Task Force on Social Networking Software

Medical Library Association

Web 2.0 technologies and AHIP

Filed under: Social Networking @ MLA, TF — Melissa_DeSantis at 4:38 pm on Monday, September 24, 2007

Currently AHIP applicants can earn up to 20 AHIP points per year (http://www.mlanet.org/academy/pointindex.html) for editing a Section, Chapter, Regional or State newsletter.   A number of MLA groups are exploring the use of blogs and wikis, and considering using them instead of newsletters.  Web 2.0 technologies can be helpful with issues regarding communication and workflow that come up in Section, Chapter, State or Regional professional development activities where members are geographically dispersed.

 

Should AHIP benefits be extended to applicants that maintain blogs or wikis for these same groups?  I think they should, as all that is changing is the method for communicating the information.  What feedback could we provide to the MLA Credentialing Committee to help them consider making this change?  I’m working on a statement to the Credentialing Committee and I’d like to hear thoughts from others about why AHIP points should, or should not, be awarded to people that maintain blogs, wikis or other 2.0 technology for professional development.

3 Comments »

400

Comment by Sue Ben-Dor

September 24, 2007 @ 4:50 pm

Oh Melissa,

Of course they should get the AHIP credits BUT I think there ought to be some accountability in the process. I think it is too easy to establish a blog or wiki or whatever and then drop it or not keep it up to date. That of course can be done with newsletters as well but it is a little harder I think to do so when you have a schedule (the newsletter must be published four times a year for instance) A blog or wiki can be very labor intensive with almost constant posts or changes. Hmmm maybe they should get more points, for using Web 2.0 technology and for keeping up with a blog or wiki for some specific period of time.

473

Comment by Bart Ragon

September 26, 2007 @ 12:40 pm

What if the blog was the format of the newsletter with the same required publishing schedule? In our library we migrated our newsletter into Wordpress, yet we maintain the same publishing schedule.

In some ways this has increased the accessibility of the newsletter. If there is a relevant news item we go ahead and write the news item (i.e. the library buys a new journal package). In this case we go ahead and publish the news item and the news is displayed on the newsletter/blog. Our publishing schedule may not be for another 60 days. The newsletter will still be published (electronic mailing list subscription) on its predefined schedule with all news items for the period.

So at this point Wordpress is simply the container, not a blog.

484

Comment by Michelle

September 26, 2007 @ 5:37 pm

I think if a person is getting AHIP points for editing a newsletter they should get the same amount of points if the blog/wiki fulfills that sort of service and it is being regularly maintained and updated.

Correct me if I am wrong but don’t you get AHIP points if you maintain the section, chapter, regional, website? I wonder if the person doing the website would also be the one who would be maintaining the blog/wiki, since that person is usually a little more tech savvy, has the passwords, etc. If so what kind of points does maintaining the website and the blog merit?

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

(

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>