For class we have to pick four library related blogs to follow. Two by people or on topics directly related to our future career goals in libraries, for me that would be special collection libraries, and even more specifically special collection libraries specializing in early modern books and manuscripts, Shakespeare, and or English history. The other two, by people or on topics that are not directly related to our career goals, and perhaps even a little out of our comfort zone.
And it's HARD!
Turns out there are tons of interesting blogs out there, but how to choose the "right" ones? To be fair the ones directly related to my career goals weren't that hard, mainly because I had an idea of what I was looking for. I knew the subjects, issues, and types of institutions I wanted to hear about and that really helped me to narrow the field down. It was picking the other two, the two by librarians in libraries outside of my personal interests that proved somewhat daunting. I wanted to find blogs with voices that interested me, on interesting topics, and topics that I might be less likely to run into on the blogs more directly related to my career goals.
I used the list we were given to work from in class, but quickly decided I wanted to see what I could find myself and just started googling things like "librarian blogs," and seeing what came up. I would pick ones that sounded interesting and read their "about" sections to see how they described their blogs, and then I poked around a bit. I checked to make sure that they had recent posts, to see what the topics of those posts were, and how frequently they posted. I'll be straight with you, I ruled out a couple due to the fact that they had over 15 posts in the month of January, and I didn't feel like dealing with that kind of volume on top of all of my other reading for class. I did however want blogs with substantial posts at least several times a month -just as there is such thing as too much, there is also such thing as too little.
Anyway, after spending what was probably far too much time plumbing the depths of the internet for the "right" blogs for me, I have come up four (okay five) that I think will keep me engaged.
Drum Roll Please.....
For the two (coughthreechough) related to my personal interests I chose:
***Edit: Apparently we can't follow this blog for class, but I'm totally going to keep following it because it is a lot of fun: A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, by J. Vance, a "practicing polite librarian and faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University." The about section described the blog as "the number one, most-trusted source for authoritative tongue-in-cheek librarian etiquette tips on the Internet." (okay so this one is still academic libraries, but it's not special collections and it looks really interesting)***
And it's HARD!
Turns out there are tons of interesting blogs out there, but how to choose the "right" ones? To be fair the ones directly related to my career goals weren't that hard, mainly because I had an idea of what I was looking for. I knew the subjects, issues, and types of institutions I wanted to hear about and that really helped me to narrow the field down. It was picking the other two, the two by librarians in libraries outside of my personal interests that proved somewhat daunting. I wanted to find blogs with voices that interested me, on interesting topics, and topics that I might be less likely to run into on the blogs more directly related to my career goals.
I used the list we were given to work from in class, but quickly decided I wanted to see what I could find myself and just started googling things like "librarian blogs," and seeing what came up. I would pick ones that sounded interesting and read their "about" sections to see how they described their blogs, and then I poked around a bit. I checked to make sure that they had recent posts, to see what the topics of those posts were, and how frequently they posted. I'll be straight with you, I ruled out a couple due to the fact that they had over 15 posts in the month of January, and I didn't feel like dealing with that kind of volume on top of all of my other reading for class. I did however want blogs with substantial posts at least several times a month -just as there is such thing as too much, there is also such thing as too little.
Anyway, after spending what was probably far too much time plumbing the depths of the internet for the "right" blogs for me, I have come up four (okay five) that I think will keep me engaged.
Drum Roll Please.....
For the two (coughthreechough) related to my personal interests I chose:
- WYNKEN DE WORDE, by Sarah Werner. Sarah is the Undergraduate Program Director at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Associate Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and Editor of The Collation, a blog about scholarship at the Folger (which I will also be following as a kind of add on bonus to this blog. I actually wrote a guest post for The Collation last year about my Alternative Spring Break at the Folger).
- NIU Rare Books and Special Collections Blog, by Lynne M. Thomas . Lynne is the Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.
- Librarian.net, by Jessamyn West. Jessamyn is a self described "library technologist" living in Vermont. When looking at her "about" section I found this statement particularly intriguing - "I am not currently a member of ALA though I was elected to be an ALA Councilor in 2004. I feel the double-edged sword of participating in a flawed system versus sitting out and not participating at all." I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything but good things about ALA, and made me curious to hear more of her thoughts and opinions as expressed through her blog.
- Librarian By Day, by Bobbi Newman. Newman is an ALA Councilor-at-Large, a member of the OITP Advisory Committee, and a serves on the advisory board for the Pew Internet & American Life research on Libraries in the Digital Age. I thought Newman would be interesting person to follow as a contrast to West of Librarian.net makes a point to say that she is not a member of ALA.
***Edit: Apparently we can't follow this blog for class, but I'm totally going to keep following it because it is a lot of fun: A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, by J. Vance, a "practicing polite librarian and faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University." The about section described the blog as "the number one, most-trusted source for authoritative tongue-in-cheek librarian etiquette tips on the Internet." (okay so this one is still academic libraries, but it's not special collections and it looks really interesting)***
So glad you like A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette. Like the Librarian Problems Tumblr, its snark is such a delightful antidote to the earnestness we all feel about our work. :)
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