To combat that drawback, I’ve added leadership-specific resources to my Twitter and RSS feeds. At times the gap between a for-profit business and the library is apparent, but more often the topics and advice are spot on. I’ve been excited to learn something new, inspired to reconsider my perspective, motivated to try a new approach, or simply encouraged by another leader’s shared vulnerability.  If you’d like a list of leadership experts to follow, start here.

One of my go-to resources is Tanveer Naseer’s blog. Naseer is an author, leadership coach, and keynote speaker. I’ve always found the entries to be thought-provoking and well-written even when they are created by guest bloggers.  They are meaty, as well, often running two to three times as long as many blog posts do. The length allows for a more in-depth look at the topic and it’s not uncommon for posts to include references to books, methodologies, or field research.

One of the aspects of his website I frequently use is the extra material that goes with each blog post. Each is extensively tagged, click on a single word and you can immediately access an entire list of related articles. In addition, at the end of each post the site lists, as links, the full titles of a few related prior posts. If you want to share what you learn about leadership, you’ll appreciate the ready-to-tweet highlights scattered through the posts.

Michael Hyatt’s website is a wholly different experience. If sales pitches or occasional references to faith would bother you, pass this one by.  Hyatt was formerly CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and his blog is aimed primarily at people in high-pressure jobs. His site’s tagline is “Win at work. Succeed at life.” His tweets, blogs, and podcasts run the gamut, including productivity tips and tools to life hacks. “How a Small Shift in Your Vocabulary Can Instantly Change Your Attitude” is a great example of the latter and a post that I have continued to think about long after I first read it. His posts generally include specific, actionable points.

If you prefer something more philosophical, Seth Godin is all about ideas. He can look at a concept you’ve been around your whole life and take something new from it. His blog tends to focus on creativity, innovation, marketing, and how to do great work; the very short posts are designed to make you reflect.

If none of these are the right fit for you, take a few minutes to track down other leadership gurus worth following. Having a regular dose of leadership inspiration, infused with a few practical tips, helps me focus on how I can get to where I want to be and makes me believe I can get there.

The post Cultivating Your Inner Leader first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Why Tell Your Story Online?

Many libraries are restricted by city or county rules on employee advocacy. When funding or programs are at risk of getting cut, staff have to get creative in promoting the value of the library in the community. Digital advocacy is a great method of not only visualizing that value, but also disseminating it to your community through social networks, email newsletters, and your website.

The Rockefeller Foundation published a report in 2014 called Digital Storytelling for Social Impact, which offers insights and ideas from interviews with thought leaders in entertainment, brand strategy, and philanthropy. One of the key quotes from the report reinforces the importance of digital storytelling or advocacy for community-centric organizations, such as public libraries:

“Stories can embody values; they can show how an organization is living its life by giving tangible examples. Putting faces and names to [an organization’s] values goes much further to promoting high-level concepts that aren’t as tangible.” [1]

So where to begin? One place to start is by interviewing community members or staff members about what they like about the library and what they do while they’re there. You could also frame your story around library usage data or a timeline of a project, such as a summer reading program or an event of which you’re particularly proud. Also remember that digital advocacy comes in many forms, from blogs to videos to digital slideshows.

A Few Examples of Digital Advocacy in Action

TechSoup has an annual digital storytelling contest called Storymakers, but we’re always supporting nonprofits and public libraries in telling their stories online through educational webinars, product donations, and informative content. I thought I’d highlight some of my favorite examples of digital advocacy that we’ve seen over the years.

The Norton Public Library won the prize for Best Library Video in the 2012 Storymakers contest with its video, 12 Things to Do in a Library. Teen patrons created the video to promote the library’s collection of pop-up books. This project not only gave the teens a chance to show off their video skills, but it also created a new generation of library advocates.

The Oakland Public Library (OPL) is also engaging its community to tell the library’s stories. Sharon McKellar, the community relations librarian, talked about the importance of sharing everything you do on a TechSoup for Libraries digital storytelling webinar. Much of the library’s sharing is done on the OPL’s network of blogs, where library staff and partners write about events, share new additions to collections, and answer community questions. Sharon also does a fantastic ongoing series on strange ephemera found in the Oakland Public Library’s books, which has gotten the attention of local media as well as Library Journal.

Digital advocacy doesn’t end after the creation and production of your story. The M.N. Spear Memorial Library in Shutesbury, MA got a construction grant from the Massachusetts Boardof Library Commissioners, but it needed a local match to actually receive it. The library had to privately raise funds in five months, so library staff members produced a video called Where Would You Be Without Your Library?

The staff reached out to the Massachusetts Library Association to promote the video and somebody from the association got Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing interested. After he shared it, the campaign went viral with promotions from John Hodgman, Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, and other library-loving celebrities. But the video’s success wasn’t sheer luck: the library strategically reached out to cause-driven websites and newsletters, as well as library and book-related blogs, and told them about the campaign.

At the 2016 Public Library Association conference, Crystal Schimpf of Kixal and I will be presenting on behalf of TechSoup for Libraries about the ways that digital stories can be used for advocacy efforts, from raising awareness to political action. We’ll be sharing tips and ideas on how to create a compelling story for your library, and how to leverage it to show your impact in the community. Be sure to drop by Lights, Camera, Advocacy: Digital Storytelling for Your Library session at PLA 2016.

