About

Mission Statement

The mission of Two Year Talk: A Blog for Librarians at Two-Year Colleges is to communicate news, promote discussion of relevant issues, and serve as a visible development vehicle for two-year college libraries.

Background & Current Blogging Guidelines

• The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is a Division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) is part of ACRL. Two Year Talk began as an independent project stemming from the ACRL CJCLS Section listserv, but contributors are not obliged to be members of these professional organizations.

• Possible blog post topics should be related to the mission statement. We encourage contributors to write about what interests them, making sure that it touches upon libraries in two year institutions and professionals who work in two year institutions.

• Many people will tell you that you should not write anything for online posting that you would not write on a billboard or post to a bulletin board in a public space. Typically these are good words to live by, and they provide us with an overarching way to think about how we share our expertise and opinion. Given that, bloggers and commenters should avoid sweeping statements and generalizations such as “everyone says…” or “all of…” and consider posting expertise and opinion with introductory words such as “my opinion is…”, “my education has taught me…” or “at my college we have done…”.

• Photographs and pictures should only be posted if they have the appropriate permissions for sharing. Please make sure all copyright laws and guidelines are being followed.

• Bloggers should link to other resources carefully to avoid dead links, inappropriate content, and confusing information.

• You are blogging as an individual and do not necessarily, unless you identify as such, represent the views of your institution.

• Two Year Talk is an advertising-free space. The blog is not for postings that might include job openings, positions sought, staff development needed, or staff development recommendations that could be construed as advertising. If questions or discussions arise on these topics, bloggers should use their expertise and opinion and – if needed – suggest “off line” or “off blog” emails.

• Bloggers should avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest that might include self-promotion, recommendations, or warnings on vendors, running for public offices, and endorsing others running for offices – on professional, state and/or federal levels.

• We recognize that some contributors may wish to exercise their right to privacy. Contributors wishing to remain anonymous can select initials or an identification to use with blog administrators and use those initials for signature. We would ask that bloggers who select this method avoid – as much as possible – switching from signed to unsigned posts to minimize confusion and blog management issues.

Privacy Recommendations

All blog posts and comments should avoid sharing personal information (in posts or profiles) including addresses, emails, phone numbers and content that could be used to identify information to be used against individuals in hacking, etc. Most blogs recommend that people not use their full names.

Header Image: My Library – 2,085 books and counting… by Geoff Coupe on Flickr