Written by David Tebbutt in December 2004

In November I'd have described most web log authors, or bloggers, as egomaniacs who inflict their illiterate ramblings on an indifferent world. Then I visited Information Online and realised that libraries, information centres and organisations large and small can derive genuine benefits from blogging and related technologies. Apart from their cathartic benefit for authors, I still believe that most blogs are a waste of time. But as I delved ever deeper into the subject, I was overcome by a sense of deja vu. When the World Wide Web first came along, the majority of sites and their authors were truly ghastly, but we all learnt and now it's hard to imagine any organisation surviving without a web presence.

I'd hazard a guess that in five years we'll be having similar feelings about blogs. Ghastly they may be, but this is about to change. And you are perfectly poised to take advantage of this. After all, they are focused on information access and exchange.

Perhaps a few words of explanation are in order. At its simplest, a blog is a kind of diary. Postings are made as frequently as makes sense to the author, but daily is good. Authors comment on what is going on in their world at any given moment. They usually contain links out to other information - websites, news stories and, incestuously, postings in other blogs. The most recent postings are at the top of the web page (which can be quite long) and they scroll off the bottom and into an archive.

In most cases, comments can be added to the postings and others can link to them.

The best blogs are searchable and have their material categorised as well. There's more, but I think that's enough to give you a flavour.

Closely linked to blogs are newsreaders or aggregators. Users maintain lists of their favourite blogs and newsfeeds and the aggregators periodically checks for updates, popping up the name of the source and the number of new postings. It's up to the user to decide when they're going to take a look and prioritise which they're going to read first. Some, like newsgator, allow the user to slip the post into a local 'clippings' file for reading later.

These technologies can be deployed to good effect both within and at the edge of your organisation. Internally, a project team could set up its own private blog and allow everyone to post categorised updates. (Some blog environments allow postings to belong to multiple categories. This sounds simple, but it's powerful stuff. No need to decide whether a posting about equipment purchase belongs in 'Budget' or 'Equipment'.) Team members can post comments and it all happens quickly, but it is non-intrusive. They check out the blogs when it suits them. It keeps the team bonded and reasonably harmonious. It also captures immense amounts of searchable and categorised information with barely any effort.

Widen the brief to the information services function. It would be a simple matter to create a blog which explains your various services, keeps colleagues up to date with relevant news and provides a host of links to the outside world. But don't stick to broadcast, seek comments and get a dialogue going. Not just for the sake of it, but to clarify what is good and not so good about your service, then you can set about strengthening it and increasing its relevance.

Who knows? If you pioneer the effective use of blogging within your organisation, your skills and experience will be in great demand by other departments as they discover the potential benefits.