International phenomenon? Amateur journalism? Legal minefield?

Abstract

The Weblog (blog) is a form of online diary or regularly updated journal which can take a number of forms that tend to have a number of characteristics in common, such as: being set up to display blog postings in reverse-chronological order or with their content arranged by subject; being updated regularly with new material; and providing a personal viewpoint. A major attraction of Weblogs is their relative ease of construction/updating and the lack of the need for any special skills in web design or of HTML coding; the Weblog software, such as MSN Spaces (www.msnspaces.com), Movable Type (www.movabletype.org/) or Typepad (www.typepad.com), takes care of these matters in the same way that it organizes the allocation of space on servers. There is considerable scope for libraries to exploit Weblogs: to keep their users informed about library news, services and resources; to attract traffic to a library’s Web site; to improve the Web site’s search engine positioning; and to disseminate information to library staff. In the case of librarians/information professionals Weblogs have a number of applications, such as: providing news that is not readily available elsewhere; keeping currently aware of what other professionals are thinking, writing about and linking to; keeping abreast of current affairs and news stories; and providing a useful starting point to obtaining more information. A list of typical library and information science (LIS) Weblogs is included, together with notes on promotion and marketing, legal implications, corporate Weblogs and feeds.