Image by Пероша via Flickr
Every so often, even in the hectic day to day, it’s good to pause and be grateful.
Running a blog is no exception.
Every weekday, we’re busy weaving blogging, curation, and planning into days filled with our real jobs — publishers, librarians, consultants, editors, and technologists. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we have a lot to be grateful for.
We’re taking the rest of this week off (I’m grateful I can create my own blog vacation time), and I wanted to pause to recognize the progress we’ve made in the Kitchen as many of our readers — especially those in the US or expats abroad — prepare to toil in kitchens of their own.
The Scholarly Kitchen continues to grow. In this, our fourth year, we’re set to exceed 700,000 visits, have more than 1,900 Twitter followers, and have more than 2,000 email recipients. For a blog in a niche (STM) of a niche (publishing), that’s a decent audience.
We’ve had some truly memorable posts on important topics this year. I can’t even begin to name them all. Our new bloggers — Rick Anderson, David Smith, Tim Vines, and David Wojick — pitched in some wonderful posts right off the bat, and have kept them coming. Our stalwarts — Phil Davis, David Crotty, Joe Esposito — have kept things humming. And our occasional bloggers — Ann Michael and Michael Clarke — participated as time allowed, while Stewart Wills’ Side Dishes present some of the most interesting links (and best headline writing) around.
We implemented a very effective redesign, thanks to Nicole Colovos. It achieved all of our goals, and Nicole remained available to help as we learned how to operate it. Now, we’re as competent with it as we were with the prior design (faint praise), and her design is working well.
Of course, our commentators provide a rich level of discussion and criticism, in the best sense of both those terms. I’m especially grateful for their contributions, and love all the friendly sparring, the occasional correction, and the insightful expansions these offer.
Finally, the Society for Scholarly Publishing continues to support the Kitchen — buying us those few things we need to function well online; providing moral support; and preserving the zone we need to remain independent and free-wheeling.
Most of all, I believe I speak for all the Chefs when I saw we’re grateful for your time and attention.
It never hurts to count your blessings.
Thank you! The Chefs are always interesting and challenging, and you will be missed (in London) over Thanksgiving.
Posted by Caroline Lane | Nov 23, 2011, 7:23 pm