Recently my library system decided to start a YA blog.  Previously we did not have much of an online presence for our teens and this will hopefully mark a change in the right direction.   We have it ready, but we will not be officially launching it until the end of the summer.  I wanted to share some of our goals and thoughts behind the blog so they might aide other librarians, but also so those of you who already have one can advise us on what will and won’t work.  So let the comments fly.

            In regards to content, we decided we wanted to model it after a blog called The Atrium.  The Atrium is the blog for the Grand Rapids Public Library system and it is one of my favorite library blogs.  The thing we liked about The Atrium was that the bloggers discuss more than just books and events.  They talk about anything on their minds, from the weather, to knitting, and everything in between.   Then they find a way to tie it to the library.  I have seen a lot of teen blogs that talk about programs and or books, but not too many that go beyond those topics.  We wanted something a little more versatile so we could talk about the things that really interest our teens.  We plan to write about anything and everything, from sports, to music, movies, or books.  Basically anything that interests us and would interest our teens.

            This then presented a small problem.  How do we make this blog applicable to the library if we are not necessarily talking about library events or items?  Well we have two answers to that.  The first is that almost every topic we could write about can be tied to the library.  If we write about the latest movie in the theatres, we can link to our catalog showing some movies we carry with those actors.  We could write about playing fantasy baseball and give a plug for a new sports book, or mention an upcoming program with a local athlete.  Secondly we decided that every other blog entry should directly tie to a library item or event.  This should not be hard, because, as mentioned above, almost anything can be tied to our collection or programs. It does, however, provide a reason for us to stay on task and it also helps us defend the blog if our board or administration is skeptical about its purpose.

            So, we have our content ideas ready, what about commenting?  We were unsure what, if any, rules we wanted to have for commenting.  After consulting the 12 laws every blogger should know found on the Aviva Directory and reading the comment guidelines on a variety of other blogs, we came up with the following guidelines, which will appear on the comment form.

• Please use appropriate language.
• For your safety, comments containing or requesting personal information, including phone numbers, will be deleted.
• Feel free to speak your mind, but please be respectful to others; offensive and inappropriate comments will be deleted.
• Comments are moderated; CADL is not responsible for the content of posted comments.
• CADL reserves the right to delete comments at any time for any reason; comments not directly related to the discussion will be deleted.

Most of these guidelines are probably not necessary but we wanted to make sure that we had the right to moderate the comments if a need were to arise.  They basically just give us the right to not post a comment, or to delete a comment, and they explain why we might do that.

            That is where we are right now.  The blog is ready to launch and we are simply waiting on a name.  We have decided that a fun way to launch the blog would be to have a contest, in conjunction with our summer reading program, to name it.  For the next month or so our teens will hopefully be emailing us possible names.  The winner will receive a gift card for a book store, in addition to having the name selected for the blog.

            Hopefully these ideas help any other folks out there starting a blog.  I would love to hear from those of you who have been running a teen blog for a while now.  What has worked for you and what hasn’t?  What do you write about?  Do you moderate comments at all?  And of course how have you attracted your teens to it?