If you are new to blogs and want to see what is out there I suggest you try the Blogger search engine. Blogs are interesting because there is more of a sense of a person or persons behind what you are reading. Web pages can be awfully impersonal. In fact blogs have given me a renewed interest in the internet and its capabilities.

Blogs have been compared to zines. Zines are photocopied small circulation magazines that tend to focus on friends, obscure bands and people who were famous in the minds of a few. Zines created a venue for punks, hippies and other outsiders. Now blogs can offer a venue for outsiders or unconventional ideas or they can compete with the mainstream media. This is something that the zine creators could never dream of doing.

Even though many blogs are dedicated to technical matters or media or other specific fields, most blogs are used to record personal musings and as a tool to keep in touch with friends and family. I think this is great.

I would like to see this blog evolve into a discussion by the Gulfport Library’s patrons and staff about what issues are important to us, what programs are the most interesting and how the library serves even in the most traditional ways: books, movies, and periodicals. Would you like to order books from other libraries from your home computer? Ask us how. You can drop in or pick up the phone and we can walk you through the steps.