Blogs and Blog Readers

I have never used a Blog Reader before and did not know anything about it.  Through this assignment, I learned that a blog reader allows users to organizer their favorite blogs in an efficient manner without having to visit each blog individually.  The blog reader that I chose was Bloglovin’.  After exploring Feedly and Zapier, I felt like Bloglovin’ was the most user-friendly and it allowed me to search easily, add blogs, and categorize them.   

To go to Bloglovin’ go to:  https://www.bloglovin.com/. 

Here are some of the blogs I decided to follow:

Blue Skunk Blog: http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/

Blue Skunk Blog is kept by Doug Johnson.  He blogs a lot about library ethics for non-librarians.  He also blogs about how to technology is important in our classrooms. One blog that I found interesting was about how hiking is good for the brain.  I love hiking and as I hike I have always felt calmed and relaxed outdoors.  I agree that being outside is good for both our physical and mental health as well. 

A Fuse #8 Production:  http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/

This is a blog from the School Library Journal.  Most of the blogs are review for books and some are book trailers. Other blogs are about authors and their books.  One blog that caught my attention is Crazy Cool Things Librarians are Doing.  Some of the cool things that librarians have in their libraries are Redbox-like DVD dispensers, Ebook Kiosks, mechanical paper airplane launchers, and meeting rooms.  As a librarian, I would love to be able to incorporate some of these in my library one day.

Mighty Little Librarian:  http://www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/

The blogger on The Mighty Librarian is Tiffany Whitehead.  She loves to read, use social media, and is a technology geek.  She is a librarian at Episcopal School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.   She was named one of the 2014 Library Journal Movers and Shakers.   One thing that I noticed is that she is passionate about genrefication in the library.  In her Ditching Dewey: Choosing Genre Categories, she goes into detail how she categorized her fiction and nonfiction books.  I like how she states that choosing to genrefy your library, you can make changes as you go to what fits yours students and the curriculum. 

Watch. Connect. Read.:  http://mrschureads.blogs

Mr. Schu is the blogger for this blog.  He is a K-5^th grade librarian.  This blogs explores children literature through book trailers.  The book trailer to Grumpasaurus is about a dinosaur who gets grumpy when something does not go his way like his toy breaks.  Its trailer catches your attention and entices you to read it.  I like how this site is dedicated to promote books through trailers. 

Awful Library Books:  http://awfullibrarybooks.net/

This blog site is dedicated to weeding books from your collection.  There are four categories the blog is divided into which are:  why we weed, will weed for food, submissions, and practical librarian.  One blog I enjoyed reading was Dealing With the Staff Hoarder. This blog gives you strategies on how to weed a book.  First, develop standards and general guidelines, next gather data, then develop a routine, and lastly go small and slow.  Weeding books may be difficult to some people, but it needs to be done.  Following some standards can be helpful with the "staff hoarder."

Tumblr:

This is my Tumblr account:  https://www.tumblr.com/blog/monicasilvaposts

Tumblr was launched in 2007 by David Karp.  It is a social media network with a blogger platform.  Librarians use Tumblr because it is easy to use, it has social features, they are able to communicate with each other, and understand the online community.  Adding pictures, uploading videos, post texts, host audiofiles, embed YouTube videos, and linking songs are done by using simple steps compared to other blog sites like Blogger. 

Bloglovin’ has some pros and cons.  Some of the pros are that it has an iphone app, subs are listed in alphabetical order, you can categorize blogs into folders, it has a clean look, and it easy to transfer from Google Reader.  Some of the cons are that you can’t read a post on a reader, it opens up a website and you cannot transfer your Google Reader starred items. From personal experience, there are more pros than cons and I did enjoy using it.  It was easy to navigate and will be using it from now on.