I'm a Children's Librarian in Canada's Maritime provinces. That's me with my co-workers celebrating the re-opening of our newly renovated Children's Department. Our library system is experimenting with a new method of training via online modules to help staff better acquaint themselves with the wealth of new sites and tools available thanks to the good ol' interwebs.
Our first lesson provided an introduction to blogging and using the Blogger platform. I was already familiar with this tool, having created a blog to review children's and young adult books as part of my coursework for the Master in Library and Information Studies program I completed at Dalhousie University (Librarians have Master's degrees? Yep, there's more to learn about our profession than the Dewey Decimal system). You can find it here: http://nance99.blogspot.ca/
Blogs have a lot to offer for people in library services, particularly those in public libraries where access to professional journals or conferences is quite limited. They can be a way for you to connect with your colleagues, find out about new developments in the field, and enehance your professional development. For instance, check out these blogs written by librarians:
- Librarian in Black: http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/
- Wired Librarian: http://wlteam.blogspot.ca/
- Information Wants to be Free: http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/
- Free Range Librarian: http://freerangelibrarian.com/
- School Aged Programming Blog Hop: http://thriveafterthree.com/2014/01/14/thrive-thursday-placeholder-11614/
Another great use for blogs is as a way to reach out to your patrons. For example, check out this great site by my colleague, Library Loralie: http://fictionfactoratthelibrary.blogspot.ca/?zx=c815722c42bab0d6. She set up a blog for her school aged activity-based program where participants could share their experiences. It's a great record of what they did each session at the library.
I'll be reporting back to discuss my experiences with new technology and reflect on how I feel it could be of benefit to librarians. So pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable, pour a cup of tea or coffee as the case may be, and make a point of stopping by to discover more about 23 Things.
Your site looks great. Thank you for sharing your favourite blogs, too! It is always good to get recommendations.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It is interesting to see the work our colleagues are doing on their respective blogs!
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