The Krafty Librarian posted yesterday about a conversation we had been having concerning blog etiquette, so I thought I should address it here too. Krafty went so far as to give her readers a top ten list of blogging etiquette rules, but I am mainly concerned with rule number one: citing your sources.

It is only natural as we surf our way around the blogosphere to read interesting items on other blogs that we too want to blog about. Unfortunately, bloggers sometimes cross the line between sharing/commenting and poaching. It's a line that shouldn't and doesn't need to be crossed. Krafty and I were discussing it yesterday as an issue of professionalism, but for me it is more than that. Not only is it unprofessional (and rude) to not give a shout out to the person who got you blogging about a certain topic, but it is a disservice to your blog readers as you are essentially cutting them out of a portion of the conversation. One of the great things about blogs is the fact that a topic of conversation can start on one blog, move to another person's blog, then another's, and then another's. If readers don't know how the conversation originated, they will lose out on the insight and thoughts of other readers and bloggers. And in the end it is the readers who suffer for it, not the bloggers. So do your readers a favor. If you blog about something you've read on another blog, give that blogger a shout out.

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