Library skills and blogging success

John Farrier, one of the contributing bloggers at Neatorama, is in real life a librarian.  In an article for Library Journal, he discusses the interface between the two worlds:

Clay Shirky put it simply: “It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.” That’s why, in the past few years, the act of quickly finding and explaining new information on the Internet has emerged as the profession of digital content curation. It is a task for which librarians are well-suited and a potential source of employment...

Blogging has been around for more than a decade, and librarians have become active and prolific bloggers. But let’s distinguish between digital content curation and blogging. Bloggers might opine on the issues of the day or their personal lives. Content curators, however, are focused strictly on their audiences...

It’s what reference librarians do every day. We navigate the world of information to find the best content for our patrons in a timely manner. Have we discerned what the patron is looking for? What are the best sources for it available? Can we get to it quickly? How do we effectively present it to the patron? These are questions that reference librarians ask and answer during the reference interviewing process. They’re also what content curators do...

The need for a human element to guide users is what has made librarians critical for past generations. It will only continue as we make the shift into digital content curation...

You can read the rest of his column at Library Journal.