Rebranding the Hamon Arts Library Blog: Seeking Connections within the Arts Community

Abstract

Blogs are now a common form of social media used as a communication and outreach tool for libraries. With applications such as WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr, they are easy to initiate without much financial investment or technology skills. Yet the success of a blog depends on additional factors, including the planning, time, and effort by library staff. In this article, the author discusses how she retired the old Hamon Arts Library Blog for a newly conceived blog that is more dynamic and responsive. Her plan resulted in assembling a team to rebrand the library’s old practice of intermittent blogging into a new one that actively engaged the library staff and encouraged postings from guest bloggers. [This article is an expansion of the poster session “Rebranding Your Library’s Blog” presented at the ARLIS/NA + VRA 3rd Joint Conference, Seattle, Washington, in March 2016.]