, but you’ll have to read it yourself. Author: Horst Prillinger (a librarian, teacher and university lecturer in Vienna), although the “about” page also lists Haldur Gislufsson (a moose) and Richard Ellenson. The only European blog on this list, as far as I know. Mostly personal with some professional posts; vivid voice.
Metrics: Most comments (255) and fourth most extensive conversations (3.11 comments per post). Slightly more than 100 Technorati sites. Relatively old (July 2002). Self-contained posts (few outlinks).
Motto: Promoting information access and literacy for all. No mission statement. Author: Greg Schwartz. Most current postings relate to Schwartz’ podcasts, but there are other professional and personal posts; strong voice.
Most frequent categories: bloggery, podcasting, news, commentary, tangent.
Subtitle: Ideas about web searching. Mission: “SiteLines is intended to present a distillation of the most important trends, news, and new web search tools and directories.” Author: Rita Vine. Primarily topical posts related to web searching, with authorial commentary and opinion as appropriate.
Most frequent categories: Google, resources—misc., search engines—business issues, resources—health, searching—best practices.
Subtitle: a blog about what libraries are doing with blogs, rss, & other little technologies. Mission: “At bwal.net, you will find discussion about and links to some of the very interesting and engaging ways libraries are making use of blogs, RSS, and other emerging technologies to serve their users.” Author: Amanda Etches-Johnson (who is in a library, McMaster University). Mostly topical postings with appropriate personal commentary.
Metrics: Third shortest posts (64 words), fairly extensive conversations.
Mission: “the term ‘walking paper’ is a way in which i think of new(ish) information technologies. things like IM and text messaging are like active, animated paper to me. the term also is one letter away from ‘walking papers,’ something that librarians don’t want to be handed (and shouldn’t be handed, if we pay attention) because of technology.” Author: Aaron Schmidt. Mix of professional and personal posts; strong voice.
Metrics: Extensive conversations (1.81 comments per post).
Motto: Occasional postings of interest to engineering and scitech librarians. Also known as STLQ. Group site, primarily Randy Reichardt with contributions from three other science librarians. Generally professional, topical posts with some commentary.
Long list of specific categories, with these most common: publishers & publishing, in the news, open access, dbs & db producers, scholarly publishing.
Metrics: Frequent poster.
No motto or mission, possibly because the site seems partly broken. No stated author, probably because the “About” page isn’t there. Fairly strong authorial voice; mostly professional posts with commentary.
Metrics: Frequent poster. Old blog (January 2001).
Motto: The diary of a library fashionista.... Author: “absherl,” or the Lipstick Librarian. Very strong voice. More professional posts than you’d expect given the blog name, with thoughtful commentary.
Metrics: essays (400 words per post).
Mission: “A blog from 3 OCLC Online Computer Library Center staff about all things present and future that impact libraries and library users. A conversation that starts with the Environmental Scan and wanders around from there.” Group blog, all posts signed. Strong voices, mix of professional and personal posts with commentary. Article count does not include many one-photo postings. The first publicly-visible OCLC blog, but not hosted on or vetted by OCLC.
Metrics: frequent posts, eighth highest overall comments, extensive conversations, high overall word count, seventh highest BlogPulse rank.
Motto: The Blog Of An Open Source Librarian, In Which There Is No Shushing. No mission statement. Author: “Keith.” Strong voice; personal, political, and sometimes professional posts. Unabashedly liberal and an open-source advocate.
Metrics: many comments, extensive conversations, high overall word count, essay-length posts.
Motto and mission: Archivist-historian David Mattison’s musings and Web tracks on digital culture preservation issues. Author: David Mattison. Mostly wide-ranging professional/topical posts with light voice, but Mattison’s willing to express a strong and thoughtful opinion when it’s called for. Word count assigned (archives collapse long posts).
Most frequent categories: Searcher magazine threads, information knowledgists, digital libraries and collections, digital preservation, history findings.
Metrics: Fourth most frequent poster.
Subtitle: The blog of Dan Greene. Mission: “Library Monk is: Thoughts of Dan Greene on Library and Information Science, Information Technology, web design, life, religion and perhaps monks.” Author: Dan Greene. Personal, wide-ranging topical, sometimes professional posts, with strong voice.
Most common categories: thoughts on life, of interest online, information technology, library monk news, libraries.
Motto: Resources for librarians who are interested in the application of web design and technologies in libraries. No mission statement, empty About page. Author: “Coombs, K. A.” based on articles and presentations page. Wide-ranging mix of professional and personal posts with solid (heavy first person) voic.
Most frequent categories: general thoughts, notes from the field, library systems, CSS, usability. (Note that “general thoughts” has twice as many entries as all other categories combined.)
