What do pafa.net, Pop Goes the Library, eclectic librarian, ishush, A Passion for ‘Puters, Dojo of the Library Ninja and poesy galore have in common?
The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: Introductory Offer
You’ll find this and more in The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look.
This 285-page 6×9 trade paperback looks at 607 liblogs (nearly all English-language) and, for most of them, how they’ve changed from 2007 to 2008.
It’s the most comprehensive look at liblogs ever done–and the only one I know of that shows how they’re changing from year to year.
From now through January 15, 2009, and only from Lulu, The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 is available for $22.50 plus shipping.
On January 16 or thereabouts, that price will go up to $35.00. If and when the book is available on Amazon, it will immediately sell for $35.00.
Chapter 1: The Liblog Landscape
The first chapter introduces my naive hypotheses on liblogs and how they’re changing (I was right and wrong), “typical” liblogs (there’s no such thing), metrics and quintiles used in the book, how I assembled the universe of liblogs–and some descriptive elements for the 607 blogs.
Descriptive elements? Things that aren’t part of the regular metrics but may be worth noting. What blog programs do bloggers use? (The top two are closer together than I would have thought.) How many bloggers provide full names–and how many group blogs are there? What about typography? How are liblog authors distributed by affiliation? By country? By age?
One graphical note along the way: Two figures show precisely the same data–the age of blogs within the study–but one is extremely difficult to interpret while the other is crystal-clear. The difference? One graphs age by month, the other by year. (The peak year for new liblogs was 2005–not 2006, which is what I expected to find.)
Who’s here (Part 1)
Here are the first 50 liblogs (alphabetically, with no other significance), including the number of times each is mentioned in the index–which, subtracting one for the liblog profile, is the number of “exceptional” entries about the liblog.
- 025.431: The Dewey blog [3]
- 101 Tips for School Librarians [3]
- The Aardvark Speaks [3]
- Aaron the Librarian [2]
- Ab’s Blog [1]
- AbsTracked [1]
- Academic Librarian [3]
- ACRL Insider [2]
- ACRLog [4]
- aczafra.com [2]
- ADHD Librarian [3]
- Adventures in Library Land [1]
- affordance.info [7]
- ALA Editions [1]
- ALA Marginalia [1]
- ALA TechSource Blog [2]
- Alaska Bush Library Service [1]
- Alaskan Librarian [2]
- All Things Amy [1]
- All-Purpose BiblioBlawg [3]
- Alone in the Archives [1]
- Alternative Teen Services [5]
- always learning [8]
- Anarchist Librarian [1]
- Angels have the phone box [4]
- Annoyed Librarian[ 10]
- Archivalia [2]
- archivematica [1]
- ArchivesNext [7]
- The Armorer’s CodeX [3]
- Assemble Me [2]
- At Home He’s a Tourist
- @ the library [3]
- Atomic Librarian [6]
- Attempting Elegance [8]
- Au Courant [2]
- The Audiophile Librarian [1]
- Baby Boomer Librarian [2]
- Bad Girl Librarian [2]
- Bad Librarianship Now! [7]
- BeanWorks [1]
- Belgrade and Beyond [2]
- Ben Ostrowsky, Systems Librarian [1]
- BentleyBlog [5]
- beSpacific [4]
- Beyond the Job [3]
- Biblioblather [2]
- Bibliographic Wilderness [2]
- BiblioTech Web [2]
Hint
You’ll find the answer on page 71.
Here’s a question for you Walt.
What are the most blogs that any one blogger is associated with?
Is it you. I think you blog under 3 or 4 different titles – although you tend to offer the same post at all of them – at times (mostly announcements).
I blog for 3 separate blogs.
Is there anyone who blogs for more than 3 – and contributes completely different material at all of them?
Steven:
Definitely not me. This is really my only personal blog.
C&I Updates (http://cical.blogspot.com/) is used exclusively to announce new issues of Cites & Insights and, once in a while, new books. It exists mostly because I started C&I years before I ever thought of blogging.
There’s a sort-of blog as part of LISNews, but that just repeats C&I Updates posts, basically, and I haven’t counted elements of LISNews as being separate blogs.
I also “have” one work blog, PLN Highlights, used entirely to post highlights of the PALINET Leadership Network. I don’t think of that as my blog; it’s part of the work day.
There are bloggers with at least eight different blogs, but not all of them within the library field. And there are bloggers who–like you–have their own blogs but also actively participate in group blogs.
Within the “Liblog Landscape” as I defined it in this case, a quick scan of author names within the index (noting that I would only index authors for single-author and maybe two-author blogs, not group blogs), I see several authors with two blogs (any of whom may be involved in one or several group blogs), at least one with three (Rachel Singer Gordon, but one of those three is a two-author blog)…and one with four, but I almost missed her because three of the four are profiled on the same page.
Kathleen de la Peña McCook has four different blogs, and as far as I know she handles them independently: Librarian, Librarian 2, A LIBRARIAN AT THE KITCHEN TABLE, and Union Librarian. (As usual, I use the orthography of the blog itself, SHOUTING and all.)
I’m sure there are library people who contribute to five or more library-related blogs (particularly when you include library blogs), but as far as I know McCook’s the peak case for liblogs.
Ok.
Thanks for sharing that look into busy bloggers.
Now that I mention it I wonder if someone with multiple blogs manages to keep them all active on a regular basis. You can have multiple blogs – but if you don’t post to them regularly, well…
Steven