library blogs

Darien Library has - in my opinion- a fairly hideous web site, but their use of blogs is incredibly interesting and furthermore, the blogs have much more style, are visually appealing and less confusing than the main site.
The site offers an explanation about the purpose and role of blogs generally and for/between the library and community. There is a Director's blog, a blog to chronicle the progress of the new (still under construction) building, blogs dedicated to music & movies, books, children, teens, information and technology and the Front Desk blog. Whether it's a tribute to the fundamental nature of blogs or whether the Darien Library is using blogs to link events in patrons lives and world to the resources and services at the library, the blogs make interesting reading. For example, in the Movies & Music blog, a posting notes that Tom Petty was a featured artist at the Super Bowl halftime show, with links to the library's holdings of Petty's work, also listed are the February DVD new releases, youtube clips of a documentary that might be overlooked about Donkey Kong players competing for the World Title, etc. The blogs just represent a wealth of information (and entertainment).

Another use of a blog by a library I liked was this, it's a resource for the staff of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, ostensibly designed to keep LVCCLD staff members informed about virtual library issues and events. I wasn't able to get to it from the library's site and, although it can be located by non-staff, it has information about conferences and details about new or changed digital resources in the form of a virtual newsletter at a static address.
I talked to some people at work about trying a similar approach for our staff, it just seems like such a great idea particularly with multiple facilities and scattered staff, but the response was lukewarm at best.