5 Fun and Interesting Blogs to Follow

by Kiersten Bryant, Head Editor, INALJ California

5 Fun and Interesting Blogs to Follow

Kiersten_BryantNeed to lighten up your blog reading? Here are five blogs to check out when you need a break from the job hunt, or temporary relief from work doldrums.

Reel Librarians

Reel Librarians was created by academic librarian Jennifer Snoek-Brown who channels her passion for movies and her interest in the portrayal of librarians in the media into a blog that discusses and analyzes how films represent librarians. Snoek-Brown hunts down librarians in movies from all periods of film history: obscure and mainstream (a recent post talks about the librarian character in the new movie Monster’s University), and examines the significance (or insignificance) of the character to the plot. Reel Librarian is an intelligently written, comprehensive look at film portrayals of librarians.

 

Library Shenanigans

Library Shenanigans was started by a librarian as a way track “streaking, singing, and other funny stuff people have done in and about libraries.” Most of the short and entertaining posts feature “library shenanigans” submitted by readers. The Library Shenanigans blog is a good place to visit when you need a quick laugh to brighten up your day!

 

Librarian Wardrobe

The Librarian Wardrobe blog features photographs of real librarians and information professionals in their work clothes with captions that list what type of librarian they are and their geographical location. While it’s fun to look at the pictures of librarian fashion, the blog is also a valuable resource for someone that might have an interview at one of these institutions and wants to know how the employees dress. Librarian Wardrobe also includes photos from various conferences, providing useful insight on what attendees wear to these events.

 

Book Patrol

Most librarians and information professionals are book lovers. Book Patrol promotes book culture by showcasing interesting book related things for us to enjoy. Book Patrol celebrates the book with posts about book art, book news, books in pop culture, books in advertising, and more.

 

Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is a gem for history buffs and other curious folks. The purpose of Atlas Obscura is to help people discover new places and points of interest that are hidden or are easily overlooked, including natural wonders and man-made attractions. The blog lists events and field trips that chapters of the Obscura Society in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles organize to encourage discovery of local places and people of obscure note.

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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