Week 2, Thing # 3 & # 4: " A-blogging we will go, a-blogging we will go!"

I am having a great time playing with the blog (trying to keep Habit #71/2 in mind!). Although I have posted to a blog, I had never set one up from scratch. It is really fun! I am looking forward to learning about more enhancements as I go along. After I got the initial post and heading, I played around with the templates. It was almost like trying on clothes!! Which one would fit my blog best? I decided to go with a plain white background so my photographs of squirrels would really stand out. (As you can tell, I am carrying the squirrel theme throughout the blog.) It has been really interesting seeing the very different blogs that other HCPL Library 2.0 participants have created. I have added two of my favorite children's literature blogs to my "favorite places to visit". One is from Betsy Bird, a children's librarian from New York Public Library. Her blog is called Fuse #8. She was on the 2007 Newbery Committee with me, and her blog is always entertaining and has a great voice. (She has just received an offer to take her blog to School Library Journal-and will be getting paid to blog!). The other blog is from Roger Sutton, the editor of Horn Book Magazine. His blog is always guaranteed to generate discussion. It also has a great voice, and if you have ever heard Roger Sutton speak in person, you will recognize the style. This brings up the issue of voice and persona on a blog. Are you writing for yourself-sort of a personal journal? Or, do you have an audience in mind? Are you trying on a "new persona" behind the blog, or just being yourself? Do you find it easier to "be yourself" on the blog? Will you let others see parts of your personality that you normally dont' share? I wonder. Maybe we will all get to know each other better after Library 2.0, and appreciate the diversity and humor that we all possess.

By the way, registering the blog was the ONLY hard part. I thought that the blog would appear on the HCPL Blog Wall instantly (you know, faith in technology and all that.) However, Maurice called me and said that he, Irmgarde or Annette had to manually add it. This just reinforces the idea that technology is a tool, and that we still are very much involved in the entire process!