The Chicken or the Egg?

Libraries have embraced blogs as wonderful ways to communicate regularly with our patrons. That was certainly our purpose in starting one here in Dover. We have a printed newsletter, but we can only afford to print 500 copies a month. Blogs can reach thousands! Plus, we always have a lot more to say than can fit in the 4 pages of our newsletter...about our profession, the books and movies we read and view, our patrons and their stories, funny incidents, etc. ...and a blog just fits our workstyle perfectly. We try to write what we might say in conversation with a patron at the front desk.

Well now, our blog has been included in a new book by library/media/tech guru Walt Crawford called "Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples". He calls our blog a "robust ,varied blog offering a variety of voices on a variety of topics." I think it made his list because we post often, we're sometimes lengthy (mea culpa, that's usually me), we attempt humor, we include illustrations and photographs, and we get some public comments. For whatever reason, we're happy to be included.

However, Walt's book may generate interest by people like me in Libraryland who read his "Cites and Insights" publication, but how do we get regular folk, general ordinary book lovers, to tune in regularly? Does the blog ever really translate into more use of the library or, at the very least, engender good feelings about the library? We thought our blog would be a great (and free) publicity tool but how do we generate enough publicity for the blog itself so that "write it, they will come" actually comes to fruition? But thanks for listing us Mr. Crawford, we'll take all the hits we can get!!