Blog policies

Thank you for posting these!  I really appreciate having the examples.  A lot of our libraries are moving towards blogging and are nervous about the comment aspect.  I think this will help resolve some of that nervousness.  It's always nice to have examples of policies to get an idea of what others are doing.  It's a great start to developing your own. 

Thanks so much for posting these.  Management here has been unwilling to open up the blog for comments.  Having some sample policies to show how others deal with moderating these will help to open up the discussion.

I totally understand the fear of negative comments that many library administrators have... they have built their careers in an environment where the press release is king and negativity of any sort is to be avoided at all costs. What I think they don't realize is that negative commentary is the perfect way to engage in a conversation and create a positive image for your instiution. My husband works for a university and is an avid blogger/social networker. His feeling is that the negative comments he gets are in fact the most important and beneficial ones because they give him an opportunity to discuss the issues brought up by negative posts. He can take control of the situation in a professional and personal way, and this has won him some respect from his readers. It's also a great way to lend some transparency to a corporate entity that can sometimes seem like a huge,impersonal monolith. I think that we need to find the courage to embrace the negative comments and use them to our own advantage... and you're right, a policy needs to be in place for us to do this. Blogging is about conversation, and having a policy in place to protect the freedom of expression that is necessary for an interesting, thought provoking discussion is crucial.