Metrics: extensive conversation.
Subtitle: A forum for discussion of library and information topics and interests by a rank amateur, a dilettante and a gadabout. No mission. Although by no means anonymous, author identified only as “misseli” in posts (no About page). Wide-ranging, mix of professional and personal, strong voice.
It’s worth pointing out that Eli Edwards, misseli, has been the primary author at commons-blog for some time.
Metrics: Extensive conversations, longer than average post length.
Motto: I’m a bibliomaniacal palindrome! No mission, quixotic About page. Pseudonymous. Mix of personal and professional entries (with strong emphasis on anime) with strong voice.
Metrics: fourth-highest number of comments, extensive conversations.
Motto: Libraries, music, net media, cruising, policy, and other stuff not quite ready for Cites & Insights. No mission. Author: Walt Crawford. Odd mix of personal, randomly topical, and (rarely) professional postings; strong voice.
Most frequent categories: net media, libraries, writing and blogging, stuff, movies and TV.
Metrics: third-highest number of comments, sixth most extensive conversations (2.92 comments per post), fifth-longest essays (446 words), eighth-highest overall word count. Young blog (April 2005).
Motto: open source systems for libraries. “Our mission is to cultivate the collaborative power of open source software engineering to build better and free systems for use in libraries. Toward this end, we maintain a listing of free software and systems designed for libraries (the physical, books-on-shelves kind), and we track news about project updates or related issues of interest.” Author: Dan Chudnov and various volunteers. Nearly dormant topical blog with light voice.
Motto: Links, commentary, and other musings by a serialist. No mission or About page. Author: Anna Creech (each post signed in full). Mix of personal and professional postings, with moderate voice. Word count assigned: archives collapse posts.
Most frequent categories: library, blog, political, it’s all about me, books.
Metrics: relatively old (June 2002).
Subtitle and mission: Issues concerning libraries and the law - with latitude to discuss any other interesting issues Note: Not legal advice - just a dangerous mix of thoughts and information. Brought to you by Mary Minow, J.D., A.M.L.S. [California, U.S.] Author: Mary Minow (and three contributors). Mostly professional, with voice as appropriate. Word count low: Some very long posts partially hidden. One of the premier posts relating law and librarianship.
Metrics: many comments, active conversations.
Subtitle: Essays, stories, poetry, memories, comments on the news. No mission or About page. Author: “Norma.” (Norma Bruce, not particularly hidden.) Almost entirely personal and right-wing political, with very strong voice.
Metrics: Highest overall word count (61,823 words), third most frequent poster, second most frequent comments, active conversations.
Subtitle and mission: “For librarians and people interested in search engines, searching the net, designing web pages, new utilities and so on. Short commentaries, keeping you up to date with the world of internet search and design.” Author: Phil Bradley. Almost entirely focused news items with light voice; largely brief items (the word count is correct).
Metrics: Frequent poster, second shortest posts (57 words).
Motto: WebJunction’s niche in the blogosphere. Group blog, four authors. Mix of topics, largely WebJunction-related, with fairly strong voices. Word count assigned: Collapsed archives.
Most frequent categories (of six total): online collaboration, news, library services, tech.
Metrics: young blog (April 2005).
No motto (except on a linked page, “our metadata can beat up your metadata.” Mission: “Librarian Avengers started in 1998 with an essay titled ‘Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian.’ I was working in a digital library at the time, and the overwhelming response from the amazing and warm library community was one of the things that propelled me into grad school. I blogged grad school (I promise to put the archives up someday), made some t-shirts, and now there's this.” Author: Erica Olsen. Mix of professional and personal entries, with strong voice.
Metrics: Third most extensive conversations (3.16 comments per posts), frequent comments. Generally self-contained posts (few outlinks).
Mission and author/editors: “Professional tips for librarians: Articles, job-hunting advice, professional development opportunities, and other news and ideas on how to further your library career. Compiled by the Library Job People, Sarah Johnson and Rachel Singer Gordon.” Almost entirely notices of events and opportunities, with very little voice or commentary.
Metrics: Frequent posts, tenth-highest overall word count.
Mission and author: “Welcome to Online Insider ... the editorial blog by Marydee Ojala, Editor of ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals. ONLINE Insider intends to extend the reach of the print publication, presenting a more timely commentary on the products, people, and events that shape today's online world. It explores new technologies as they impact the working lives of information professionals, explains resources for specific topic areas, and expounds on information management tools and techniques.” Primarily topical with moderate voice. Surrounded by Information Today stuff.
Metrics: young (January 2005).
Mission and author: “Blog of librarian Michael Lorenzen discussing library user education, library instruction, librarianship, information literacy, and search engines. Also covers other observations on life in general.” Much as stated; fairly strong voice.
