Interview WIth Kristine Woods

Kris Woods is not only the Media Specialist for M. A. Teasley Middle School in Cherokee County, she also runs the blogs Media21 and Media In the Middle. Oh, and she's the Communications Chair for the Georgia Library Media Association which means she's in charge of my project, the GLMA Blog.

I emailed her and she was nice enough to answer some questions for me over the intertubes:


Thank you for taking the time for this!

My class, as I mentioned, is Library Program Management and one of our tasks is to do an online exhibition project. I've chosen the GLMA blog because I've had it in my feed reader since deciding this is the field for me and have always enjoyed the posts, especially on controversial topics like flexible vs. fixed scheduling or thoughts on copyright and fair use. I've set up my own temporary blog for this exhibit and will send you the link when it's finished. Is it ok if I use a few kwout screenshots of some of the pages for examples? Yes.

What is the official purpose of the blog? Do you have anything to add that isn't on the "Welcome" page? When I began as the communication coordinator I submitted the proposal for a blog format to the executive board. They were very excited about offering an alternative communications resource for an online presence for GLMA so the blog was born. This brings our state association into the “21^st century” for communications and sends the message that we are integrating Web 2.0 technologies with the association’s mission.

Other than the obvious posting, what other services does the blog provide? The postings are only the tip of the iceberg for the blog. The blog is designed to be “one-stop shopping” for media specialists of Georgia. The right hand side bar features links to multiple resources for media professionals including conferences, standards, professional associations, online resources, professional online journals, etc. The left side bar contains RSS feeds to major media information sources. The GLMA blog is designed to be a part of any media specialist’s personal learning network.

Are the posters members of GLMA or can any Georgia Media Specialist send in a post? There are various membership levels for GLMA from student on up. All of the guest bloggers are GLMA members since the blog is a communications device for the association. We are always hoping to grow our membership. I would encourage all students in media programs to join at the student rate and then continue membership as professionals after graduation. Anyone is welcoming to leave comments on the blog.

I see that you and Buffy Hamilton do much of the posting. Are there any other regulars, or is it relatively random? In other words, how much soliciting do you need to do to keep in plenty of content? Is there a link of a list of all contributors? "Glmaguest" is a generic username given to those who agree to be a guest blogger. There are currently over 20 people who blog as they are available. These are members of the professional library media community in the state of Georgia ranging from university professors, GLMA executive board members, practicing media specialists, and instructional technology people, county media coordinators, and a few partners like GPB. I currently do not have a list of the contributors on the site. I am always on the lookout for more guest bloggers. Each guest blogger has an assigned day for their posting. Each one usually has a theme to their postings: Web 2.0, technology integration, primary sources, etc.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell me about the blog and/or how it relates to the organization?
Due to the success of the blog, at the Summer Institute, the online communications task force proposed discontinuing the quarterly newsletter format in favor of a monthly blog post. This new format began in August. One issue that comes up is that many systems have blogs blocked making the blog unavailable to some professionals during working hours.