The photo library is just one of the four specialist research services offered by the museum, which also include a research library, museum archive and conservation. Blogs represent the public face of the museum’s specialized research services and a separate one is maintained for each of these areas. These are easily accessed from the site’s navigational pane, and are grouped under the Collection and Research section.

Like the Asian Film Archive blog, which belongs to another special library that I’ll be looking at, the Powerhouse Museum Photo Library blog is fully integrated into the website of its governing institution.

The concept behind the Photo of the Day blog is, as the title suggests, a daily showcase of images from the Photo Library collection. Yes, that’s right, this means that the library has committed to updating the blog every single day! A neat feature of the blog is the ShareThis widget attached to each posting, which enables users to conveniently share the images through popular social bookmarking and networking tools like Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, and Stumbleupon.

Accompanying each image is a write-up on the context in which it was taken, the photographer and any copyright restrictions. The library strives to make their images available to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 license, so those that are free for use have been tagged as such. Many of these licensed photos are also shared through the Photo Library’s Images Services Flickr account. A separate account is kept for images with “no known Copyright” and users are encouraged to contribute tags to be incorporated into the library’s digital image database.

Stimulating further user participation, the Photo Library has started several Flickr groups; user submitted photos are sometimes shown on the blog and in the gallery. It’s exactly this element of reciprocity that I find to be really exciting about the concept of Library 2.0; the use of social bookmarking here clearly compliments the collection development and services offered by the Photo Library.

I love pretty much everything about this blog – needless to say, I think it’s a great model of how blogging can successfully enhance and generate awareness for special libraries. Surprisingly the RSS feed for the blog is difficult to find; I only stumbled upon this by clicking on the comments section of an entry. Especially because the blog is updated on a daily basis, my suggestion for improving this already fantastic blog would be to make it easier for users to subscribe via RSS.

There are so many things to love about the Asian Film Archive website and blog. The site’s layout does a really good job of balancing quite a bit of information with a minimalist navigation scheme. From a glance at the home page, users can learn pertinent details about the collection, the Archive’s educational initiatives, and upcoming events. The designers’ arresting choice of visuals makes this one a really looker. On a purely aesthetic level, this website is my favourite that I have looked at so far.

Above the dancing nuns in the screenshot above, you’ll see that the Blog is fully incorporated into the organization’s website. The complimentary aesthetic of the blog and its easy accessibility from the home page is a good indicator of its role as a critical communication tool for the organization. This makes a lot of sense in light of the Archive’s services and community-focused approach.

Based in Singapore, the Archive envisions its role as involving much more than the “mere” preservation of film. In the About column featured on the blog, Asian Film Archive describes its mandate as being:

“to preserve the rich film heritage of Singapore and Asian Cinema, to encourage scholarly research on film, and to promote a wider critical appreciation of this art form. As an important nexus, it brings together the various segments of the Asian film community in order to open and enrich new intellectual, educational and creative spaces.”

Further, the Asian Film Archive:

aspires to be much more than just a repository of film and tape. It is to be a hub for the film community, contributing to culture, scholarship and industry.

If the stated mission of the blog is “to save, explore and share the art of Asian Cinema” its navigational features are very much reflective of these purposes. Users have the option of searching the blog for specific entries using the search tool, calender or tagged categories. Clicking on Reel Emergencies brings you to currently featured films in the collection, while Moving Minds brings the user to the website’s Education page. Being a visual person and a bit of a film geek myself, I also enjoy the film covers that adorn the side column of the blog.

The best thing about the blog is how clearly interrelated it is with the overall mandate of the Archive, its services offered and its role in the community. And since most of the blog postings relate to specific events and screenings hosted by the Archive, the addition of pictures from the well-attended festivities certainly adds a nice touch. In this capacity, the blog also serves as an important advocacy tool, by making apparent the presence and value of the Archive in the broader arts community.

Despite being physically rooted in Singapore, the work of the Asian Film Archive is truly valuable to all film buffs interested in international cinema. Would I follow this blog as an archive user and overall film geek? Absolutely!

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.

“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.

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.

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.