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Finding Hidden Treasure: a Cache of Librarian Blogs

by Sarah Deringer, Head Editor, INALJ Mississippi

Finding Hidden Treasure: a Cache of Librarian Blogs

december 25 2012Every great once in awhile I find a collection of good blogs to follow, and this week I found four blogs that shine so much that Captain Jack Sparrow would not be able to keep his hands off them. The blogs are created by librarians devoted to learning more to provide better services to their patrons and customers.

A mission of mine is to learn as much as possible in order to provide the best services to patrons. By reading other librarians’ blogs, one can learn even more. The blog line up:
1.       Christchurch City Libraries Bibliofile (http://cclbibliofile.wordpress.com/)

  • Christchurch City Libraries in New Zealand created this WordPress blog in 2007 with the intentions of sharing what its librarians are learning about the library world. For librarians looking for blogging tips, ways to connect with teens and other patrons, and more, this blog is the right read.

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2.       Confessions of a Teacher Librarian (http://confessionsofateacherlibrarian.wordpress.com/)

  • Confessions of a Teacher Librarian is a new blog devoted to finding the best teaching and library practices to help student achievement. Patricia White, the Teacher Librarian making confessions, is currently studying at Charles Sturt University in Australia for her Master’s in Education (Teacher Librarianship). For librarians in the school setting, this blog will show some of the newest trends in school and teacher librarianship.

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3.       Adventures in Libraryland (http://marclibrary.wordpress.com/)

  • Marc Crompton has been a teacher for the past twenty years in Vancouver, BC, and recently changed career paths to be a school librarian. He is taking classes for his Master’s in Library and Information Sciences through San Jose State University. Follow Marc’s blog as he learns the ins and outs of school and educational librarianship.

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4.       Miss Information (http://miss-information.blogspot.com/)

  • Miss Information since 2004 has been blogging about what annoys her at the public library and what needs changing. The blog has a sarcastic tone with an underlying message that librarians are there for the patrons and need to know the best information and technologies to help. For librarians with a sense of humor, follow this blog.

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While I only listed four blogs, there are many more librarians who blog around the world in which to gain learning of best library practices. You can search on Google.com for “library blogs” or “librarian blogs,” which will bring many results. You can also search through WordPress and Blogger blogs for “library” or “librarian” to find more blogs devoted to library learning. A final tip for treasured library blog hunters, share the blogs you find with other librarians here at INALJ or on our LinkedIn page on this topic (http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=4112382&type=member&item=204843135). Or make a blog!

Search for library treasure, and share it with the library world!

Naomi House

Naomi House, MLIS, is the founder and publisher of the popular webzine and jobs list INALJ.com (formerly I Need a Library Job) and former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of T160K.org, a crowdfunding platform focused on African patrimony, heritage and cultural projects. INALJ was founded in October 2010 with the assistance of her fellow Rutgers classmate, Elizabeth Leonard. Its social media presence has grown to include Facebook (retired in 2016), Twitter and a LinkedIn group, in addition to the interviews, articles and jobs found on INALJ. INALJ has had over 21 Million page hits and helped many, many thousands of librarians find employment! Through grassroots marketing, word of mouth and a real focus on exploring unconventional resources for job leads, INALJ grew from a subscription base of 20 friends to a website with over 500,000 visits in one month. Naomi believes that well-sourced quantity is quality in this narrow job market and INALJ reflects this with many new jobs published daily. She has also written for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 LexisNexis Government Info Pro and many other publications in the past decade. She presents whenever she can, including serving on three panels at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Las Vegas; as breakout presenter at OCLC EMEA in Cape Town, South Africa; as a keynote speaker at the Virginia Library Association annual meeting; at the National Press Club in Washington DC; McGill University in Montreal, Canada; the University of the Emirates, Dubai, MLIS program and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Naomi was a Reference, Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian for a contractor at a federal library outside Washington, DC, and has been living and working in Budapest, Hungary and Western New York State. She spent years running her husband’s moving labor website, fixed and sold old houses and assisted her husband cooking delicious Pakistani food. She is preparing to re-enter the workforce and is job hunting. Her husband is now the co-editor of INALJ, a true support!  She has heard of spare time but hasn’t encountered it lately. She pronounces INALJ as eye-na-elle-jay. 

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