AALL 2007 Conference Blogger Get Together

Some 30 law bloggers met yesterday at the annual conference of the American Association of Law Libraries for the second annual Bloggers' Get Together.
There was a special guest: Ernie Svenson, the famous New Orleans attorney known to bloggers and others as Ernie the Attorney.

People shared thoughts and experiences about blogging. There were a number of common experiences:

• quite a few blogs were launched because librarians became tired of having to spend hours and hours formatting newsletters they felt no one was reading. As a test, one librarian explained that she and her colleagues decided to insert the word "panda" in the middle of articles in one issue. No one noticed. A blog seemed a better approach,
• other bloggers explained that blogging is a useful way for them to keep track of research material and library-oriented news of interest to them. Blogging allows them to share it.
• the most interesting comments had to do with how the practice of blogging changes the way we read. On a positive note, blogging enforces a form of discipline, it creates a habit of more focused reading. Viewed more cynically, some joked that material they read now only seemed interesting if they could find an angle to blog about. The question was no longer, "is this useful, is this interesting", but rather "is this a bloggable idea?"

Among the blogs represented at the get together were:

• Law Professor Blogs (Joe Hodnicki and others)
• Biblioblawg (Meg Kribble, Nova Southeastern University Law Library)
• Bloggy Notion (Julie Horst, UC Hastings)
• Lex Scripta (the Dallas Association of Law Libraries' blog, Barbara Fullerton)
• Trial Ad Notes (Mary Whisner, University of Washington)
• WisBlawg (Bonnie Shucha, University of Wisconsin)
• ZiefBrief (Lee Ryan and Amy Wright, University of San Francisco Law Library)