So Fresh and So Clean

I'm a simple girl. I like my coffee with milk, my books to have actual paper pages and a cover, and I like my blogs neat, informative, and interesting. Too many bells and whistles and you will lose me. That is one of the things that I liked about the Clemson library weblog. http://www.lib.clemson.edu/weblog/

You could log on to get up to date information on current library events, "housekeeping" type issues, and new additions to the collection without wading through a lot of widgets and whistles. It is simple and clean. You can link to the catalog, article search, and e-journal request right from the page. There is no blog roll, which I miss, because I have found many interesting things linking to blogs from other blogs, but I actually think it is in keeping with what I see as the philosophy of the blog: info, quick and dirty. What I think keeps this blog from being boring, however, is the Daily Photo, Flickr link aspect. It makes the blog visually interesting and adds an element that could bring people back to the site to see what the Daily Photo is. It tells a story abut the library even if the pictures are unrelated and have little to do with the hard content of the blog. It has the potential to be fun as well, and link in with other Clemson Flickr accounts/events. I see a lot of ways that a Flickr companion to a blog could be used to promote libraries and even drive people to the blog.


I also want to give a shout out to http://digitalcampus.tv/ It is a companion blog to a podcast dealing with digital media and technology and its effects on colleges, libraries, etc. This one also does it right. You can listen to the podcast, subscribe to it, visit the links discussed in it, and read a small recap. Informative and incorporates blogging and podcasting, two points of entry to the ideas.