Blogs & Blog Readers

The internet is great for dispersing and collecting useful information about education and librarianship, but with only so many hours in the day there is no way to read everything available. RSS services are great because they allow you to see highlights from your favorite websites and blogs and from there select what you want to read based on how much time you have and what is currently going on in your library. I decided to use an online RSS service that I could have running in the background on my desktop while working. I chose to use Feedly because the setup is easy to use and I enjoy being able to see article titles and pictures from different websites all together on one page. Another bonus is that I was able to have websites recommended to me by topic, a helpful tool since I am new to following library blogs. Feedly also allows me to narrow specific types of posts from a website. For instance, I am following School Library Journal App Reviews, so every time SLJ reviews an app, I will see it on my dashboard. This is helpful because a website like SLJ posts often, and I can narrow down what I see from them to the topics that I am most interested in or need the most growth in.

Below are 5 blogs that are part of my Feedly list that I find to be helpful in growing professionally as a librarian and creating a more student-friendly and accessible library.

1. Library Displays, found at http://librarydisplays.tumblr.com/

This blog has photos of shelving and display ideas for different themes and holidays. Pictures are tagged for easy searching when looking for a specific theme, month, color, etc. This blog is great because the library displays are all achievable and aren’t overly expensive or difficult to create.

 2. Mrs. ReaderPants, found at http://www.readerpants.net/

This blog is run by a school librarian working at an international school in China. Her blog includes lots of helpful things, such as book lists, podcasts, book reviews, and library lessons and printables. I love her book lists grouped by theme. There are lists for all sorts of themes relevant to students, including bullying and drug abuse to name a few.

 3. Library Link of the Day, found at http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/

This blog provides a new link every day to resources for school librarians. Links include news from the library world and articles about what is happening in school libraries around the country. There are a lot of links that talk about new happenings in technology which are what I would be most interested in reading. Links are conveniently listed by article title and month for quick referencing. 

4. Awful Library Books, found at http://awfullibrarybooks.net/

Sometimes you just need to laugh. This is a blog of hilarious library books, including their funny cover art and quotes from inside, submitted by librarians who are weeding their collection. This blog is not only for librarians who need inspiration to weed, but it can be enjoyed by anyone with a sense of humor. Many of these posts could also be shared with students to get them laughing and enjoying their time in the library, too.

5. The Daring Librarian, found at http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/

This blog by Gwyneth Jones covers all sorts of topics relevant to school librarians. Some of her most recent posts include app reviews, buzzfeed articles, and editorials on social networking. Her blog is great because it is a collection of fun, interesting, and useful information and graphics that covers all aspects of school librarianship.

Feedly displays new posts from all of the blogs I follow in one place. Though there are a lot of different websites to run a blog on, I explored Tumblr to see how school librarians were utilizing this resource. My tumbler page can be found at http://Mrsploss2017.tumblr.com. Though I don’t have much experience in using Tumblr outside of school assignments for my library science degree, I looked at how some high school libraries are using Tumblr and I think it can be a great tool in two regards. First, it can be useful for gaining knowledge about programs/displays/ideas that other librarians are doing. Second, it can be another digital platform to reach students and get them interested in visiting and using the school library.

Based on what I saw, high school libraries are using Tumblr in different ways. I viewed the Elmira High School Library and Chapel Hill High School Library Tumblrs. Everything posted by the Elmira library is literacy related, including fun quotes about reading and literacy with captivating graphics like, “Having books standing on a shelf in a room is like having completely different worlds at the ready waiting to be explored” by JF Hermans with a picture of a book shelf and a teen reading a book. This high school library also had a lot of picture collage posts with covers of books that share certain topics, such as YA literature with deaf characters, books from a series, and horror/thriller books for Halloween to name a few.

The other page that I looked through, the Chapel Hill High School Library, was used quite differently. I found a post recommending a book relating to current political topics, but there were also quite a few fun and quirky posts that really had nothing to do with reading but were really just fun trivia. Some of these posts included 3 pictures that show the progression of a tyrannosaurus rex being drawn in the sand and another post titled “Unusual Bird Nests Built in the Weirdest Places.” These posts were reposted from other Tumblr accounts. Perhaps the librarian at Chapel Hill purposely mixes “fun” posts with literacy-related ones to increase student interest in her page.

            For now, I plan to use my Tumblr page as a place to collect my favorite ideas from these blogs and websites, but I am excited at the possibilities of how I might use it when I am running a library of my own!