Peer Reviewed Blogs in Academia

http://acrlblog.org/2005/11/28/academias-conflicted-reaction-to-blogging/

The conflicted reactions to blogging in higher education are discussed in a good article at Slate titled, “Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs.” It suggests several reasons while academic blogging is looked down upon, including departmental jealousy, that it’s considered a waste of time that should be spent on serious research, and that it falls outside the traditional peer-review journal system. Blogs however, seem to fulfill in many more ways the “fruition, not a betrayal, of the university’s ideals.” The article then considers that if a major objection to academic blogs is that they lack peer review, how might a system to judge and review them be put in place.

I would hope that academic librarian’s blogs would be counted for tenure, etc in some way. I hope the universities find a way to guage “service” and content contributed to the profession as well as the library itself. Looking at the stats for my survey, over 40 folks of 238 respondents identified themselves as academic librarian bloggers, more than any other position!