Using Blogs for Research

I was giving an instruction session on electronic research tools to a group of summer interns the other day.  In trying to emphasize why they’d want to use the tools I was showing them (as opposed to just searching Google), I off-handedly mentioned that the content in the database was going to be better than a random blog they might find online.  One of the “punk kids” had the daring to question my inflated authoritativeness.   He asked how often and how quickly the database in question was updated with new material.  Too late, I stumbled into his clever trap. 

“Well, it depends…” I responded.   “For some sources, it’s nearly instantaneous.  For others it can take a week.  And for some academic journals it can take a year.” 

(Truth is I was pretty impressed with his question.  Most students don’t think along these lines.  He must have been a grad student…)

Even though I’m not that old, I showed my age with this line of thought.  You see, when I was in library school blogs were an area of knowledge on which a sign saying “Here There Be Dragons” was hung.  Blogs were just gaining traction on the information scene and their contents were viewed with suspicion.  That was less than ten years ago. 

Today I’m giving certain blogs as much weight and deference as I’d give to established print publications (which also have blogs associated with their various columns and authors). 

Perfect example: Today I’m reading the stories of bloggers sitting at both Apple’s WWDC and E3.  I can pass that information on immediately to our developers and our leadership who can use it to make informed decisions about the things they’re building. 

In other words: I use blogs as research tools all the damn time. 

(As a total side note, my biggest frustration with blogs doesn’t have anything to do with the content.  The content is fine.  The search features suck.  Have a more articulate background in search and the manipulation of database elements I want to manipulate the search features of blogs.  I waste a lot of time looking for items topically when I get a question because there simply isn’t a much search power under the hood of blogs.  Luckily, some savvy information providers like Lexis are starting to scrape and incorporate larger, mainstream news blogs into their contents.)

My primary research responsibilities (and those of the interns) revolve around technology and demographic trends.  Traditional journals and books simply don’t cover these topics as fast as I’m required to report on them.  While sometimes shallow on details, blogs and other forms of self-publishing allow me to get information very quickly.  The blogs I follow also tend to be pretty reliable.  And when they aren’t they correct themselves with updates. 

In the end I managed to save a little face by telling the students that blogs were fine to use, “just be sure to check them out” before relying on them.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think to tell them how to do that.  Luckily, a colleague in the room at least suggested that I pass on some of the more reliable blogs I’ve found to the interns.  In any case, I’m making sure to incorporate a ten minute segment in the next session on how to evaluate blogs for quality.