Meet…
29 October 2008
SLIS Student Blogs About Library Issues
For the past five months, SLIS student Tawny Sverdlin has been a regular contributor to LibGig
, a professional networking website for information professionals. As one of LibGig's bloggers, Sverdlin submits her writing up to four times a week. When she is not blogging, she is busy taking two classes and working as a Library Specialist at the Fashion Institute of Design in Los Angeles.
She is free to write about whatever topics she wants, so she reads several other blogs and stays on top of the news in order to find ideas. She especially seeks out anything concerning libraries, technology, publishing or education to blog about. She keeps a list of potential blog ideas, then picks one at a time to flesh out. Some of Sverdlin's recent blog posts have been on topics such as "The Feminization of Librarianship," "Using iTunes in Academic Libraries," and "iPhone Privacy Issues."
Sverdlin, who plans to graduate in May 2009, earned her undergraduate degree in creative writing. Blogging differs somewhat from other forms of creative writing, Sverdlin points out. "I have to keep in mind that someone who reads my blog might be interviewing me for a job someday." With that in mind, she aims for an unbiased, journalistic tone, focusing more on facts than opinions.
Blogging appeals to Sverdlin because of the immediacy it provides. "The digital environment makes it so easy to hyperlink to other web pages," she points out, "and it's so much faster than printed publishing." The other aspect that she enjoys is the increased interaction with readers, who are encouraged to post comments on LibGig's blogs.
"I've always been interested in technology," she adds, "and I'm interested in culture, so blogging is second nature."
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