I find that the benefit of a blog is as follows. One can have a blog with a professional appearance in a manner of minutes for free. If you don't like the quasi "canned" look, that can be tweaked by someone with even moderate web design skills. Your blog can serve as a combination newsletter/website/feedback form that can be easily updated from anywhere that you have an internet connection. While it doesn't take the place of your full featured website, it is a great tool for disseminating information in a timely manner. As a librarian, dispensing information in a timely fashion is essential. This tool allows the user to rise above the entanglements of domains, web design software, isps, access issues, and security issues and communicate with their clients, patrons, students, etc. While all of those "entanglements" have their usefulness in context, in the information age, currency of information is crucial.

I discovered a great blog titled iLibrarian. It has an attractive design and is up to date. The latest entry is February 11, 2008 with three entries for that date(today's date) and each entry is useful. I only scrolled through the first page of entries, and didn't see anything that I didn't want to read. That could be dangerous. On the first page there is a list of "Most popular posts", another attractive time saving feature. The entries are immediately identifiable by their titles, are short and to the point, and include valuable links. Finally, it is colorful and includes photographs, charts, screenshots, and tables. It includes links to other blogs and based on the credibility of this site I would be likely to check out the other blogs listed there.

I also discovered a great wiki titled, Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. It is organized by type of library, and it allows the user to view the most recent changes. It appeared to be accessible for editing, and provides hundreds of links to other library blogs, wikis, and websites.