Study Examines How Academic Law Libraries Use Blogs to Engage with Users

December 28, 2016

A new study in the latest edition of The Reference Librarian explores the use of blogs by academic law librarians. In “An Exploratory Examination and Critique of Academic Law Librarian Blogs: A Look into an Evolving Reference Communication Practice,” author Grace Jackson-Brown of Missouri State University “demonstrates how academic law librarians use blogs as a communication tool and become proactive in their Reference/Research roles.” Jackson-Brown identified 227 law library blogs (using the list maintained by CS-SIS). Of these, 67 were academic blogs. A small random sample of seven blogs was selected. WisBlawg was one of the blogs included in the study. A full list appears below:

A Law Library with a View, https://ugalawlibrary.wordpress.com/ University of Georgia Law Library
Barco Law Library, http://barcorefblog.blogspot.com/ University of Pittsburgh School of Law
UNC Katherine R. Everett Law Library, Carolina Blawg, http://blogs.law.unc.edu/library/ University of North Carolina
CM Law Library Blog, http://cmlawlibraryblog.classcaster.net/ News & Information Useful to the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Due Process Georgetown Law Library Blog, https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/dueprocess/ Georgetown University
Lillian Goldman Law Library, http://library.law.yale.edu/blogs Yale Law School
WisBlawg, http://wisblawg.law.wisc.edu/ University of Wisconsin Law Library

Jackson-Brown examined posts from the 2014-15 academic year and placed them into categories based on the primary content of the post. The largest category (30+%) was “Reference/Research.” These were further subdivided into the following:

Texts about reference and/or research resources or services
Embedded media about reference and/or research
Links to or attachments of Research Guides (LibGuides or other bibliographies)
Promotions about instructional workshops, research forums, or other reference/research formal instruction

Jackson-Brown found that the blogs in the study were mainly targeted toward internal audiences (primarily law students) but that the blogs also had wider appeal to general audiences. WisBlawg is an outlier among the group as our primarily target audience is external as noted in the study. In her conclusion, Jackson-Brown states that

The study shows how a sample group of law librarians through the social media of blogs engage with their libraries’ users and wider audiences or communities. The law librarian bloggers “push out” important information content based on what they anticipate will be of interest or need to their users and audiences in an effort to connect and interact with communities of researchers and library users.