I followed the two blogs The Annoyed Librarian and The Magpie Librarian.
I chose The Annoyed Librarian because she focuses a lot on the profession as a whole. She comments on the professional organizations and looks at the big picture and how it affects everyone. It started out as a personal blog, but she was eventually hired by the Library Journal. At LJ, she writes a blog post just about weekly that has to do with issues surrounding the library profession.
Of the posts that I read, my favorite one was "Why People Hate Weeding Books (3/14/14). I was intrigued by this post because I am always a little upset when we weed books. I understand why we do it and how it is done, but I always hate to see a book go.
"People who don’t work with books professionally don’t think of them as commodities. Every book is sacred, and every magazine, too, judging by the old sets of National Geographic people are always trying to donate to libraries." I really loved this specific quote from the posting. I find books to very sacred and not just Holy texts, but all of them. They all tell someone's story, whether real or fictional, but they are someone's experiences, hopes and dreams and when we get rid of those books, it is almost like we are getting rid of those as well.
I first heard of the Magpie Librarian when I was at PLA in Indianapolis. She was supposed to be at one of the break out sessions I attended, "Out of the Closet and Onto the Bookshelf: LGBTQ Literature for Today's Teens." Unfortunately, due to a family emergency, she was not able to make it. So, I Googled her. She is a children's librarian in New York City. She is in her early 30s and would be considered very edgy. She was recently showcased in Kyle Cassidy's "This is What a Librarian Looks Like: and she also serves on the ALA Book Committee for the Rainbow List. On her blog, she talks a lot about programming and the every day work of being a librarian. But, she talks about these things with a sense of the larger profession. She is an advocate for libraries.
One of her most recent posts has to deal with combating racism in the her urban library. It is titled Racism is a giant, nebulous issue that I have no business talking about, but here’s a display
She did a really awesome display on stereotypes and how people are NOT stereotypes. I thought this was a really neat display idea that will really affect the patrons and their worldviews. She admits that "As a 30-something white lady working in a library where my teens are mostly People of Color, I don’t know if I’m the best person to be starting this conversation." I really liked this perspective because sometimes, it does not matter who gets the conversation going, but just that it is started. I think librarians, even those seemingly unqualified, are the best people to start the education. First off, we are bound to the ALA Code of Ethics that requires us to treat everyone equally. Secondly, we see such a diversity in our days at the library that it is easy for us to know that it is just a stereotype and finally, because librarians have outlets for getting their messages out there to the masses.
I really enjoyed following both of these blogs and will continue to do so for as long as the authors choose to write them.
I chose The Annoyed Librarian because she focuses a lot on the profession as a whole. She comments on the professional organizations and looks at the big picture and how it affects everyone. It started out as a personal blog, but she was eventually hired by the Library Journal. At LJ, she writes a blog post just about weekly that has to do with issues surrounding the library profession.
Of the posts that I read, my favorite one was "Why People Hate Weeding Books (3/14/14). I was intrigued by this post because I am always a little upset when we weed books. I understand why we do it and how it is done, but I always hate to see a book go.
"People who don’t work with books professionally don’t think of them as commodities. Every book is sacred, and every magazine, too, judging by the old sets of National Geographic people are always trying to donate to libraries." I really loved this specific quote from the posting. I find books to very sacred and not just Holy texts, but all of them. They all tell someone's story, whether real or fictional, but they are someone's experiences, hopes and dreams and when we get rid of those books, it is almost like we are getting rid of those as well.
I first heard of the Magpie Librarian when I was at PLA in Indianapolis. She was supposed to be at one of the break out sessions I attended, "Out of the Closet and Onto the Bookshelf: LGBTQ Literature for Today's Teens." Unfortunately, due to a family emergency, she was not able to make it. So, I Googled her. She is a children's librarian in New York City. She is in her early 30s and would be considered very edgy. She was recently showcased in Kyle Cassidy's "This is What a Librarian Looks Like: and she also serves on the ALA Book Committee for the Rainbow List. On her blog, she talks a lot about programming and the every day work of being a librarian. But, she talks about these things with a sense of the larger profession. She is an advocate for libraries.
One of her most recent posts has to deal with combating racism in the her urban library. It is titled Racism is a giant, nebulous issue that I have no business talking about, but here’s a display
She did a really awesome display on stereotypes and how people are NOT stereotypes. I thought this was a really neat display idea that will really affect the patrons and their worldviews. She admits that "As a 30-something white lady working in a library where my teens are mostly People of Color, I don’t know if I’m the best person to be starting this conversation." I really liked this perspective because sometimes, it does not matter who gets the conversation going, but just that it is started. I think librarians, even those seemingly unqualified, are the best people to start the education. First off, we are bound to the ALA Code of Ethics that requires us to treat everyone equally. Secondly, we see such a diversity in our days at the library that it is easy for us to know that it is just a stereotype and finally, because librarians have outlets for getting their messages out there to the masses.
I really enjoyed following both of these blogs and will continue to do so for as long as the authors choose to write them.
I also followed the Annoyed Librarian. I love her snarky style. There are many things about this profession that we like to hold up as sacred and I adore how the AL takes an inside look at what we're doing and throws a bucket of nice cold sarcasm on our ideals.
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