Glasgow School of Art Library – Fine Art and Design
Next up is the Glasgow School of Art Library’s Fine Art and Design blog.
This blog is accessible from the front page of the main Library website, as well as in the News section. Users can conveniently subscribe to the Fine Art and Design blog’s RSS feed by typing their e-mail address into a search bar located beneath the link. The front page subscription feature offers little information to entice users to visit the blog. As a student patron, I would be more likely to subscribe to the RSS feed if a brief description was offered about the kinds of news I would be receiving. The News section does a better job of describing the blog, but it could be a little more specific about the type of content that appears.
Here is what the description of the Art and Design News Blog reads on the Library News page:
Our subject blogs provide a one-stop shop for information on high-quality resources available in your subject through the Library or Web. Because information from all kinds of resources is brought together in a single place, you don’t have to do any detective work yourself, whilst remaining confident that you’re keeping abreast of new and updated content.
This approach seems to emphasize the passive rather than participatory capabilities of blogging.
Having said that, I really enjoy the content of the blog itself. It is frequently updated and profiles interesting art website links, interviews, videos, and project on the web, along with information specific to the library. Users can find out about TED.com or the library’s themed display of experimental art books, for example. I appreciate the interesting subjects and resources, as well as the visual component accompanying each entry. I also like the sharing of their Flickr photostream and that they make use of LibraryThing to offer a visual display of new arrivals in the subject libraries. While the aesthetics of the blog are rather basic, it is well organized and has clear links to useful information like the Library website and catalogue, subject guides, contacts for the subject librarian, and other relevant websites within the Glasgow School of Art. Perhaps some of the lovely images that they have on Flickr can be used to create a more eye-catching banner?
As an art student at the school, I would definitely be interested in following the blog postings. My main suggestion, however, would be to hype it up a little more from the main Library website – at the moment, it unfortunately seems to be a bit of a lost treasure.
Nanyang Technological University – Art, Design & Media Library
My favourite thing about the Nanyang Technological University Library is that each of its seven subject libraries maintains its very own blog to engage a specialized patron community. These “Subject Library Blogs” are easily accessed from the front page of the library’s main website, and are linked from the “Libraries & Collections” section of the navigational frame. By displaying the links so prominently, the library demonstrates its commitment not only to keeping the blogs regularly updated, but more importantly to using blogging features to engage in dialogue with patrons. Here’s a friendly statement of intent taken from the Subject Library Blog page:
“To offer a richer and more interactive library experience, we have launched several library blogs. Read our blogs to discover the latest activities and services offered by NTU Libraries. Our posts also include new book/video listings, book reviews, database updates, local exhibitions and many other topics. As we engage the joy of reading a new book or experience the power of information in library databases, do give us your feedback and share your views online.”
Though I’ll be looking more closely at the Art, Design & Media Library blog in particular, the University’s other library blogs belong to the Asian Communication Resource Centre, the Business Library, the Chinese Library, the Engineering Library, the Humanities & Social Sciences Library, and the Science Library.
Ok, so here’s a glimpse of the Art, Design & Media Library blog itself (bonus points for the lovely rotating banner images and associated call numbers):
The layout of the blog is clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate; it is basically a “mini” website laid out in the structure of a blog. Within this basic structure, users can link to information specific to the subject library (About Us, Collections & Resources, Location and Services) as well as that shared with the broader library network (Contact Us, FAQ). Home, however, is where the most interesting blogging action happens.
A glance at the tags used to categorize the blog entries shows that Art Events, Art News, and New Resources are the most frequent types of postings that appear on the blog. What I really like about these entries is the excellent use of images. Other strengths of the blog are the consistency of updates (with as many as 20 posting in April 2008!), as well as the blending of information about arts-related happenings both in the broader community and within the library itself.
Sadly, there have only been 3 comments to the blog’s 154 posts to date. To encourage more feedback from visitors, it might be helpful to include discussion-oriented posts amongst the more straightforward events, news and resource-based postings.
Overall, If I was a student at Nanyang Technological University and patron of the Art Library, I would certainly keep my eye on this blog (made all the more convenient with its handy RSS feed)! My main criticism is that while the blog is easy to locate from the main library website, the link could be made clearer on the blog itself. The statement of responsibility on the bottom of the page could include an active link to either the University or NTU Library homepage, for example. It would also be nice to have a little write-up in the About Us section describing the unique purpose or scope of the Art, Design & Media Library to complement the existing directory of staff members. This added touch of personalization could be a way of highlighting the subject library’s place within the broader network of NTU libraries.
University of the Arts London
The Library News Blog, belonging to the University of the Arts London, is the official source of service updates pertaining to the university library. The blog link is nested within the Library, Learning & Teaching section of the university website, and is the first to appear on the Library & Learning Resources web page. Overall, accessibility and promotion of the blog is pretty good.
The blog itself is reasonably user-friendly, though I personally find that the double column on the right side of the page looks a little cluttered. This could easily be remedied by consolidating the columns or changing the text colour or font. The layout is otherwise rather charming, with its whimsical splashes of colour. Aside from the standard RSS feed, another neat gadget that the library has added to the page is a Google translator, which converts the text of the page into the language selected by the user from a drop-down menu. Unfortunately, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this feature… but the efforts made to accommodate multilingualism are much appreciated.
All said, the blog serves exactly the purpose it sets out to. It is functional, regularly updated, and delivers on its promise stated on the About page:
Library Services blog provides up to the minute information about changes to services within LLR. Courses, workshops, events and job opportunities in LLR are also listed here.
As the Categories, Tag Cloud and Latest Posts sections indicate, a large portion of content is related to service updates (ie. holiday hours, downtime in e-services); despite being useful and important information, this does not exactly make for exciting blog material!
If I was a patron of the library, I probably wouldn’t make great efforts to follow a blog or RSS feed for this type of information unless I had a specific need to know. I would definitely suggest incorporating more posting about upcoming events, exhibitions, and interesting resources in the collection.
The University of the Arts London Library News Blog demonstrates a solid use of blogs as a practical and easily-maintained news source. Sadly, it seems to lack the personality, interactivity, and sense of community presence reflected by many of the other art library blogs examined here.
