Staff are encouraged to share their first name with patrons. Though this is the South so rather than first names staff are often referred to as Miss Newman or if I were a man Mr. Newman.

“I’m a New York City resident in my early forties, an investment professional, and a lifelong conservative. I have an MBA in International Business from Columbia University.”

Still, it’s a rarity.

I also have a related question: what are your thoughts on using a generic identity for staff interacting with patrons online? In my library, the practice has been (dating to before I got here) that when staff is responding to an email reference question, they sign the message “Chelmsford Reference Staff.” The logic is that we work as a team and anyone can help with the followup, rather than tying that question to one person. But at the same time, it can feel impersonal and imposing, not having an actual identified individual respond – and also means staff is often asking around to figure out who replied in the first place.

How do you handle this for the virtual branch, and what do you think is good practice in general? I guess it could extend beyond email to leaving comments, tweeting, etc. Thanks.

I was going to bring up the Feel Good Librarian, but I see Suzy beat me to it.

The reason that I blog under my real name is simple — I think that if you piss off the wrong people (gov’t, motivated hackers, strong ref librarians, etc), you will get outed. I believe that secrecy is poor security and eventually virtually anyone can be outed once their vitriol comes to the attention of someone willing and able to unmask them. So if you can’t count on your cover forever, why bother? Maybe I’m a cynic.

Like you, I find that I do engage in some self-censorship. For example, in my position I do not express public opinions on Alaskan politics. I vote in every state election, but as far as I’m concerned every politician is a potential client who needs to feel (rightfully) that I’m on their side when they need a question answered or a book or article delivered to them. Publicly taking sides in Alaska’s colorful politics does not help generate confidence – or job security.

This was pushed nearly to the breaking point during the 2008 Presidential campaign when I was a volunteer for Barack Obama, blogged about the benefits of electing Obama and then having Alaska Governor Sarah Palin nominated as McCain’s VP pick. I seriously thought of deleting everything Obama off my blog so as to not seem anti-Governor Palin.

I eventually decided that VP Candidate Palin was not Governor Palin for my “ban on Alaska politics” purposes. I did choose to ban all comments with Palin’s name and only writing about the positives of Obama rather than attacking the McCain/Palin ticket.

I’ve never followed the Annoyed Librarian, so I’m sure what the current fuss is about, but I’ve got a keen interest in civility and I think you’re right that blogging under real names helps promote that. But FGL proves that civility can be done under a pseudonym.