LIS Educator Blogs

Last week, while I was pondering what field I was standing in, I realized that many of the blogs I subscribe to were not necessarily helping me think about that question. So I turned to my friend Mark, who I rely on to filter all things biblioblogosphere. Yes, that’s right, I’m the “friend” in question in this post.

First a few disclaimers- I sometimes get these odd feelings in my gut that suggests that something is missing, but I’m never quite sure it’s because they are really missing, or I’m just not looking in the right place, or asking the right questions. Generally I send out feelers to folks like Mark to see whether it is just lunch upsetting my stomach, or a legitimate hunch.

Secondly, I have to admit to throttling the bandwidth I’ve given to LIS blogs…too many blogs, too little time. Especially as the Museoblogosphere (ugh! that’s even worse than biblioblogospehere) has expanded. I’ve been splitting my time between LIS blogs, museum blogs, and digital humanities blogs. But from the responses to Mark’s post, it does seem that there is a dearth of LIS educator blogs.

Initially I was thinking about people who’s main employment was in a graduate program, but I’ll take Mark and other people’s posts that this definition needs to be expanded. We could rehash the theory vs. practice arguments, but I don’t think that will really get us anywhere fast. In fact I think this isn’t necessarily about the person and what their title is, but rather what the blog is about — namely the practice of being an educator and a researcher. I would extend that to include people who don’t claim to be “LIS,” but are in related disciplines that touch on issues we’re concerned about. (i.e. computer science, communications, anthropology, sociology, cognitive science, history of technology, etc., etc.). In the same vein, I’m also on a hunt for blogs in archival science, museum studies and museum informatics (to complete the LAM blog trifecta).

Here are some of the criteria that I am thinking about:

• informs the development of curriculum for library and information science
• discusses or informs what is expected from graduates of LIS programs
• discusses research methods and relevant literature
• how to be a better researcher, writer, presenter (blogger!)
• discusses high-level trends and research questions
• pulls in and comments on relevant research from “outside” the field
• offers new forms of scholarly communication and collaboration

I’m sure I’m missing some criteria, but will keep thinking about this as I look at the examples that have been posted in response to Mark’s post. The discussions about where Dorothea’s blog sits in all of this are interesting. One of the things that I find compelling about CavLec is that is that it’s not only about charming DSpace into behaving itself, but Dorothea’s reflections on LIS graduate education (and grad school in general – I had more than a few hard thinks about what I’m doing after reading “A Tale of Graduate School Burnout”). I’m sure I won’t be the first one to say we need more of what CavLec has to offer.

So why are LIS educator blogs few and far between? First, I haven’t heard of anyone who’s blog counted towards tenure and promotion. And when push comes to shove, you’re going to spend your time writing more articles rather than blogging. Academia runs on a great deal of whuffie and right now, blogs don’t contribute the way publications do (I’d be happy to be disabused of this notion). I’ve had conversations with faculty about finding the balance between talking about my research and the dangers of getting scooped by someone else who’s able to move faster than I can on a problem. These all seem like issues that are rooted in traditional practices of scholarly communication that are shifting and changing in unpredictable ways right now. This is also one of the reasons I’m watching several digital humanities blogs; to see how they are negotiating the channels and shoals of contemporary scholarship. Having some good models within LIS would be a welcome addition.

At the ASIS&T conference I sat in on the Bulletin editorial committee meeting (as ASIS&T student representative), where we discussed the recent move to publish the Bulletin online. I asked whether anyone had considered starting an ASIS&T blog, and while the idea has been floated, nothing seems to have happened on that front yet. Having helped start one collaborative blog, I wonder if something similar under the ASIS&T flag, would prime the pump for more LIS educators to take the plunge.

Of course, at the root of all of this, is me asking questions about what kind of educator and researcher I want to be and what role I want this blog to play in that development.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 7:49 pm and is filed under LIS, education, research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.