Journal of Walt (79)

I was trying to catch up a little on various blogs that I monitor this a.m. and came across this posting from Walt Crawford. The phrase he uses to describe some of the most popular blogs — “the great echo chamber” — leaped out at me and caused a chuckle or two. That’s because that describes my sentiments about many of the more popular library-related blogs, especially on topics that they all think are earthshaking, e.g. RSSifying library catalogs and such like. I agree that these kinds of developments are interesting, maybe even exciting. I just think that there is too much of an “echo chamber” effect.

The library world in general is pretty small, and the library blogger world is particularly so. Unfortunately, in addition to the “echo chamber effect,” as Walt puts it, there is too often a sense of a small coterie or clique of the more well known library bloggers. E.g. “XXX person ROCKS! Check out what [first name] says about X topic!!!” It gets old after a while. No, there is no hidden jealousy behind this comment. I have no intention for this blog to become something other than my personal reflections on various things, of which libraries are only one part (and sometimes an insignificant part, at that). If some choose to read it or follow along, fine. Everyone likes to have an audience, whether he or she wants to admit it or not. However, if there is no broader audience for this blog, that’s fine, too.