FLYING TO HONG KONG

Let’s leave Britain now, fly around the world, and take a look a what’s happening with Library 2.0 in the former colonies.

“Seek and ye shall find” is the title of the most recent post to  The KGV Library Zone Blogspot. I like that motto—it somehow suggests a friendly self-service attitude towards the delivery of library services.

According to Wikipedia, “King George V School (Chinese: 英皇佐治五世學校), often shortened to ‘KGV’ (pronounced as: K-G-Five), is a co-educational international secondary school of the English Schools Foundation, located in the Ho Man Tin area of Hong Kong. Currently serving 1,700 students in the Kowloon peninsula, and a member of the Headmasters Conference, it is one of the oldest schools in Hong Kong and consequently has a long history and many traditions.”

History and tradition are fine, but Web 2.0 is even better.

The school has embraced blogging as a method of reaching out to its students and making the “K-G-Five” library relevant. One thing about blogs, however: they must be kept current or what’s the point? After all, you want people to keep coming back to your blog to see what’s new and noteworthy. Nothing new has been posted on the “Zone” since December of last year. But then again, perhaps it’s summer holidays over there. Or, perhaps like librarians everywhere, Mrs. Chan and Ms. Tang find themselves stretched to the limit with their real-world activities and can’t find the time to keep this thing up-to-date.

The other thing about blogs is that in order to live, they need feedback. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case with this blog; most posts have 0 comments. So basically, this blog is a one-way conversation leading outwards. This is unfortunate. Perhaps the students are too shy or not encouraged to voice their opinions. Nonetheless, this is a nicely designed blog, with lots of visual material. Mrs. Chan and Ms. Tang have mastered the art of blogging and it would be nice if their students responded to their efforts.

The blog was launched in November 2005 and the first post was in memory of that great mythical Canadian, Anne of Green Gables (I knew Anne was hot in Japan, but HK too, eh?). The blog has a link to the LM Montgomery Resource Page, which is a nice touch.

Students and staff can social bookmark this blog through Socializer, whose slogan is “Simplifying Social Bookmarking.” That’s another nice touch. Links? Yes, they have links: KGV Online News: KGV Library Page; PageGV Book Club; and Hong Kong Public Libraries. Navigating these sites is simple. In order to access the School’s homepage, though, requires a side trip through the library’s homepage.

BOTTOM LINE: Very good. This blog could be great if it were kept current.

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