I love UThink: Blogs at the University Libraries at the University of Minnesota. This project has been around since fall of 2003 and offers anyone affiliated with that institution the ability to create a blog hosted by the Libraries. UThink uses Movable Type.

There are a number of things to admire about this project. First, there is Shane Nackerud, the voice of UThink. Shane populates the UThink support blog with news, tips, facts and figures, and cheers on the project with an infectious enthusiasm. Shane creates a palpable sense of community. Then, there is the ease of use. Integration of Movable Type into the campus X.500 authentication system offers users easy logins and the creation of a blog in just a few steps. The project consistently moves forward with new features, one of which is a support wiki.

The program has been wildly successful. Check out the UThnk Directory, which offers a myriad of stats. As of today, for example, 3321 blogs have been created by a total of 7607 authors. That's a whole lotta blogs and a whole lotta authors.

Probably my favorite thing about UThink is its stated project goals: "to promote intellectual freedom, to help build communities of interest on campus, to investigate the connections between blogging and the traditional academic enterprise, and to retain the cultural memory of the institution."

When a library decides to invest itself in a project, a number of questions need to be asked, including "Is it worthwhile?" and "Can this be done just as well elsewhere?" I'll never forget the time many years ago when I proposed that my library buy its first Web server and break away from the campus Web hosting service. One of our systems people told me that my proposal failed his systems analysis because our site was already being hosted by Academic Computing so there was nothing to be gained. Once this view was overriden and we did get our own server (now an entire server room), he and many others discovered that there was actually much we could do that was unique. We could offer a number of services and technologies to both staff developers and users that were not available elsewhere. We could put our own stamp on our Web presence as a library with its own set of goals and a deep understanding of our unique responsibilities on campus.

This is a good answer to those who might question whether the Libraries at the University of Minnesota would have been just as wise if they had urged their community to use Blogger or any of a number of third-party freebie services. UThink is one of the great examples of an academic library positioning itself at the center of change in scholarly communication, doing the hard work of facilitating that change, investigating its processes, and preserving the results.