User Services Blogging

Each day in the news we hear about a huge variety of topics, each of which could be used as "Hot Topics" feature on a library or reference blog. For example, NPR has "Science Fridays" feature which discusses the science behind current events. With a little work, librarians could perform some quick research to find supplemental materials on the subject of the latest topic. It could be a current awareness service or a way to show off our collections to patrons.

A possible collections study

My Promotion and Tenure Liaison has discouraged me from a study I want to perform because he thinks it would be too labor intensive and not publishable. Since he is a giant in Library Science research (well, if not a giant, a towering figure) I should listen to him. But I really want to do the study and I think I can make a case for it as a viable topic and not just a self evaluation as he seems to think it is. If there is a literature for it I'll continue. If not, I'll probably scrap it unless I make some progress on the argument. The study is an evaluation of the titles reviewed in a major book review journal but not acquired by our profile or by my selection. I want to see if there are salient characteristics of the non-acquired books that are either support or invalidate aspects of our profile and/or my selections. As an example, here is a stab at a google scholar search. Here is the tiny url preview link. The results are vague. I'll finesse it later.