I was looking over the latest issue of ISLMAnews (newsletter of the Illinois School Library Media Association) and a list entitled "To Blog or Not to Blog?" caught my eye. The writer had recently posted a request to ISLMAnet asking for favorite library blogs. 59 different blogs were recommended in response to the query, and the top 5 were listed in the newsletter. I decided to take a quick tour and this is what I found:
#1: BlueSkunk Blog is written by Doug Johnson, Director of Media and Technology for the the Mankato, MN Public School. Johnson is a popular speaker and has also written 5 books. Johnson writes on a variety of school library, technology, and literacy issues. He injects a lot of humor into his musings and has a wide following. Some of his recent postings are "30 Things We Need More or Less Of" (scroll down to his library version), "Where to Start Improving Reseach Assignments" and "Become a Gmail Power User." I could get lost in this guy's blog...he has so many good posts and such a huge Archive!
#2: The Unquiet Librarian is written by Buffy Hamilton, media specialist/teacher-librarian at Creekview High School in Canto, GA. Hamilton was one of Library Journal's 2011 "Movers & Shakers" in the profession and both she and the blog have won awards. "Documenting and Sharing your eReader Program Practices" caught my eye as I am currently mulling a Kindle purchase for my library. Other recent posts include "Getting There Together: Assessing Student Learning" (excellent articles cited), and "Comparing Symbaloo and Netvibes as Information Dashboards and PLEs."
#3: NeverEndingSearch is written by Joyce Valenza, the library information specialist for Springfield township High School in Erdenheim, PA. This blog is part of School Library Journal. Valenza is a superstar in the teacher-librarian world and I have no idea how she does it all. I think she must never sleep, but spends all her time writing and updating all her social media, wikis, blogs, and websites. Joyce's blog is currently featuring the EXACT posters I was trying to describe to the class a few weeks ago...her post is called "Our New Posters" and she was also inspired by Gwyneth Jones' posters made using Comic Life. (I think this is defintely going to be a summer project for me!) "Pursuing the Perfect Pathfinder Platform" and "Book Trailers for All" both have my brain buzzing with ideas to pursue for my Love of Literature class students!
#4: Stephen's Lighthouse is written by Stephen Abram who is VP of Innovation for Sirsi Corporation. The tagline for the site proclaims that it is "illuminating library industry trends, innovation, and information." I must admit that I had never heard of this guy or his blog, so I was delighted to find an idea that I can use IMMEDIATELY in his most recent blog post entitled "Which Books Should Everyone Read" in which he described how Top 100 Book polls can be rendered visually by combining them and then creating a Word Cloud. So I immediately jumped from that to the idea that I'm going to poll my Love of Literature students and then we're going to create a Wordle of our own "Favorite Books of the Year." Awesome! Also, take a look at "Book Sculptures" which is a photo-essay showing how discarded books make wonderful art.
#5 (actually a tie with #4): Tame the Web, written by Michael Stephens who is a professor at GSLIS at Domican University in River Forest, IL (the only other library school in Illinois besides us). He was formerly a public librarian for 15 years. His interests are "Libraries, technology, and people" and how those three intersect. An interesting part of his blog are his "Guest Bloggers"--people like authors, professionals, and other librarians who are invited to share their thought, articles, or research via Tame the Web. This blog addresses a lot of Web 2.0 issues as well as established and emerging technologies.
Taking a look at these blogs made me want to sign up for RSS feeds to each of them! I tend to be so busy just keeping my head above water in my own job that I neglect the resources that are out there that could inspire and/or help me! But keeping in touch with other professionals and trends in the field is vital for my own professional development. Also, school librarians tend to be solitary in their schools (I'm the only one), so reaching out by connecting with bloggers, wikis, listservs, and other media is refreshing, if only to remind oneself "I am not alone!"
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