Oroberosity
A couple of the respondents to the alternative careers survey mentioned that they keep up by reading library blogs, but added parenthetically that they find the well-known blog/bloggers to be too inbred, too repetitive, and too busy patting each other on the back. I’ve heard people say this before, and I’m wondering how prevalent this feeling is.
I usually like seeing several bloggers take on a given issue, because each tends to have different insights and bring in different links. But, I also try to subscribe to a variety of blogs, as well as to less well-known blogs, to avoid becoming my own filter. While I dearly love my Bloglines (and keep meaning to check out that Google Reader people are raving about — another reason for repetition, since it takes several times to sink through my head!), I try to be aware of the dangers of confirmation bias as I note myself jumping to the bloggers that I most agree with and skimming over those I don’t.
I find This Week in LibraryBlogLand and Carnival of the Infosciences helpful in bringing in ideas and bloggers I might otherwise miss. But, I’m curious: What do you all do to overcome your own confirmation bias? Do you still read the “big name” bloggers?
Dorothea:
Who are the big-name bloggers in libraryland?
I mean, I suspect I read some of them and don’t read others. But I can’t answer for sure until I know who they are!
19 March 2007, 2:13 amFiona:
Dorothea – you could use Walt Crawford’s studies as a rough guide?
I have deliberately unsubscribed from some of the ‘noisier’ blogs (ie those that tend to post often/generate a lot of buzz/move from one thing to the next very quickly), cutting the number of blogs I read overall.
And yes, this meant that I missed ‘ning over the past couple of weeks, and saw little twittering about Twitter, but hopefully it will remove the anxiety I was feeling about trying out every new web 2.0 thing.
I’d now like to see more blogs with an analytical focus.
19 March 2007, 2:35 amHedgehog Librarian:
I guess I’d consider the big ones to include Librarian.net, LibrarianinBlack, Information Wants to Be Free, Free Range Librarian, Beyond the Job…
I read all of those regularly–the crossover is definetly there but each has their own areas that they focus on and when they do acknowledge others it’s usually with a comment that may change my perspective on the piece. If I’ve read and am done…click it read and move on. At least with RSS I don’t feel like it’s weighing down my inbox!
19 March 2007, 3:10 amAngel, librarian and educator:
I would not have used the label “inbred,” but certainly not because I think it is not accurate (I am too polite). However, that embodies my feeling very well about a lot of those bloggers. After the third post on Twitter or the latest pat on the back, I just tune out, scan, and move on. It does get repetitive. So, thanks for saying or voicing what a few of us actually think. Maybe I do need to prune my Bloglines a bit more.
I like this Week in LBL. Carnival I used to follow, but as of late, I have not found it as substantive, and by the time I get it, I already saw the stuff elsewhere.
Anyhow, my two cents. Best, and keep on blogging.
19 March 2007, 3:08 pmDorothea:
Walt’s last study intentionally excluded blogs over a certain standard of popularity (as measured by Walt’s metrics). To the best of my recollection, he didn’t post the ones excluded.
19 March 2007, 3:28 pmRachel:
Dorothea – You’re right about Walt’s last study. I think, though, that we can pretty easily pick out who is most often cited, who has big Bloglines numbers, whose name is easily recognized.
Fiona – I just don’t get Twitter!
19 March 2007, 3:36 pmDorothea:
Well, if it’s so easy, gimme a list!
C’mon, I don’t think there’ll be Big Drama from folks who are on it!
20 March 2007, 3:32 pmRachel:
Oh gosh, OK — off the top of my head, they’d include: The Shifted Librarian, Library Stuff, librarian.net, Information Wants to be Free, Tame the Web, LibrarianInBlack, who else… I’m sure there are more, but I’m skewed towards the people I tend to read. Who would you add?
20 March 2007, 3:43 pm