Subtitle: A bibliophile's musings on books, libraries, the world, life, and anything else that comes to mind. Author: “Jane.” Mix of personal and professional, with strong voice.
Metrics: Tenth highest number of comments.
Mission contained within the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, for which this serves as an update/announcement service. Fortnightly postings with extensive lists of citations relevant to the topic. Author: Charles W. Bailey, Jr.; light voice.
Metrics: Second longest posts, but that’s misleading: Each “post” has many individual subposts. Old blog (June 2001).
Motto: it's like, you know, library systems and stuff.... Author: Art Rhyno, although that’s not evident on the blog. Professional bent with strong voice, very few, very long essays.
Metrics: Most extensive conversations (3.6 comments per post), longest essays (2,362 words per post). Young blog (January 2005).
Motto: Why we do this. Author not stated. Mostly essays about life in the library; strong voice.
Metrics: Second most extensive conversations (3.48 comments per post), fourth longest essays (482 words per post). Young (February 2005). Generally self-contained posts (few outlinks).
No subtitle or stated mission. Author: Randy Reichardt. Wide-ranging posts with strong voice.
Most frequent categories: film, miscellaneous, random thoughts, music, blogging.
Metrics: frequent comments, eighth most extensive conversations (2.32 comments per post), relatively long posts, more than 100 Technorati sites.
Subtitle: A librarian and tech geek reflecting on the profession and the tools we use to serve our patrons. Author: Meredith Farkas. Mix of professional and personal posts with strong voice. The starting date and other counts may be off: “Previous posts” resulted in a 404, and there are no archives.
Most frequent categories: our digital future, libraries, job search, random, blogging.
Metrics: extensive conversations.
Subtitle: An ongoing exploration of the intersection of popular culture and libraries. Mission: “We're public librarians. We believe libraries can learn from and use Pop Culture to improve their collections, services, and public image. We love TV, music, the movies, comic books, anime, magazines, all things Net...you get the picture.” Group blog (three authors). Most posts relate media to libraries, but with some additional range. Strong voices.
Metrics: frequent comments, fairly extensive conversations, higher-than-average overall word count, fairly long posts.
Mission: “I like the idea of being able to share my findings, ideas and opinions about librarianship, life and everything in between in an open forum that encourages dialogue. This is blogging - plain and simple. It’s fun to have a voice in a non-traditional form of publishing. A timely form of publishing. A form of publishing subjected to a different sort of peer review than we might traditionally think of in academic conversation.” Author: Geoff Harder. Mix of posts, strong voice. Start date unclear.
Metrics: extensive conversations.
I’ve included here blogs that, while not scoring in the top 50 (well, 48) on the final “reach” measure, were in the top 40 of either Bloglines subscriptions or the top 30 in Google links, MSN links, or AllTheWeb links. Any of these—and, arguably, others as well—could belong in the “top 50.”
Motto: Planning the Revolution… Mission and author: “The Librarian's Rant is the steam let off by Louise, a public reference librarian lost in the Heartland.” Wide mix of posts, strong voice.
Motto: A librarian riding the shift. Mission: “The long-term plan for this site will include a resume, portfolio, and hopefully all kinds of other fun, including something I'm brewing in the back of my head as ‘Extreme Reference Challenge.’ More on that later, so keep coming back.” Author: Andrea Mercado. Mix of professional and personal posts, moderate voice.
Subtitle: Musings of a too-short girl in the high-stacks game of librarianship... Very anonymous. Mostly posts about life in the writer’s library, with some other professional and personal posts; strong voice. Word count is assigned: archives collapse text.
Metrics: sixth most frequent comments, seventh most active conversations (2.37 comments per post).
Subtitle: Comments on the world of Distance Librarianship. Author: Paul R. Pival. Focused blog, primarily posts on distance librarianship, moderate voice.
Metrics: frequent comments, essayist.
Subtitle: comments by an academic in cyberspace. Author: Louis Ann Scheidt. Mostly professional, moderate voice.
Metrics: frequent posts, second-highest overall word count, essayist.
Subtitle: Cool stuff about library web sites - usability, searching, new technologies, design ... and whatever else I decide to post :-). Author: David King. Mostly professional posts with moderate voice.
No subtitle. Mission statement: “The Laughing Librarian website just is, okay?” (With an excellent gloss.) Author: Brian Smith, “who is not ‘The Laughing Librarian’.” Very much on topic with moderate voice.
Subtitle and mission: “An employee of a small town ‘liberry’ chronicles his eternal quest to remain sane while dealing with patrons who could double as extras in a David Lynch film.” Author: “Juice,” anonymous for good reason. Most posts are vivid essays about the users of a small West Virginia library, with a few personal posts from the author’s own life.
