Organizing My Favorite Blogs

Many moons ago, I served as a campus technology liason for a year. During the summer professional development, I learned about RSS feeds to organize blogs and how to use Google Reader as a easy method of accessing their content and loved how easy it became to follow my favorite bloggers. But my brief stint as a tech liason didn't prepare me to do much beyond train the teachers to use the new grading program our district rolled out that year. When Google discontinued Reader, I was way into Pinterest (which I still love!) and didn't feel the need to replace it with anything else.

Now that I'm working on my graduate degree in Library Science, blogs have taken on a new importance for me. Teachers work with many other teachers but schools usually have only one library media specialist. If we want to collaborate or connect with other librarians, we must join and participate in the online community of other library specialists, often referred to as the "blogosphere". Fortunately, there are many options for feed readers that can keep my favorite blogs organized.

I chose Feedly because it has a free option as well as an iOS app that automatically syncs with my account, so I can access my favorite blogs on my laptop and in the waiting room, even on my phone when I go to bed. There was no learning curve involved in setting it up, all I had to do was input some keywords or names I wanted to follow, and received immediate, relevant results.

The experience of actually reading specific posts is also simplified. I am easily distracted by a lot of graphics when I read, so I appreciate that the feed is clean and simplified. On my phone I am able to swipe through the posts just as if I'm reading the newspaper on my phone, which allows me to focus on the content, not the graphics.

These are some of my favorite blogs and bloggers. You can also find them and more on my Feedly page. I'd love it if you shared your favorites in the comment section of my blog.

The Daring Librarian
http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/     


Gwyneth Jones is a frequent speaker on educational technology and has an award-winning blog. If you're interested in bringing technology into your library in new and exciting ways, her blog is a valuable resource.



Teen Librarian Toolbox
http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/about-tlt/

TLT is part of the School Library Journal blog network and is a great place to go for professional development and resources for your middle school and high school library.

Heart of the School 
http://heartoftheschool.edublogs.org/

The blogosphere allows librarians to connect quickly and easily with teacher librarians, no matter where they are located. Caroline Roche is a librarian from the U.K. and began this website to highlight best practices in UK school libraries.

The Adventures of Library Girl
http://www.librarygirl.net/ 

Jennifer LaGarde is a frequent blogger with a terrific sense of fun. She's also a digital learning and teaching specialist and a regular presenter frequent speaker. Her blog is a wonderful reference for librarians with questions about incorporating technology into their curriculum.

Library as Makerspace
http://librarymakerspace.blogspot.com/

This blog has many contributors, but I love that it focuses on developing Makerspaces in the library. Many bloggers post about Makerspaces, but that is the main focus in the blog. It's not centered around school libraries, but there are a wealth of ideas available here.

The Nerdy Book Club
https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/

The Nerdy Book Club is wonderful place to find inspiration for librarians who want to up their game when it comes to integrating new tools and strategies when incorporating literature into their library lessons. The posts are organized like a Pinterest board as well, which makes the page especially accessible for visual learners.

Tumblr is also a good place to follow leaders in information science and librarianship. Here's the link to my Tumblr feed: https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard