10 Inspiring Pinterest Collections Created by Libraries and Librarians

by Kiersten Bryant, former Head Editor, INALJ California

Originally published 3/1/13

10 Inspiring Pinterest Collections Created by Libraries and Librarians

Kiersten BryantSomething that I have realized while job searching is that there are a lot of interesting places that information professionals can use their skills – places that I had never heard of or knew existed. I have discovered many of these places on Pinterest. Pinterest can be used as a resource for discovering and researching places to work and to get a feel for the culture of the workplace in a particular institution or department. Just search for “library” under “Pinners” on Pinterest and you’ll be amazed at how many libraries, museums, and publishers come up.

I have compiled a list of 10 library-related Pinterest collections that I find especially inspiring and noteworthy. This list reflects my own interests (both personal and professional), and is a list of places that I think would be awesome to work at!

ALA Magazine

http://pinterest.com/amlibraries/

The American Library Association Magazine is the first library-related Pinner that I started following. My favorite ALA magazine board is “Featured Digital Libraries,” where libraries featured in the “Digital Libraries of the Week” from AL Direct are collected. I have a strong interest in digital librarianship so this is a great place to see what libraries have in their digital collections. The ALA Magazine Pinterest page includes many other useful resources on their boards such as library design, the top 10 challenged books, and a board of library associations.

San Jose Library

http://pinterest.com/sanjoselibrary/

The San Jose Library Pinterest site features items of interest from the San Jose Public Library and San Jose State University (my alma mater), including boards that provide a glimpse into their local, regional, and California history collection, and their collection of historic and rare children’s books.

Yarra Plenty Regional Library

http://pinterest.com/yarraplenty/

Yarra Plenty Regional Library, located in Australia, is known for their innovative and progressive service. The boards on their Pinterest site are creatively organized by Dewey Decimal Classification numbers. Each board is a collection images that fall under whatever DDC number has been assigned, providing a great place to challenge your DDC knowledge!

Flannel Friday

http://pinterest.com/flannelfriday/

I have an almost two-year old daughter that I take to the library just about every Saturday to pick out new books. We often attend storytime. She’s not the best at sitting still and listening to a book being read aloud, but when a flannel board is involved in a story or a song it definitely grabs her attention. The Flannel Friday Pinterest site is a great resource for children’s librarians that was created and is maintained by a group of children’s librarians. Storytime activities and flannel board themes are organized into an extensive list of categories providing an endless source of ideas.

The New York Public Library Mid-Manhattan Art and Picture Collections

http://pinterest.com/ArtPictureNYPL/

The New York Public Library Mid-Manhattan Art and Picture Collections Pinterest site is a feast for the eyes and a pop culture treasure chest! In addition to boards that feature some of the NYPL’s special collections, there are Mad Men and Downton Abbey themed boards. The Downtown Abbey board is a curated collection of early 20th Century Great Britain images from the NYPL digital gallery.  The NYPL Pinterest page has many more interesting boards to explore including boards that highlight occurrences that books and libraries are shown in film and art.

San Francisco Public Library

http://pinterest.com/sfpubliclibrary/

The San Francisco Public Library Pinterest page has several San Francisco themed boards including one that contains images of the “street kitchens” that sprung up after the 1906 earthquake from the library’s historic photograph collection. There is a board featuring the library’s collection of books and films that promote living a greener, more environmentally friendly life, and a board that celebrates the bookmobile!

California State Library

http://pinterest.com/castatelibrary/

The California State Library uses their Pinterest page to showcase images of their special collections from Illuminated Manuscripts to historic posters promoting tourism in California. They also have a board featuring grant projects that were overseen or developed by the State Library, and a board of California inventors and inventions.

Conde Nast Library

http://pinterest.com/cnlibrary/

The Conde Nast Library and Information Services department have created a Pinterest page that promotes their magazines, fashion, photography, and books about these topics. It’s a fun and inspiring page to visit for librarians interested in fashion history.

BGSU Music Library

http://pinterest.com/bgsu_mlsra/

The Bowling Green State University Music Library Pinterest site is full of creative and original content as well as curated content that is mostly music related. There are entertaining boards that feature images that incorporate record sleeves and books into photographs, and a more practical board containing images of the library itself, and comedic, but still useful videos about using the library.

Ringling Museum Art Library

http://pinterest.com/ringlinglibrary/

The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida began with the personal art collection of circus entrepreneur John Ringling.  The boards on the museum’s library Pinterest page reflect the materials that are in the museum’s collections. My favorite board is “The Circus” which contains circus photographs, posters, and other artwork. The board that has images of the rare books that are in the library’s vault is a must-see for art history enthusiasts and art librarians.

 

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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