New blogs to read

One of my every summer projects is working with the juvenile collection; shifting books in the stacks (because you never know what letter of the alphabet is going to need more room), adjusting shelves (because I'm shifting books in the stacks), cleaning shelves with disinfectant wipes (because you can only imagine), weeding books (is it historical or just old with outdated information), and contacting faculty with questions about titles in their subject areas, all made a bit more difficult because of the finite space (but, I digress). I am always satisfied when the job is complete and I can make new signs for the stacks. Finishing this job for another summer means the collection is ready for new books, of which selecting, purchasing, and reading is a great job perk. So, while in the weeding mode, it is time to review blog and news feeds in my reader.

I find it oddly easy to be complacent about outdated feeds, after all, I can simply mark them read and move on to the next entry. But there is the nagging feeling of wasted time and it bother's my happy librarian's soul to proverbially waste the space better suited for something else. I've gone through my reader and removed blogs that have not posted in the last six to eight months, have changed their locations and/or feeds, contain topics that are no longer of interest to me, or are duplicates of Twitter (feeds) and Facebook (likes) I'm also following. Now it is time to add new blog feeds to my reader, starting with library blogs. 

A good place to start for library blogs is  Salem Press Library Blog Center; they have several categories of library blogs detailed with short biographical blurbs about blog authors and contributors. For the last three years, Salem Press has sponsored the Library Blog Awards (and in all honesty, we see an increase in traffic during their voting) and I enjoy perusing their nominations and winners. I viewed the academic blog list, quirky library blogs, and newly discovered blogs and chose to add these blogs to my reader (yes, the list is alphabetical).

• Agnostic, Maybe
• Bib 2.0
• Confessions of a Science Librarian
• Hey, Jude
• K-M the Librarian
• Lucacept
• Thoughts from a Library Administrator
• Virtual Dave ... Real Blog
• The Waki Librarian

As you are reading my list, feel free to add library and educational technology blog recommendations in the comments.

Spring Cleaning

Sara's post, Spring is in the air, along with a few days of watching students clean out dorm rooms (bring those books back to the library!), files and binders, network drives, and flash drives, compelled me to make the leap to spring cleaning my Bloglines account. I periodically weed the garden, weed library and IRC collections, and sometimes when I'm feeling adventurous I weed my IE bookmarks. But in the last year or so I have only added blogs to my reader, I have not removed ones I no longer read or have become stagnant. Viewing my plethora of updated feeds after lunch, I spent a few minutes weeding my Bloglines account.

Naturally, because I could not help myself, I put together a short list of criteria to speed things along. I did not let the number of other people subscribed to a blog sway me (no peer pressure) and nor did I consider what I should read verses what I wanted to read. I removed:

• Blogs without posts in the last six months
• Blogs I routinely preview but do not read
• Blogs that no longer were of interest
• Blogs that I felt had become tired

In about fifteen minutes - and with little remorse - I removed twenty blogs from my reader; I now have a more manageable number of resources with 58. A bit of irony, one of the first blogs I removed detailed ten tips for better blogging in the new year with the first resolution noted was to create a schedule for posting. It was the most recent post with a date of January 3, 2008.

Now I am ready to add new blogs to my feed reader!

Wondering about the srping flowers? The tulips pictured above are on the AU campus, near the library. The campus is especially colorful during the spring as we ready for graduation.

Libraries in the News

Wow this has been quite a week as the mainstream media has definitely been shining its spotlight on libraries and librarians. For librarianship as a profession the coverage has been favorable as the Wall Street Journal talked about our changing role which compliments the recognition given last month by the U.S. News & World Report naming it one of the 25 best careers of 2007.

Unfortunately, the news hasn't been so kind to all. The New York Times first reported on Tuesday about the Maplewood Memorial Library in New Jersey which has decided to close between 2:45-5pm due to crowds of Middle and High School students who hang out there after school until their parents pick them up after work. Apparently there have been multiple problems over the years with some misbehaving teens and the library feels that this is their only option at this time. The paper posted a follow-up piece today about the situation which indicates that the government in Maplewood seems to be trying to come up with alternative solutions.

Fairfax County Public Library has also sent the media into a tizzy with their new weeding program. It was reported on Tuesday in an article in the Washington Post and then lambasted in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Both pieces are quick to emphasize the elimination of "classics" for newer books. Due to the coverage, the library has posted a response on their website to help explain their position. I particularly recommend reading the responses to the Wall Street Journal piece as they represent the opinions of many members of the public. The issue of weeding has always been controversial when the public is involved, but it is also not without debate within the library profession. One response to this item worth reading (whether or not you agree) is at the Annoyed Librarian.

Tags: libraries, librarianship, libraries in the news, Fairfax County Public Library, Maplewood Library