Bonus Blog! Blogging About Bloggers

Introduction to the Bonus Blog

For the past month or so I've been following four librarian bloggers in preparation for this post. At the beginning of the semester, Kristin warned informed us that we would be doing a bonus blog entry about the bloggers that we chose to follow, and provided us with a list of suggested bloggers. We were to follow two librarians within in our own interest in the library profession, and two outside. Below are the bloggers that I have been reading. The first two are my 'outside my interest' blogs, the latter two are my 'inside my interest' blogs:

Bloggers

Jacob Berg at http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com

Jacob Berg at Beerbrarian writes about academic libraries (and beer, as an added bonus). He is the Director of Library Services at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., and so has both an in-the-trenches perspective and an administrative perspective; in fact, one of his most well reposted and inflammatory posts is about the hiring process at his library. He typically writes about academic library issues, such as discovery services, as well as larger issues of intellectual freedom and censorship. One of my favorite recent posts in this vein is a discussion of how libraries are inherently oppressive (http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/yes-libraries-are-oppressive-so-what-now.html). He also discusses conferences and seminars that he attends.

Buffy Hamilton at  http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

Buffy Hamilton at The Unquiet Librarian focuses on issues in k-12 school media centers. She is the school library at Norcross High in the Gwinnett County Public School District, Georgia and has previous experience in other high schools at a learning strategist and high school teacher. She typically writes about issues inside her own school library, such as an extensive weeding project that she has taken on, and classes that she collaborates with teachers on. (For a recent, very cool example of this, see http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/informational-text-write-around-text-on-text-with-biologychemistry-classes/) More broadly, she reflects on learning can be facilitated in the school library/media center.

Brian Herzog at http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/

Brian Herzog at Swiss Army Librarian writes from the perspective of a reference desk at the public library in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. On an amusing note, Herzog posts a Reference Question of the Week every seven days, some of which highlight the challenges and highlights of serving the public, and some of which are a little silly. He also writes about other patron interactions and extrapolates to larger library policy issues. My mental classification of this blog is: a whole lot of fun.  

Sara Houghton at http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/

Sara Houghton at Librarian In Black is a fairly well-known figure in the library world. She does not post as frequently as she once did, but her posts are thoughtful, if not frequent. She is the Director of the San Rafael Public Library in Calfornia, a position that she has begun since starting the blog ten years ago. According to Houghton, the blog now focuses "less about technology and more about bigger picture library issues, including administration and management, as that’s how I spend my days now." (http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2013/12/blogiversary.html). Some of her best known posts address workplace harassment in libraries and library conferences and issues with library vendors.

Trends in the Blogs

Even though two of these blogs are outside my perspective of public libraries, and two are inside my perspective, in truth, none of these are outside my interest. They all address issues that I should be considering as I enter the field. Though the bloggers focus on different issues, there is some overlap. Technology is a big issue for all four bloggers, as is intellectual freedom and internet privacy. Education, formal and informal, also features. The Unquiet Librarian and Beerbrarian, placed as they are in an academic setting, discuss education the most, but  Swiss Army Librarian also discusses the informal learning that happens around the reference desk.

The best benefit of reading these blogs has been to expose me to the larger library community. My own blog has taken shape as something pretty self-reflective, and that is proving to be valuable- I'm really engaging with my own learning, as well as the course material. Engaging with my classmates' blogs is also proving valuable; I often find facets of the class or new insights that I didn't think about before reading their posts. However, even these blogs are primarily inward-reflecting, whereas the four bloggers I read, with the possible exception of Swiss Army Librarian, are primarily outward-reflecting. It is enlightening to read library blogs that engage thoughtfully with the big issues of the library field. As I move forward into the profession, I plan to continuing building my professional background by keeping up with blogs in the field.