Directory of Australian blogs (AustralianBlogs.com.au)

Learnt about this via ConnectingLibrarian:

"AustralianBlogs.com.au is a free community resource to bookmark your favourite Australian blogs. Similar to del.icio.us (but less invasive - we don't need you to register or login), you can add your bookmarks or just browse to see what's popular."

More from the About Page:

PREREQUISITES:
:: It MUST BE about an Australian subject or topic; OR by an Australian; OR have a .au domain name.
:: It MUST BE a blog.
:: *** NO ADULT CONTENT OR SPAM PLEASE! *** (a zero-tolerance approach will be taken)


AustralianBlogs.com.au is staffed by a small but dedicated team of volunteers who believe that the Australian blogosphere produces high quality blogs that are just as good, if not better than those available offshore. Local content for local readers.

ConnectingLibrarian wrote at the beginning of her post:

We here in Australia are still pretty new to blogs, especially in libraries and especially compared to the US, but we are catching up. However, there is a new tool available to Australian bloggers and to those seeking Australian blogs, which will hopefully help our local blogs to become more a part of mainstream internet access and use here in Australia.

Yes, I'm sure with a "meta-blog", there will be greater awareness of blogs and bloggers. As I reflect on similar efforts like Tomorrow.sg and Yesterday.sg, I see two clear trends:

• Such efforts are almost always volunteer initiated
• There may be some organisational involvement (as in the case of Yesterday.sg) but it's sustained by a small team of passionate volunteers

Thinking aloud:
I'm convinced that as the Internet/ Blogosphere grows, rather than finding the need for libraries and librarians being diminished, there's actually an increase in the need for information/ information sources to be organised/ categorised and perhaps filtered (depending on the need).

However, this won't happen if libraries and librarians aren't proactive about it. What seems to be the case is that libraries and librarians (as a whole) are being reactive and late adopters to such developments. I mean, ideally it should be a bunch of librarians volunteering to setup such meta-blogs. Principle of First-mover advantage (not in the competitive sense, but more of establishing a need).

Perhaps libraries and librarians are too institutionalised, and therefore unable to react as fast. Maybe there isn't a need for libraries to be proactive about the development and adoption of social software and online user behaviours, because we have other priorities? Or is it due to a mentality of "let's stick to what's tried and tested, and let others do the experimenting first"?

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. : )