Yesterday I wrote about changing direction and being myself. Basically, I realised that it was time to stop trying so hard to write big issue opinion posts that I don't enjoy writing (and that other people are better at than me). Instead, I'm going to focus on writing blog posts that I enjoy, both as a writer and a reader. I want to write about cool stuff.

[Note: my definition of cool stuff is quite possibly not your definition of cool stuff :) ]

Blogs that I love / have loved

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I love to hear about cool stuff that's happening in libraries. Some of my favourite blog posts to read include success stories about innovative library services, descriptions of new tools and technologies that could translate to libraries, examples of great teaching experiences, and posts that inspire me to look beyond the traditional library sphere for ideas.

Some of my favourite blogs over the years that regularly provided this kind of content have been Connecting Librarian, Read Watch Play Participate, Libraries Interact, Librarians Matter, Innovate and Miss Sophie Mac (no longer updated). To name a few. Some of these are still going strong, while others are a bit quieter these days.

Then there was 23 Mobile Things / ANZ 23 Mobile Things, 23 Professional Development Things, and 23 Research Things. And does anyone remember #Octshowntell in 2010? That was so much fun!

Blog posts that *I* want to write (and read)

Even before #blogjune rolled around this year, I was thinking about how much I missed that kind of content, and I wondered if I could help to fill the gap by writing regular posts about social media / new technologies for librarians. I'm currently working vendor-side, so my opportunities for using these tools in libraries are limited, as I can't put them into practice right now. But I'm still a librarian, and I *can* talk about how librarians, as individuals and professionals, can use these tools.

I also want to talk about libraries and archives that have amazing collections to share, engaging teaching methodologies and gamification of learning, examples of libraries that are doing cool out-there stuff and engaging with their communities, and how we can improve the accessibility of services and information.

I've previously written about Twitter, Tumblr, Storybird, QR code treasure hunts, Blabberize, assistive technologies, Wordle, the Library Minute, Animoto, RNIB and Vision Australia on YouTube, Do Ink, retro library posters, Dropbox and Dragon Dictation. But I have so many more ideas and *cool stuff* that I want to share!

Of course, an investment of time and effort will be required on my part to keep my eyes open for new content ideas - this necessitates reading much more widely than just library content. And making time to play, experiment, create, and imagine. So that is my resolution for future bloggy me.

Collaborative blogging - yes please!

So, back to the topic of collaborative blogging. I'd love to write more blog posts about cool stuff for libraries / librarians. I'm happy to post them on my blog. But as I've said before, this is not a library blog. So how will my target audience find my content? And even if my posts do get a bit of traction and folk are interested in this kind of content ... what happens the next time they visit my blog and find a recipe, or a post about my garden or crafting? Will they come back? Will they find it worthwhile picking their way through my personal blog content to find relevant posts, even if I do use categories and tagging to organise them? I'm not sure.

The idea of a space where a whole bunch of people who usually only occasionally blog about library stuff could post their thoughts and ideas on professional topics (and cool stuff!) is extremely appealing to me. I could still post anything and everything on my own blog, but my library-related posts would have more visibility in an appropriate space where library folk gather, engage and discuss. Wouldn't that be awesome?


P.S. This is going to be my last blog post about blogging (I think). Time to write about cool stuff. And personal stuff :)