Christine from the aforementioned class at Wisconsin wrote about her experience of perusing my dmoz LIS>Weblogs category (great choice, although, Christine, dmoz is much more than just a directory of blogs).

She was hoping to find in LIS blogs more cross-fertilization of ideas and interblogular (?) discusssion of pressing library issues, much like she has found on the listservs:

I briefly poked around clicking on varies sites and the trend seemed to be that public libraries are using them as in information bulletin board advertising the library’s current events. What I did not see, and what I was looking for was a dialog between librarians and how they were coping with challenges in the work place. For example, tips on fund raising for public libraries, suggests to on how to promote your special library or creative ways academic libraries are handling budget cuts. Perhaps given some more time library blogs will move towards these types of discussions.

Now of course a blog tied to an actual library has to be more discrete than to discuss the politics of library operations and "how we deal with our paltry budget." But that's no excuse for the rest of us. Maybe we could use an issues/discussion-based, rather than news-based LIS collaborative blog. Hmmmm......

That said, blogs and listservs are not the same and shouldn't be.

what I was looking for was a dialog between librarians and how they were coping with challenges in the work place

The main challenge for librarians is managing change, whether technological, political, financial, what have you. Keeping up with the LIS blogging community is particularly effective in coping with technological and political change. The important news comes down these pipelines long before it reaches the masses.

Blogs are both a currency tool and an advocacy tool. When enough of us write about CIPA and point to the SCOTUS decision, it shows up on Popdex and thousands more read it. Blogs also demonstrate the creativity, diversity and *individuality* of librarians in a way that is impossible on a listserv.

Listservs foster intense (sometimes unnecessarily so) discussion amongst our ranks; blogs open up that discussion to the world. Listservs are topically focused, while blogs are free, unfettered and therefore better equipped to view the LIS world cross-topically.

My point is that there is room, and in fact need, for both blogs and listservs in our domain. They are both undoubtedly professional tools, but it would be missing the point to hold them to the same expectations.