Blogs can also be used as a tool to present a particular collection or document from the repository as a form of online exhibition. Using blogs in this way allows those repositories without the IT resources to host online exhibitions to achieve a similar effect.
When I first looked at organisational blogs for my dissertation last year I could find few examples of archival organisational blogs and almost none in the UK apart from the Archives Hub. Possible reasons for this scarcity could have been a general lack of knowledge, the fact that it is harder to organise an institutional blog than it is to blog personally and organisations do not have time to blog and many are unsure of what a blog should contain or its purpose.
However, in the last year I have discovered many new organisational blogs which is encouraging as when done correctly an organisational blog can provide a secondary public face for an organisation, one that may be more accessible and less formal than the official website.
Some examples of organisational blogs include:
An organisational blog gives a repository the opportunity to promote collections and provide interesting and useful information about the repository. Some organisations use their blogs to announce new accessions, an archival item of the month/week and showcase digital images.
So there are lots of blogs out there but within the archival community there are two main categories of archival blogs - personal blogs by archivists and repository blogs.
Personal blogs are used by archivists either to document their daily working lives and studies or to give themselves a platform to discuss archival issues that they feel are important and sometimes both. This blog falls into the category of personal blogs as I'm writing for my own specific purpose to help with my conference presentation.
Personal blogs by archivists are written for the same reasons that anyone writes a personal blog which in turn are similar to the reasons why people keep journals and diaries. A closer look at why people blog examines the motivations behind blogging in more detail.
Some examples of personal blogs by archivists include:
It seems natural to start this introduction of Web 2.0 tools with blogs as they have become one of the most popular and pervasive technologies. Statistics provided by Technorati show that as of April 2007, they were tracking 70 million blogs and had recorded a growth of 120,000 new blogs every day and 17 new posts per second.
So, there's a lot of blogs out there but what is a blog?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a blog as: "a frequently updated web site consisting of personal observations, excerpts from other sources, etc., typically run by a single person, and usually with hyperlinks to other sites; an online journal or diary."
Blogs are used to discuss different topics from the personal to the political. The community of bloggers is known as the blogosphere and there's a healthy archivist presence out there, with a mix of personal blogs and professional organisational ones. Through these blogs, issues are raised and discussed within the blogging community, such as professional duties, digitisation, improving services and in some cases Web 2.0.
Why not?
Instead of listing the many benefits that Web 2.0 applications can bring (which I will go into when looking at particular apps). I think that archivists should show a willingness to give Web 2.0 a try. Many of the applications are free and easy to use so are perfect to experiment with.
Moreover, the opportunities that Web 2.0 technologies offer are not a threat to core professional values, instead they offer a more exciting and dynamic way of engaging with users.
If that hasn't persuaded you, how about this statement, given as the reason for engaging with Web 2.0 at the Brooklyn Museum:
"the era of control is over: you can either stay in the bunker, or you can try and participate. And to not participate is criminal"
A montage of Web 2.0 logos assembled by Stabilo Boss.Hopefully this blog will do what it says on the tin and watch out for items on the web that may be of interest to archivists and records managers.
I intend to focus on Web 2.0 technologies, look at what they can do for archives and point to some of the excellent examples of Web 2.0 uses in archives and the wider information management/heritage sectors.
In addition, this blog will help me to gather my thoughts and keep track of the items I plan to discuss as part of my presentation at the Society of Archivists conference in August.
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