It's probably far from a secret, but the University of Minnesota library offers everyone in the University community a weblog of their own. UThink has been around just over a year -- they celebrated the service's first birthday on April 12, 2005 -- and has an impressive level of use:
As of [12 April 2005] UThink has 1,231 individual blogs, 2,200 registered blog authors, 17,654 individual entries, and 12,486 comments to those entries.... [Of the registered blogs,] UThink has about 400 active blogs and a blog abadonment [sic] rate of about 65%. Some of you may be stunned by this data, but it shouldn't be that surprising given that about 66% of blogs are abandoned in the "blogosphere" at large. UThink, it seems, is no exception.
Just think what a powerful communication tool your library could offer your user community. Whether for book discussions, community organizations, "birds-of-a-feather" gatherings among patrons with similar interests.... The possibilities are amazing.
