Saturday, February 5, 2022

Blog Readers and Blogs

February 5, 2022

Blog Readers and Blogs

 

I spent some time looking through and exploring the top RSS Feed Readers as listed in Lindsay Liedke’s article 7 Best Free RSS Feed Readers (2022 Edition) and decided that I really enjoyed Feedly the best.  It seems to be easier to navigate for me as I have never used Feed Readers as a tool.  Feedly also makes it easy to create different feeds based on what topic you are looking to follow.  For example, I was able to make a “Leadership” feed and a “Library” feed.  I found various blogs that support my love of books and offer library information to help further my career in Library Science.  I was able to find separate blogs to follow that will help grow my leadership skills.  When searching for new blogs to follow, Feedly seemed to give me the most options.  I liked Inoreader at first based on the look of it. It seemed to have a nice feature of creating offline folders to access my needed information, but it really wasn’t user-friendly. For a brand-new Feed Reader user, I needed it to be easily understandable.

            One blog that I found to follow is The Library Voice, which can be found at https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/.  Sharon McClintock Miller is not only a librarian, but an author and international speaker.  She shares current activities to use in the library that combine favorite books with new technology.  As a Librarian/Media Specialist it is imperative to best support my community by understanding and using books with technology support.

            Another blog that I am enjoying is The Trapped Librarian.  Laura Trapp is an elementary librarian whose focus is to help other librarians make the library the center of your school.  In her experience, it’s very hard to juggle finding great books for kids and supporting teachers especially during the last two years.  She shares up to date lessons, bulletin board displays, library events, remote learning resources, and so much more.   You can find her blog at http://trappedlibrarian.org/blog/.

            You’ll also want to check out The American Library Association of School Librarians (AASL) at https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/ for another resourceful blog.  The AASL is great to follow to keep up with the most recent library news, award-winning books, and their reviews along with professional development.  The tabs for “News” and “Blog Topics” make it very user-friendly to find what you need quickly.

            Another great blog that I found to be very helpful is No Shelf Required.  This blog is especially helpful because of the up-to-date information on digital content that can be used in libraries, higher education, and publishing.  The librarian’s job is not just about books anymore. The position also entails being a Media Specialist and knowledge of technology.  I love that this blog focuses on the new educational digital content, hence the name No Shelf Required.  The tabs at the top containing News, Highlights, and Resources point the user in the right direction to get started.  They even recommend e-courses to utilize.  You can find this blog at http://www.noshelfrequired.com/ .

            One more blog that I discovered is Librarian’s Quest.  I find this one useful because not only can educators express views about books, but students and parents can partake as well.  My educational and library first-hand experience has only been at the elementary level.  This blog gives information on recent topics for middle schools. There are also links to previous years if the user needs reviews and activities on older books.  You can locate this blog at http://librariansquest.blogspot.com/ .

 

You can find my Tumblr account at  librarylifewithlaura.tumblr.com

 

 

References

 

American Association of School Librarians. Knowledge Quest.  Retrieved February 4, 2022 from

 

https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/

Liedke, L. (2022, January 6). 7 Best Free RSS Feed Readers (2022 Edition). Blogging                Wizard.   Retrieved February 3, 2022 from

https://bloggingwizard.com/free-rss-feedreaders/

McClintock Miller, S. The Library Voice. Powered by Blogger. Retrieved February 4, 2022 from                https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/

Myers-Culver, M. Librarian’s Quest. Retrieved February 4, 2022 from                                http://librariansquest.blogspot.com/

Roncevic, M. No Shelf Required. Retrieved February 4, 2022 from http://www.noshelfrequired.com/

Trapp, L. The Trapped Librarian.  Retrieved February 4, 2022 from                   http://trappedlibrarian.org/blog/

 

 

7 comments:

  1. I didn't come across The Trapped Librarian when conducting my blog search, so I had to check her out! I love her blog and the simplicity of her site. It was easy to navigate and find things I was interested in. I love her lesson plans she provides for each month and the organization tips to make life easier. Definitely saving her blog!

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  2. I felt the same way about feedly compared to Inoreader. I had originally started with Inoreader and found that it was too complicated for me. I liked the easy of use on feedly as well as being able to organize all my blogs into categories. I also like your suggestion of the No Shelf Required blog. I started to look through it and it has some good information on there. Thank you for the suggestion!

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  3. You are following some awesome blogs! I am going to have to follow them, too! I forgot all about McClintock's vanmetrelibrary blog! I actually did a podcast about her several semesters ago. I want to be like her when I grow up! Ha! Enjoyed your blog.

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  4. I love the Trapped Librarian! She makes it really easy to look for anything on her blog. She always has fun stuff and she even lets you know of sales on other sites. Thanks for sharing her and reminding me about her.

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  5. Thank you for suggesting the blog No Shelf Required. I agree with what you said about how a librarian is no longer just in charge of books. Now the job requires navigating the technological world.

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  6. I love to read blogs, but I find I rarely have the time. I am a social media hermit, I think. I just recently got an Instagram account! I subscribe to several blogs that I try to read each week.

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  7. Great blog selections! I will definitely be checking them out.

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