Various colleagues have asked me why I do it…and I sometimes have wondered myself! Back when I started this blog in October 2006 I said in my first post that I wanted "…to create a dialogue - with our Palos Verdes community, with PVLD staff and volunteers, with colleagues in other libraries, and with other interested and interesting people. I plan to use the blog to share information about what is going on around PVLD and the communities we serve, to share my thoughts about the challenges and opportunities I/we face as librarians, as managers and leaders, and as citizens of today's networked world, and to get input from those who are interested enough to read and respond."
That still is one of my goals, but as the blog has passed its one year anniversary with growing readership, I've been thinking how much I have gained from the experience.
Once you start a blog there is a certain obligation to have something to say! This as much as anything has motivated me to make a real effort to read about and think about issues affecting libraries and librarianship beyond my former rather cursory scans of Library Journal and American Libraries. It has also pushed me to experiment with things like social networking, mobile computing, etc.
Also, writing has always been my vehicle for learning and for developing understanding. There is a famous quote (which I have seen attributed to both Raymond Carver and E.M. Forster) that describes my learning process very well - "How do I know what I think until I see what I've said?" Something about the act of turning thoughts into words on a page or screen helps me turn pieces of information into coherent thoughts and real knowledge.
I came across this quote from Danah Boyd and it crystallized why this blog is so important to me - "In order to exist online we must write ourselves into being"
That is exactly what this blog has done for me – it has caused me to write my "librarian self" into being. I think the fact that this has been done via an online medium is key. I'm not sure I would have been able to learn as much, think as much, and grow as much as I feel I have in the past couple of years without the blog-driven obligation to have something meaningful to say. I've tried keeping journals, but usually find that when I write for my eyes only there is not the incentive to read or think very deeply or broadly and so what I write is pretty meaningless even to me…and that means that I quickly abandon the effort. It's not that what I write on this blog is particularly meaningful or profound - it certainly wouldn't be worthy of publication in the "old days" of print media - but for me the knowledge that at least a handful of people are reading what I write and my sense of obligation to provide those readers with something meaningful has been a powerful force for personal learning and growth…learning and growth that I don't think would have occurred without this new world of "web 2.0".
I have to think that I am not alone - that among the hundreds of thousands of bloggers, Facebook and MySpace members, and other citizens of the social web are others who are finding their voices and "writing themselves into being"; that among the Flickr and YouTube uploaders those whose learning is driven by visuals and imagery are picturing themselves into being; and that among the World of Warcraft players and 2nd Life avatars those who learn through movement and experiences are creating and playing themselves into being.
In the ongoing debate about Library 2.0 and the relevance/appropriateness of online social networking for libraries and for communities I hope that the profound role that these new ways of interacting can play in personal growth and learning are not underestimated. They not only are a way to connect people with one another and, often through one another, to information. They are a way of connecting with ourselves.
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