And so it begins . . .

For the next few weeks I will maintain a blog for my Library Media Assistant Seminar assignment. My goal is to convince either a school or library board that a blog would be a beneficial addition to their high school library program. How could I possibly hope to convince either a school or library board how beneficial blogs are if I had never experienced the technology first hand? So I have taken it upon myself to become familiar with the wild, wonderful and sometimes frustrating world of blogging. My blog will serve as an outline for my research paper as well as provide me a means to fully immerse myself in the blogosphere. Here I intend to research all aspects of blogging by examining the good, the bad and the ugly sides of this Web 2.0 technology. In addition to maintaining a blog and my sanity, I will check out how high school libraries are managing their blogs. I will carve out time to interview a real-life high school librarian who is currently maintaining a library blog in order to get the real scoop on how effective blogs are in an educational setting.

My overall mission is to answer the following question: "Why should high school libraries/librarians create and maintain library blogs?" It is my hope that after exploring blogs I will have the necessary skills to deftly explain what a blog is, why they are important educational tools, and what makes some library blogs more successful than others. Will my research provide reason enough for a high school or library board to agree that blogs are a valid educational tool and beneficial to their library program? You'll have to keep reading my blog to find out.