Ending my blog in 50 days

And so here we are.

When I first started blogging it as fun. There were many of us out there trying new things and sharing our stories. We were learning on the fly and forging our digital (and professional) identities.

That was a decade ago.

My blog became popular largely because I worked at Georgia Tech. It was an amazing environment. I learned that you don’t need a large budget to push the envelope—and they are still pushing it today.

The nature of my blog changed when I moved into administration. I was also writing for American Libraries and blogging became a chore. When the Chronicle picked up The Ubiquitous Librarian my creative spirit was renewed.

I started reaching a broader audience – vice provosts, CIO’s, and student affairs professionals started engaging with me. They gave me a richer understanding of higher education. I felt a responsibility to keep writing—to represent librarianship on a national level. I even considered bringing in additional authors to give the blog difference perspectives—one’s not focused on administration. Obviously that never developed.

So why stop now?

A few weeks ago the Chronicle announced plans to retire their Blog Network. My blog is a part of that system. They kindly offered to migrate my content elsewhere. Of course I’d do that. Blogging is engrained in my professional DNA. I could not imagine stopping.

And then I did imagine stopping.

I reflected on the value of my blog vs. other things that I want to do professionally and personally. I considered other projects that I could invest time and energy into. There are other forms of expression that I want to explore. Basically, this is an opportunity to disrupt myself and to move in a different direction.

And so here we are.

I’ll have a final summary in mid-July. But over the next 50 days expect a few wrap-up posts and some raw incomplete thought-scraps that I’ll be dumping out on the web.

Thanks for reading. If there is something you’d like to see—let me know.