Metrics: Sixth-highest overall word count, third-longest essays (532 words per post). Generally self-contained blog (few outlinks).
No subtitle or mission. Author: “katrina.” When this blog is active—it varies widely—it’s a wide mix of library, “infomusings,” and personal entries, with moderate voice.
Metrics: relatively old (January 2002).
No subtitle. Mission: “This blog is a space for me to share some ideas, thoughts, and feedback…from a librarian’s point of view.” Author: “johnt” Mostly topical posts related to various internet-and-library topics, moderate voice.
Metrics: relatively long posts. Young (February 2005).
Subtitle: For those interested in knowing more about the Philippines, Filipiniana, Philippine libraries and Filipino librarians. Motto: “I can't change Filipino librarians,but I can change the way you look at us.” Author: “vonjobi.” Wide range of library-related posts with a Filipino slant, moderate voice.
Metrics: young (February 2005).
Subtitle: A conversation on law library technology and knowledge management. No mission statement. Author: Cindy L. Chick. Primarily topical with moderate voice.
Metrics: relatively long posts.
What does it mean? A few points are obvious:
Ø Most library-oriented blogs aren’t in traditional “A list” categories, although The Shifted Librarian comes close.
Ø Quite a few library-oriented blogs have fairly broad reach—sometimes outside the library community (again, The Shifted Librarian stands out) but mostly within the community.
Ø There’s no single model for a librarian blog. beSpacific churns out more than two dozen very brief pointers a day; Tales from the “Liberry” offers a 500-word commentary on the charms of small library life four or five times a week. librarian.net maintains extended conversations of sorts despite not accepting comments directly; several blogs (including mine) are substantially enriched by frequent, thoughtful comments.
How many of these 60 blogs fall into the idle chatter and semiliterate categories attacked by people who should know better? A few are rich in the personal lives of the bloggers, but most aren’t. I wouldn’t accuse any of these bloggers of lacking writing skills. I would be hard-pressed to choose even a dozen I don’t consider worthwhile.
I was reading posts from 231 library-related blogs during part of this evaluation—and although I’ve been unsubscribing little by little, more than 150 are still there. Most, to be sure, don’t post very often. Of the 60 profiled here, there may be six or eight that I’ll eventually unsubscribe, but in at least half the cases that’s because they focus on an area I don’t much care about at the moment.
The Shifted Librarian isn’t worth reading because it tops all the reach metrics. It’s the other way around: it tops all the reach metrics because Jenny Levine cares deeply about “shifting,” a whole range of digital technologies, and how they might interact with libraries—and has no qualms about letting you know what she thinks. She’s become widely read outside the library community. I may and do disagree with her at times—and when I do, I say so, because she’s worth paying attention to.
That’s the extreme example. Don’t try to take away my feed from Caveat Lector or The Aardvark Speaks or LibrarianInBlack or It’s all good (or hangingtogether, way too new for the study)—those and many other voices enrich my life and my understanding of a range of issues and ideas.
I didn’t track gender of bloggers while doing the study, because I didn’t much care. But since it seems to be a big deal within some segments of the community, so here’s the summary:
Of the 20 blogs in Group 1, 10 are clearly by women, 7 by men, 3 groups. Group 2 is evenly split: 11 each, 6 unknown or groups. Group 3 has five women, four men, three unknown or groups.
Overall, that’s 26 women, 22 men, and 12 unknown or groups out of the 60 considered here. You can look at the overall percentage of women in librarianship and say that’s low; you can look at the percentage of women in the technological side of librarianship and conclude that it’s about right.
I’d love to extend this study to the top half of the list, or at least the top hundred, but time doesn’t permit that. Sorry, Tinfoil + Raccoon, DigitalKoans, Library Dust, Travelin’ Librarian, and others—I had to limit the scope of this particular study. Maybe someone else will pick it up. Maybe I’ll do another one in a year or two to see how the biblioblogosphere has changed.
If you’re unaware of blogs in this particular “top 50,” you might try a few of them—both spreadsheets include URLs accurate as of late July 2005. But don’t stop there: Sample a few other blogs that sound interesting. Most aggregators make it as easy to unsubscribe as to subscribe.
If your favorite blog (or your own blog) isn’t here, so what? If it’s doing something worthwhile to a few people (or a few hundred people), who cares if it isn’t reaching the multitudes?
Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, Volume 5, Number 10, Whole Issue 66, ISSN 1534-0937, a journal of libraries, policy, technology and media, is written and produced by Walt Crawford, a senior analyst at RLG.
Cites & Insights is sponsored by YBP Library Services, http://www.ybp.com.
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