Best Blogs for Librarians

Librarian and professional speaker Tiffany Whitehead's Mighty Little Librarian shows her passion for her school library and librarianship in general. Posts date back to 2009, and they cover topics such as constructing a LEGO wall in the library, professional development, links to professional resources, ISTE conferences, the newest apps and programs, plus hot library topics including genrefying libraries and eliminating the Dewey system. Whitehead also posts some of her library musings about her struggle with book talking and her video encouraging students to pick up after themselves in the library. Her most recent post "News Literacy: Videos to Spark Conversation" (March 14, 2018) stresses the importance of teaching news literacy with a focus on fake news. There are four video links included; all of which are excellent resources for news literacy lessons. Previous posts can be found by date or by clicking on different topics listed at the end of current posts.

This is an excellent source for busy librarians who want to keep up with current trends in librarianship and technology. Whitehead's post often offer links to new apps and technology tools for the classroom that sometimes have tutorial videos for self-paced guidance. These posts could also be used in a professional development setting to introduce teachers to new technology or to allow teachers time to independently explore new technologies with support. Using this blog would encourage some teachers to try new technology, and it addresses current issues and trends in the library.

Whitehead, Tiffany. The Mighty Little Librarian. www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/. Accessed 23 Apr. 2018.

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Rutgers University School of Communication and Information's Joyce Valenca has been posting to her SLJ blogspace Neverending Search for approximatley 12 of her 40-year career as an educator and librarian. Valenca's organized and visually appealing blogspace is organized by topic: teacher librarians, instruction, information literacy, Google, search tools, and research. Her blog is the place where she shares what she has learned in her never-ending quest to learn. Many posts include links to helpful technology tools that can be used in the classroom. There is also information in sidebars, including the top 10 books published this month and links to recently published blogs. The post "A True Gift from SHEG: DIY Digital Literary Assessments and Tools for Historical Thinking" provides readers with several tools to teach students how to evaluate digital sources such as YouTube videos and Twitter claims. A February 25, 2018 post "Google: On Knowing Where to Start" discusses Google search options, including "...Google Books, Images, News, Newspaper, and Scholar." These frequently overlooked resources are some of the best research tools, according to Valenca. Posts are very helpful with a lot of great lesson ideas and links to helpful resources and apps. This blog could be used by librarians as a place to gather library and technology resources. Professional development opportunites for teachers to learn how to use new learning tools could be developed using this blog. A librarian could also follow this blog as a means of reading and considering another professional's opinion.

Valencea, Joyce. Neverending Search. School LIbrary Journal, www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/. Accessed 27 May 2018.

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Collette Cassinelli's Edtech Vision blog is her platform for sharing what she is doing in her library, sharing new technology tools, new projects, and her reflections on what she is learning. This site/blog is divided into several different pages. The Resources page features a list of "freely usable" resources. The Links page offers links to several educational apps plus a list of suggested activities to integrate technology into classroom lessons. The "Communication Tools for Collaboration" post discusses the importance of communication through blogs and discussion boards. It includes a list of primary level blogging platforms and basic explanations of what these two tools are and how they work and can be used in an educational setting. Cassinelli's "12 Ways Librarians Can Promote Digital Literacy" post discusses ways school librarians can promote digital literacy through collaboration in planning curriculum, offering professional development, and advocacy. Cassinelli is a Google Certified Innovator and encourages readers to use Google apps for the classroom. This site takes a bit of time to figure out how to navigate efficiently, but it is loaded with lots of resources and discussions on incorporating technology in the classroom. Posts can be found by date or by topic. The list of tags appears on the right hand side of the screen. This site is a great resource for finding apps and programs that can be used in the classroom. Librarians could use this site to organize lists of possible resources for teachers or to offer professional development opportunities to learn how to use these resources in the classroom. Cassinelli also posts very informative posts on how and when to use various technological resources, which is beneficial to educators who are not familiar with current technology.

Cassinelli, Collette. Edtech Vision. http://edtechvision.org/. Accessed 01 Jun 2018.