Mid-Manhattan Library Art Department
The Mid-Manhattan Art Blog was originally created through the free blogging site, Blogger.com. Topics covered by the Department include Art, Architecture, Crafts, Design, Fashion, and Photography. In its short-lived lifespan of 17 postings, the blog was nonetheless forward-thinking in its use of social tools like delicious and Flickr. There are over 100 fabulous, high quality art-related bookmarks in their delicious account (username: midmanhattanart) that are sure to be of interest to art enthusiasts. I found the link to the library’s Amazon wish list to be a creative and direct means of connecting patrons with their library and the books in its collection.
To be honest, when I first noticed that the Mid-Manhattan Art Blog had not been updated since January 2008, I assumed that it was another case of a well-intentioned, yet ill-fated, attempt at Library 2.0. Fortunately, I’ve been proven wrong! Content from the New York Public Library (NYPL) Mid-Manhattan Branch’s Art Department is now fully integrated into the mega, system-wide blog hosted on the uber-sleek NYPL website.
Since the old Art Blog no longer represents the current blogging practices of the Mid-Manhattan Art Department, it is not linked from the branch website. New blog entries pertaining to the branch’s Art Department can now be located through the tags “Mid-Manhattan Art Collection” and “Mid-Manhattan Library Art Collection”.
One of the really great things about the original blog was that the personality of the librarian truly shined through, setting a friendly conversational tone and making it a pleasure to read. Fortunately, this personable blogging approach seems to have transferred over to the NYPL blogging network on the whole. In fact, users now have the option of reading blogs kept by individual librarians.
For users new to blogging, the NYPL blog is user-friendly and pleasing to browse. Each entry also indicates the specific library from which the posting has been made, thus maintaining its connectivity to the community level. Further, there appears to be much more traffic and active feedback due to the convergence of multiple NYPL branch librarians and patrons on a single blog than would occur on a localized scale.
All in all, I commend the Mid-Manhattan Library Art Department for its earlier efforts to make use of Web 2.0 tools, and am excited to see its advancements towards a more truly interactive model of Library 2.0.
