What do Hospital Librarians Have Against Blogs?
Melissa Rethlefsen sees some interesting trends in her analysis of the results of the MLA’s social networking survey.
It appears that hospital librarians are not especially fond of blogs.
And so many MedLib bloggers are hospital librarians! Mark Rabnett, Dean Giustini and Michelle Kraft are just a few favorites who come to mind right away.
What would help explain the differences in attitudes towards these tools between hospital and academic medical librarians?
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October 24th, 2007 at 10:35 am
i have worked both sides of the fence – seven years in academics and going on two in hospital and i have observed that people in academic libraries have way more freedom to surf than those of us at hospitals. the internet use policies here are pretty strict and they filter heavily. we are not even allowed to check our personal email from a hospital machine.
we have also been discouraged from doing our own blogging for fear we might say something about work or the institution that could be used against it.
i don’t think it’s a disdain for blogs as much as i think it’s an effect of a much more “locked down” culture.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Ahhhh. Thanks, Stacy!
October 24th, 2007 at 11:32 am
It leads me to wonder if there is a difference in blog use between academic librarians with and without faculty status. Librarians with faculty status may be more influenced by the concept of academic freedom and the ability to speak freely about the institution they work for.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
In addition to Stacy’s comment I suspect that hospital librarians are not so much “against” blogs as they are strapped for time. Often times hospital librarian’s are solo librarians or in libraries with small staffs and often time don’t have enough time to get their “job description” work done let alone read or post to blogs. I know my work life has gotten extremely busy over the past few months and I don’t have enough time to post to my blog regularly let alone read other blogs on a consistent basis. Academic libraries tend to be bigger, with more staff and perhaps more time to explore new technologies.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I think Stacy is partially on the money. I think hospital computers are so locked down by IT that it takes a small persistant army to do anything technology wise. This effects the usage of blogs and other technology, but it also effects the person’s willingness to even look at or experiment with technology.
If you are constantly told no about everything regarding new technology, eventually you are going to be resistant to learning something you can’t use anyway.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Stacy and Michelle definitely have points, I think-
But I do very little of this stuff from work. 99% of it I do at home.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I can agree with the “locked-down” culture comment, having worked both sides of the fence myself. When the effort required in a hospital library is so large, it’s a lot easier for the equation to equal “not worth the effort” than “interesting and worth persuing” There are a lot of 2.0 tools that I use in my personal life, that I would LOVE to use at work, but have been essentially forbidden from even thinking about it.
November 5th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
[...] Of course the ones I am really interested in are the ones that have cropped up after the MLA Task Force on Social Networking Software survey results analysis was released. For those of you who read David’s blog and the Krafty Librarian blog, or even for those of you who follow the task force’s blog, you will have seen that hospital librarians were not only less likely to use blogs professionally and personally, but that they were much more likely to think that blogs were of little importance to MLA’s sections, chapters, SIG’s, and etc. [...]
November 5th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
[...] I’ve been thinking about posting on this topic for weeks. [...]
November 13th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
[...] Last week I read a couple of blogs about medical librarians and blogging. David Rothman started the discussion with What Do Hospital Librarians Have Against Blogs? and followed with Hospital Librarians “Too Busy” for Blogs? Ratcatcher wrote libraries and the culture of busy - a reflection on the hospital blogging meme . I’ve been thinking about those articles and librarianship and what we learned at the beginning of the semester about the learning styles of different generations and, also, about what is known about the different learning styles of people in general. I’ve been thinking about the class blog and why it’s still difficult for me and how I haven’t been able to find my own blogging ”voice” like some of my classmates. I can write well; I’m a creative person; I’ve adopted the Internet and other technologies; and I enjoy interacting with other learners…so what’s the deal? I think that it might be a matter of learning style. I’m not sure everyone is a blogger and I’m not sure that everyone should be…or that we should be too critical of those who choose not to blog. I love reading blogs, and I really admire those who do it well. Communicating through a blog feels stilted and one-sided to me, even with comments. When I talk with people, I watch them – their body language, facial expressions, everything including the words. I’m a sensitive listener and am generally more comfortable in small groups than in large groups. I have stretched to learn to blog and that’s good…but it’s not who I am as a communicator or learner. Can I blog? Do I understand how to do it, so that, if called upon, I can use the technology? Can I participate? Sure. Is it the best place for my time and effort as a professional? Maybe not. Maybe my voice is better heard in another format or arena, which more closely matches my learning style. Maybe I won’t be too busy to blog in my career, but will choose different vehicles for my creative and professional energy. Maybe current hospital librarians are making the same choices. And maybe I will blog. I don’t know. I’m just thinking… [...]