Dear all,

Thank you to all those who took part in the recent survey carried out by
Loughborough University Library to investigate the use of weblogs in HE
institutions. Everyone was vey helpful in providing additional information
to our questions as well as suggestions for other resources and sources for
us to consider.  Our findings, so far, for those that have expressed an
interest in seeing these are detailed below.

A request to lis-link for information about weblog use in Academic
Libraries, to be delivered via an online survey during the period 21.04.04 -
10.05.04, resulted in a total of 18 responses from a possible 142
Universities in the UK (source: The University of Wolverhampton UK Sensitive
Maps http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/ukinfo/uk.map.html). This represents a
response rate of 13%.

The results of the survey are summarized below. The vast majority of
respondent's institutions do not have a blog at present and only a small
percentage stated that this would be something to consider for the future.
Those institutions that currently have a blog report a similar uses for it,
namely current awareness.

18 responses were received, of these: 11% (2) had a blog and 89% (16) did
not.

Of the 16 that did not have a blog: 69% (11) had not considered having one,
25% (4) will be considering one in the future and 6% (1) thought a blog was
not appropriate for them.

General questions about the blog
2 surveys were returned confirming that the respondent's institution had a
blog. Site A has had a blog for 1-2 years; site B for less than a year. Both
list the purpose of the blog as being to maintain current awareness, with
site A's blog additionally providing support for studies within the college.
Both blogs are aimed at a range of audiences. A blog was chosen as a format
for the presentation of information as it is an easy to use system, with new
content that is easy to locate. Blogs also fosters a sense of community
amongst users and visitors. A blog has not replaced other forms of
communication, like e-mail, newsletters or Web sites but acts as a
complementary source. Site A utilizes all three of these methods to
publicise content available on the others. Site B's blog is a new resource
so does not replace other means of communication it acts along side them.
Each resource is aimed at a different audience and has a different focus for
information. Site A utilises the multiple author facility blogs offer while
site B values its content management features.

Technical questions
Two different blog tools were in use, Weblogger for site A and iBlog for
site B, although the latter is soon to move over to typePad. Site A's blog
is hosted by its provider and is freely available to the public. It features
a title line and comments. Site B is hosted on a personal server and is also
publicly accessible. More features are available including title, calendar,
search, comments, RSS, categories and archives. The Weblogger publishing
tool does not offer all of these options but has recently been re-launched
with additional features including: built in comments and e-mail alert for
new content.

Managing the blog
Both sites feature daily updates with a single academic/subject librarian
posting content to site B and between two and 5 individuals posting to site
A. This site tended to have one main contributor with the remainder posting
content to the blog much less frequently. Neither of the blogs content is
moderated. Site A weeds content when appropriate; Site B retains all
entries. Both encourage visitors to give feedback via the comments link and
an e-mail address on the blog. Site A noted that 'Verbal comments "in
passing" are more frequent.' A full range of users can provide feedback but
site A requires users 'to join' before adding comments on the blog. Both
sites collected access count statistics and site B also gathers details of
the number of entries and comments posted. Both responded that one of the
main advantages of the blog was that it was quick to use. Site B valued its
high profile while site A reported that it was 'tailored for relevance to
community.'

Additional information
Other comments via e-mail expressed interest in the results of the survey
and also recommended some useful resources:

  a.. Peter Scott's list of Library Weblogs:
http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html.
  b.. Dr L. Anne Clyde's list of articles and resources, The University of
Iceland: http://www.hi.is/~anne/weblogs.html.
  c.. Ian Winship's article Weblogs and RSS in information work, Library +
Information Update, May 2004.
  d.. Karen McAulay's article on Whittaker Live to be published in Brio
magazine.

Yours in appreciation,
Ruth Stubbings and Sue Manuel

Ruth Stubbings, Academic Services Manager
Sue Manuel, Library IT Support Officer
Pilkington Library, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU
(01509) 222345