As Steven Cohen points out, Weblogs: Do they belong in libraries? never really addresses that question. The author does a nice review of how they are already being used but doesn’t mention any reasons for or against.

It wouldn’t take very long browsing through my archives to realize that my own answer is an unequivocal “Yes!” However, that doesn’t take into account the valid objections some may have or the fact that blogs are not appropriate for all situations.

Where a blog works best (for librarians) is for dissemination of information, a traditional library service. It can be as simple as posting your monthly newsletter on the web for easily accessable back issues or as time-consuming as a daily updated journal of the latest news on a particular topic. The true draw of blogging systems is how easy they are to use to make updates to a website. You fill in a form and click “Submit” and the software does the rest of the work for you.

In a setting where the patrons don’t rely much on computers or the Internet, it would be a waste of time. But where your patrons are busy and in need of a general current awareness service, you have the opportunity to provide valuable service. If you do fee-based current awareness, you could put the blog in a password-protected directory and charge users for access.

Useful blogs tend to take a lot of work that not everyone (or anyone?) has time for and they aren’t appropriate to all situations. But where they can be used, they can make a tremendous impact on your services and your perceived value to your community.