MLA-blogging on the last day

Who cares about blogging on the last day of a conference at 8:30 a.m.? Well, apparently more than a few dedicated librarians. Good on them!

When I saw that our session “To Blog or Not to Blog” was scheduled for that dubious time-slot, I was not encouraged. Then, when I saw that we were in the same time slot as not only “Thinking Big: the State of the State Library” by Minnesota State Librarian Suzanne Miller but also “Cool Story Programs for Kids” by the legendary children’s programming guru Rob Reid, I was sure that I and my colleagues Aurora and Mary Beth would be talking to each other. How wrong I was!

Approximately 40 people attended our session and what fun we had! AJ, MB, and I get really pumped when we have an engaged audience, and this one was one of the best. We started with what is a blog, demoed how some libraries are using blogs to build community, and then brought up a real live audience member who set up her very first blog (thanks, Kathy!) I tell ya, reality TV has nothing on us.

I am really encouraged that so many people are open to using social software. There were many good questions and lots of head nodding. 2 years ago a team from our organization did a program at MLA on electronic communication and the part about blogging was by far the most popular. Now, this year again it’s been a real upper to bring something that I hope will enhance Minnesota library service through community building.