Library Blogs

There are a lot of amazing blogs out there, written by dedicated school librarians. Blogs are a great tool to incorporate into the school library. It is important to not only create a blog for your media center, but to encourage the other teachers in your building to create a blog for their classes. Unfortunately, “we’re failing to empower kids to use one of the most important technologies for learning we’ve ever had” (Richardson 16). By creating a blog, teachers can model online etiquette and how to create a positive digital footprint. In order to do that, “we educators must first own these technologies and be able to take advantage of these networked learning spaces” (Richardson 19). You can also show the teachers the professional development opportunities related to blogs. Many blogs provide information about professional development and creating your own blog shows that you are a leader in your field.

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One of my favorite blogs is The Daring Librarian. Written by media specialist Gwyneth Jones, is has a wealth of information and resources. Her posts are witty, yet appropriate and she integrates a lot of pictures and videos to grab the reader’s attention. She recently posted about Books Beyond Borders in which her students talked about their favorite books with their sister library in Louisiana (Tiffany Whitehead, see below) via Google Plus Hangout. What great way to use technology to connect with others! She also wrote an insightful post about Twitter and how to use it professionally. She suggests that educators keep their tweets positive and supportive. She also encourages that educators treat Twitter like a conversation and use it to interact with others.

I also love Tiffany Whitehead’s blog, the Mighty Little Librarian. Tiffany shares a lot of great tips and activities that she uses in her own school library. She is also a wealth of knowledge about professional development and conferences. One of my favorite posts of hers is “My Case for Social Media” in which she promotes the use of social media in schools. Social media can be a great tool for educators and can also be used to teach students about creating a positive digital footprint. She also discusses her success using a self check-out in her media center is a post she wrote in May. Creating two self check-out stations freed her from the circulation desk and allows her more time to help her students. Teaching the students the procedure was key to its success.

The True Adventures of a High School Librarian is a great example of how to create a blog for your school media center. She blogs at least once a week about happenings at the school and the library in particular. All of her posts have pictures and links to what they are doing. In a post from April, she talks about how she used Doctopus in a lesson she co-taught. She even includes an informational video and a link to the PD session she created. In another post, she talks about a visit with author John Mantooth. She provides multiple links to articles written about the author and uploaded videos of his presentation to the students.

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Works Cited:

Richardson, Will. “Footprints in the Digital Age.” Educational Leadership 66.3 (2008): 16-19. ASCD. Association for Supervision     and Curriculum Development. Web. 29 May 2014.