So people are reading this

So when I started this blog last weekend I didn't really think much was going to come of it. I knew a lot was going to come of Governor Strickland's budget proposal that would halve library support in Ohio. Oh, that was an issue that was going to explode.

I figured that since I was at the start of a week of vacation maybe I could follow along and post some of the events as everything mushroomed in the next few days. And maybe help make a few things happen.

I also wanted to try and find out the impact of social media such as blogs and Facebook and Twitter. I have accounts at all of them. I wanted to link my posts to my Facebook page and see if I could help spread the message. I could have done more. I haven't really gone to many message boards and other sites to link my blog, except for SaveOhioLibraries.com and Gov. Strickland's Facebook page and the Save Ohio Libraries group on Facebook.

Now I am finding out people are actually reading it. I first posted my blog URL on the first Library Journal article about the proposed funding cuts. Later I found out they incorporated my blog into the main part of the article. (Of course I forgot what I actually named my blog when I posted, calling it The Shuttered Library when that was the URL but I actually gave it the name The Library Is Now Closed. I like them both so will keep them both.)

Then I found out my blog was mentioned in Jessamyn West's librarian.net blog, which has been rarin' since 1999. And in American Libraries, who even figured out who I am. (Not that it's a secret; I'm not hiding and it's found right there through my profile if you click on enough things.)

Now this blog is even being linked on sports blogs, like RealCavsFans.com, which knew of me through my God Hates Cleveland Sports blog that I sometimes update. Kudos to them for stepping away from their regularly scheduled programming for a moment. Cincinnati librarian Dave Menninger gave me a link on his blog. And I found out from Rahne Everson of When Boredom Strikes that this blog is even peripherally connected to Neil Gaiman, who tweeted this the other day:

Foolish, bad Governor Strickland: Libraries are essential services. Read & RT http://bit.ly/ohiofail and its links #saveohiolibraries

I am one of "its links". That's pretty cool :)

I suppose I should put some links along the side over there. You know, SaveOhioLibraries.com, Strickland's Facebook page, news coverage -- stuff like that. But I am on vacation right now. Well, for a few more hours. Then it becomes just like any other weekend.

Except we're trying to save the libraries.