References
1. The Rockefeller Foundation, May 06, 2014, “Digital Storytelling for Social Impact.” p. 8. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/digital-storytelling-social-impact/. Accessed October 26, 2015.

The post Share Your Library’s Impact with Digital Advocacy first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

First, keep in mind the goal when starting a blog. Do you want to just advertise your book group or talk about every book you’ve ever read? Do you want to announce library programs at your branch or rather discuss librarianship as a whole? Should you document your journey through library school or the last year of your retirement from librarian life? Having a clear, focused objective is the first vital step in starting a blog.

Second is to be consistent—blog on a regular basis—and “be yourself.” This tip is recommended by Wendy Crutcher, blogger of The Misadventures of Super Librarian. Eleven years of writing her blog about romance novels and librarianship has led Crutcher to this piece of advice. She also recommends finding your own personal voice rather than imitating someone else’s. Blog readers will sense any whiff of inauthenticity right away and just move on to another blog.

April Shroeder, a teen librarian with Loudoun County Public Library, agrees that being consistent is a good idea. She recommends setting a goal and sticking to it to get content posted regularly. “In 2012 and 2013 I reviewed on my blog every single book I read. I was bound to blog more than once a week.”

Once the blog is established, how should a librarian be sure to keep momentum going? Giveaways and contests are one way. Crutcher joined a GoodReads Challenge for last year and this year. Her progress on both challenges is recorded on her blog. Another momentum idea is communicating with commenters. “For me, I like to respond to comments on my site and solicit ideas,” says Elizabeth Bird, author of the blog A Fuse #8 Production. For Bird, such interaction leads to new post ideas or resources in the field. Readers often share links with her and her audience on a variety of things related to children’s literature. Jennifer LaGarde, the web’s Adventures of Library Girl, said that a negative comment on her blog led her to respond by writing a post that not only responded to the negative remark but also gained a lot of support from her readers. It led to great discussions amongst readers as well as with LaGarde.

In addition, be sure to include the blog address in e-mail signatures. List it on Facebook pages if you or your organization has one. Word of mouth with book club members or patrons in general is always a good idea.

Muriel Richards of New York Public Library says it best when advocating for blogs. “I believe that blogging, as a flexible forum in terms of diverse writing styles (i.e., brief and formal, creative and lengthy, etc.), is well-suited to conveying information in a variety of formats to a heterogeneous audience.”

The post Why Blog? first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

There are hundreds of librarian and library-related blogs and the following list presents a selection of those blogs that cover a variety of subjects and specializations, are regularly updated with new content, and are often cited and recommended by other librarians.

• Bobbi Newman’s blog, Librarian by Day at http://librarianbyday.net/ should be the go-to blog for any librarian interested in emerging digital technologies and Library 2.0. Newman practices transliteracy just as she preaches it. She can be found on a host of popular social networks and is always updating with new media, articles, book reviews, research, and more.
• Andy Woodworth’s blog, Agnostic, Maybe at http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/ is perhaps the quintessential librarian blog in that it’s not only about libraries—it’s also about a librarian. Besides maintaining his own blog, Woodworth reads blogs by other librarians. In this interview with I Need a Library Job (INALJ) Woodworth names librarians that he follows online—with links to their blogs provided by INALJ: http://inalj.com/?p=1234.
• Hack Library School at http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/ is maintained by an ever-rotating crop of LIS student writers. Although the primary audience for the blog is library students, one doesn’t need to be in library school to appreciate the posts and insight. Hack librarians have also compiled suggested LIS blog lists for diverse library interests at http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/lis-blogs-follow/.
• Jessica Olin’s blog, Letters to a Young Librarian at http://letterstoayounglibrarian.blogspot.com/ is written for the new librarian who is finding that what he or she learned in library school doesn’t always correlate with the reality of working in a library.
• Jessamyn West’s blog, Librarian.net at http://www.librarian.net/ deserves its indomitable domain name because of the scope of the blog’s coverage and the quality posts. Often fun and always helpful, West covers topics as varied as perceptions of librarians, scholarship best practices, and tech FAQs.
• Sarah Houghton’s blog, Librarian in Black at http://librarianinblack.net/ is largely about using technology to deliver library services and, as with Woodworth’s blog, about her personal experiences throughout her career. Houghton is the consummate Digital Age librarian and her posts often include information about and best practices for using new technology.
• The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries at http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/ by Nancy Dowd and Kathy Dempsey shares best practices and ideas for marketing your library. With some seasonal tips, sharing library success stories and news, and strategies for incorporating emerging technologies into your library marketing machine, The ‘M’ Word is one blog that needs to be on every librarian’s bookmarks.

Librarian bloggers often refer to one another’s blogs and suggest useful resources and websites for their readers to visit. Following their links will lead you on a trail of discovery that is, more often than not, the reason you visited their blog in the first place. Of course, for all the serious, topical, and industry-related librarian blogs that exist, there are also decidedly quirky and diverting library blogs like Awful Library Books at http://awfullibrarybooks.net/ and Librarian Wardrobe at http://librarianwardrobe.com. Though not a blog per se, Unshelved, an Internet comic strip by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes about librarians and library-work-related situations (and, really, so much more), is also worth a visit. You can find it at http://www.unshelved.com/.

The post Blogs By and For Librarians first appeared on Public Libraries Online.