Library/Librarian Blogs

YALSA
http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/
The Young Adult Library Services Association, a branch of ALA, maintains this blog to keep library professionals updated on both organizations and the library profession. It also provides up-to-date information on book awards, authors, legal and funding issues and education. Because the blog covers such a wide range of topics, I didn’t find it as user-friendly or efficient as I expected. The blog archives are organized by author and date, but since I didn’t recognize any of the authors or know what topics were covered on a particular date, I fumbled a little trying to find information. However, as a new librarian, posts like the one below help me deal with how overwhelmed I feel at times.
mk, I know whereof you speak: I spent eight (8) years as a one-person library at MFPOW. And yes, it can be exhilarating and frustrating in the same moment (eg, research papers with classes booked 8 of 8 periods at the same moment a shipment of books arrives).
What I got from the whole experience was that you get done what you can get done, people tend to be understanding if things slide a little, and they’re always grateful for your professionalism and the time you spend with them on their needs. And at some point, difficult as it is to believe right now, you’ll get caught up. Then the fun really begins!
The blogs on Intellectual Freedom were thought-provoking, covering topics such as protecting “icky speech” and the trend toward self-censorship by librarians. The daily challenges of censorship are put against the backdrop of Intellectual freedom and the first amendment. YALSA and ALA are professional organizations that I turn to continually for information so this blog will help me keep up with the profession.



iLibrarian
http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/

Ellyssa Kroski works in technical services at Barnard College and as an adjunct professor of emerging technologies at Long Island University, Pratt Institute, and San Jose State University. She wrote Web 2.0 for Librarians and Information Professionals and a column for Library Journal’s Academic Newswire. The Blog is attractively designed with appealing visuals and I was attracted to the range of practical topics covered in the posts, topics that would help me improve my technological resources and student products. The topics range from Information Literacy, to privacy, copyright, saving money on technology and screen casting. This blog will help librarians and educators keep up with the newest technology, how to apply it in a school setting and its assets and drawbacks. However, some of the posts were over my head, such as “A Librarian’s Guide to Creating 2.0 Subject Guides” which I expected to be very helpful, but only confused me. For example, the explanation of Koonji:
Hindi for “key”, a koonji is a how-to or resource guide for a particular subject which is broken down into steps. Each step describes a process and can include narrative, recommended links lists, tips, videos, and images. Users can add and recommend links, vote for and add tips, discuss guides in forums, and rate koonji guides.
Kroski is obviously knowledgeable, but whether a fledgling techno-person such as me can make good use of all the information is unclear.


The Unquiet Library
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/google-social-search-feature/

The Unquiet Librarian, Not Your Mother’s Library, is run by Buffy Hamilton, media specialist, and Tammy Beasley, media clerk. The Home Page includes tags on Blog Etiquette, iGoogle, Pathfinders, and information about the authors. I was immediately attracted to the look of this blog. The opening page features a sidebar of book covers linked a preview of the book, including the first several pages. I recognized the covers as books I had recently ordered for my library; this feature will help me decide whether to purchase a book. There was also an article, with graphics about incorporating Google social and search tools in the classroom—since students are going to use them anyway, why not figure out how to take advantage of this educationally? There is a list of posts by topic, rather than just dates—making it easier to find information. The topics cover young adult writers, electronic note cards, collaboration, book awards and learning 2.0.
This site is visually appealing and contains information that will directly help me in developing my library program.