I’ve been blogging for some time. In December of 2005 I decided to stop my political, hobby, and personal blog posts and began focusing on my new interest: libraries. I had just finished my first semester of library school, and realized I had posted more library posts than anything, and I wasn’t sure how my personal blogging would impact the inevitable job search.
So now you see just that: my library posts. I named my blog “Lauren’s Library Blog” largely because I felt it was too early to specialize and I knew I’d be writing about whatever courses I’d be taking. My subtitle changed fairly regularly, but I stayed with “Lauren’s Library Blog.” Now I’m trying to decide if I should keep that title, or move to something more subject specific (and a little less self-centric).
The problem, for me, is that I don’t know how to specialize. I love technology. I am really interested in virtual participation. My job title is “Instructional Design Librarian” and I truly believe that instructional design principles could help the field in major ways. Communication (particularly electronic) is another area I’m interested in. I’m endlessly fascinated by social epistemology. I collect in Women’s and Gender Studies and would collect in Philosophy if I could. I tend to be more theoretical, but I make my mark with innovation, and I tend to write more practical blog posts.
So, for those of you further into the field… how did you decide what to specialize in? Was it something you were doing in your day-to-day job? Something of immense interest to you? Some other determining factor?
After all, I need to get a better name for this place than, “Lauren’s Library Blog.” 