Despite the popularity of blogs, they are still an underutilized tool in academic libraries. From what I can tell, blogs are most commonly used for posting news and events. This is evident from personal observation, and is also represented on the list of academic library blogs on the Blogging Libraries Wiki. You can also find blogs that focus on content related to a specific discipline, featuring both existing and new resources. These two types of blogs appear to cover much of academic library blogging.

There are other types of blogs that I'd like to see in larger numbers. For the sake of argument, I'll call these conversational blogs whose purpose is to discuss issues with users and encourage their feedback.

Director blogs. There is a handful out there, based on the list of library director blogs also on the Blogging Libraries Wiki. Few of these come from the academic library world. The ones listed here are good, and the best are the ones in which the directors engage their readers in dialogues about their library. The blog of Jeffrey Trzeciak, University Librarian at McMaster's University, is a good example of one that mixes ruminations about current issues with remarks about the state of things in his library.

I want to see directors blogs that serve as an informal conversational medium for directors and their constituencies. I want directors to welcome an online format with which many of their users are comfortable. I want directors to display their openness to using this format to reach out, publicly and regularly. I want directors blogs to demystify top management. I want these blogs to reveal a director who is working to forge a library that offers collections and services that users need and want. I want directors to reveal their thoughts about what they envision for their library. I want directors to show that they are reading interesting articles, attending conferences from which they learn, observing what other institutions are doing, and tuning into the issues of the day. I want directors to use their blogs to reflect on plans or ideas the library is considering, and to welcome comments before something is implemented.

Assistant director/middle manager blogs. I have the same wants here as above. Assistant directors and department heads (whatever your library calls them) are closer to the action than directors, and I want them to converse with users about their operations. I want these managers to explain current issues and how their staff is dealing with them. Budgets, policies, resources, issues, plans, changes, frustrations, failures and successes - there is so much going on that managers can relate to users.

Blogs for public service points. I want the heads of public service points and their staff to converse with the users who interact with them. I want their blogs to relate the ongoing stream of phenomena that make up the life of any active unit. I want to see these blogs offer advice on using the service. I want these blogs to announce new developments and ask for feedback about plans in the works. I want these blogs to serve as a clearinghouse of user concerns, questions, and maybe even thanks.

What strikes me about all this is the fact that we do reveal a part of ourselves on our Web sites. But as I've noted before, these sites are one-way streets. Their content is fairly static. It's hardly possible to converse on a typical library Web site, and this is one of its greatest limitations. We also tell our stories in PR publications, but these exist to make us look good. There's nothing wrong with that, but there is much more we can share.