Judy O’Connell is an Australian Librarian whose blog Hey Jude! won the International Edublog Award in the “Best Library or Librarian Blog” category, announced last night. Congratulations.

Judy is Education Officer, Library & Knowledge Management, with Catholic Education, working with 55 primary and 22 secondary schools in the Western region of Sydney. She is also Vice-President (Association Relations) of IASL, the International Association of School Librarianship.
I LINTerviewed Judy after the announcement to find out some of her thoughts about using blogging in her job and for librarianship.
1. How would you describe your library job?. Officially and anecdotally.

JUDY: I see my role as inspiring educators to learn and lead in the digital world of our students. That we are in danger of ‘falling behind’ our ‘digital natives’ is one issue - but the actual impact of the digital world is the other major issue that schools, school libraries, public and tertiary libraries need to take stock of. Our world is changing, and for the better. But our libraries and our classrooms are often stuck in laboratory mode, and have not embraced the flexibility and the collaboration that Web 2.0 allows - and promotes.
So my work is an adventure. Officially it is about providing consultancy service to 77 school libraries and to schools in general. We have a SIRSIDYNIX Unicorn centralised library database in our consortia, so that alone needs important stewardship. Less officially my role has been about beginning to reshape our understanding of libraries, and about providing learning opportunities through articles and workshops on the possibilities and responsibilities in adopting a Web 2.0 mode of learning and teaching for all educators.

2. How long have you been blogging?

JUDY: Just started blogging this year in May, and owe my first inspiration to Stephen Abrams of Stephen’s Lighthouse at http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/. But since then I count my blogroll members as my inspiration and source of ideas for helping me in my work. HeyJude was the second blog, and my first blog is now has fantastic contributors adding to the dialogue.

3. You serve 77 schools, have you found blogging has changed how you communicate with them?

JUDY: Blogging is still new for us. But is has empowered us to take charge of our own Web 2.0 learning and experimentation. This has included hands-on workshops in Web 2.0 tools, and blogs being stared by school libraries and teachers for information communication, or for learning experiences for our students. Next year will see us embracing blogging as a main tool for networking, communication, and learning. We will be launching an official ’strategy’ that will make blogging an important part of our educational dialogue.

4. What has been the most rewarding aspect of blogging for you?

JUDY: The very best thing of all has been the things I have been able to learn from others, and the opportunity to have effective pedagogical dialogue with librarians and educators from around the globe. This personal communication, and the sharing of knowledge is the most empowering and rewarding part of blogging.
Blogging opens the door to so many other Web 2.0 possibilities!
Blogging also challenges your own thinking by engaging in critical reflection with others. PLUS there is so much going on in a web 2.0 world, and information/knowledge if expanding at such a rate, that blogging provides the ideal means of working globally on new directions.

5. What advice would you give to other librarians thinking of starting a blog?

JUDY: DO IT. In fact, innovation has become an essential factor in our digital world. Innovation is driven by ideas - and the best way to gain this inspiration is by blogging! Use the information that others have put together to guide your learning processes. Blogging alone will not produce innovation - but the collaboration, access to pools of ideas via blogs, wikis, delicious bookmarking, flickr etc will work for your library, and will all get tied together by blogging - either personally or for your institution. It’s the dialogue that counts!
To sum up:
Congratulations to all the wonderful librarians and teacher librarians who are immersing themselves in a Web 2.0 world. Together we can transform the knowledge environment we work in and play a key role in the digital future of our global citizens.