Blogs, Tumblr, and Libraries! Oh, MY!

Hello, fellow teacher-librarians! I'm back with some new insights on library resources we can all use to make our lives a little bit easier. I want to highlight some clever librarian bloggers, library Tumblr accounts, and how they can help to improve your library program as well as mine.

Let us begin with the almighty blog! Blogs are websites that are updated by individuals or small groups that are usually centered around a certain subject. Bloggers tend to write about what they know in a more informal style to connect with their audience. For example, blogs are written about people's personal lives, about their work, interests, or any combination thereof. Many librarians (see: School Media Specialists) are moving towards using technology to enhance their libraries.

Before you start telling me how time consuming it will be to check in on all these blogs, I am going to offer you a simple solution. There is a way to organize the different web pages you are interested in into one compiled and easy to read place. Feed readers! There are many different types of feed readers that can be used to organize web pages you are interested in. Instead of visiting every site every day, you can used a feed reader that will be updated daily from any and all sites you subscribe to. After looking through several, I decided to use one of the more popular feed readers called Feedly. I prefered Feedly to the others because of its simple and uncluttered design. I liked how the page gathered the articles from the different websites I subscribed to and built a neat and clean feed for me to return to day after day. Another important feature that I liked was the Feedly Mini. Any page I visited that had a subscription service available would have the Feedly Mini icon appear on the lower right hand corner. It allowed me to chose whether I wanted to add it to my Feedly or share it on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. It's not a necessary feature but certainly handy while surfing the web. Now that I have all the blogs I want to follow in one place, I don't have to bother with remembering website names or looking through my bookmarks.

Now on to the blogs! I have invested some time to look into the sites of popular library bloggers and this is what I found:

Mighty Little Librarian
Her name is Tiffany Whitehead and she is a middle/high school librarian at Episcopal School of Baton Rouge. I really enjoyed reading this blog. She has tons of ideas on how to use technology in the library as well as other creative programming. She also writes a lot about her ideas on how to decorate the library and even provides tutorials for her projects. She's a big proponent of ditching the Dewey Decimal System and genrefying the library. These ideas can be controversial, but she advocates for doing what is right for your students regardless of what is traditional. I recommend following her blog and commenting because she also regularly responds to questions in her comment section.

The Unquiet Librarian
She is a librarian and writing teacher that blogs about her experiences. I love the ideas that she provides about writing. She is very free about sharing her work and her student's work. She also posts step-by-step guides for her lessons. I definitely recommend following her.

The Daring Librarian
Gwyneth Jones is a librarian blogger that is very well known in library circles. She is a big believer in using technology to teach students and has some really amazing ideas. Her blog is full of fun and interesting activities that you can use with your students. I also follow her on Twitter because she shares awesome links to other helpful resources. Follow her. You won't regret it.

The Adventures of Library Girl
Jennifer LeGarde is the School Library Media Coordinator in Wilmington, NC. She is an author and a fervent library advocate. In her blog, she shares many recommendations on how to engage students. She also writes about program ideas as well as fun library decorations and displays. A lot of her posts about challenging librarians to really connect with students and encourage their love of reading. She is definitely worth adding to your feed.

Of course there are many more amazing blogs that I didn't have the time to include but this is a great list to get started.

Tumblr is a another great social media site that can offer great ideas and entertaining reading. I also wanted to include a Tumblr on my Must Follow list.

Lake Forest High School Library
I decided to follow the Lake Forest High School Library. They use their Tumblr very often. They post funny pictures, book suggestions, pictures of teachers and students working in their library, and book reviews among other things. They do a great job engaging with their patrons and offering content and fun.

I'd also like to include my own Tumblr link for anyone of you out there that would like to follow me! I hope I've provided you with a little bit more information than when you started and that it will be as useful to you as it was to me. Tootles!

Currently reading: Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

Using Facebook and Twitter to Promote Your Library/Classroom

Hello fellow teachers, librarians, and teacher librarians!

The use of social media in schools is nothing new these days. I decided to take a look at how school libraries are using these powerful mediums to connect with their students.  I did some research on various school libraries at different education levels.  I have included my insights on each in the following commentary.

Mission High School Library- Mission, TX

Mission High School uses their Facebook page to promote reading. They often post inspirational quotes and images that encourage students to read for different reasons. The library also posts pictures of new books that have arrived in order to increase interest in their collection. They post current events of importance like the death of Elie Wiesel. Their Facebook page is relatively new having just been opened this year. There are not very many posts per month and almost no comments on any of the posts. They have a few ‘likes’ and ‘loves’ on some of the posts.

Larson Elementary School Library- Wasilla, AK

The librarian at Larson Elementary uses her Facebook page to share the programs that are going on in her library at any given time. She asks for volunteers and maybe supplies that she might need. She also shares books she is reading and displays she has created. She also posts about books and programs available at the public library in her town.  You can see that she has a lot of participation from the community because of the amount of comments she has on her posts, as well as, the ‘likes’ and ‘love’.

Oak Grove Middle School- Hattiesburg, MS

This library mostly posted memes about reading.  There were some pictures of the librarian with authors at different festivals. She also uses it to make announcements about programs that she is having in the library, but these posts are less frequent.  There are not many comments or reactions to the posts.

Cummons School Community Library- Cummuns, South Australia

This library is a little bit different than the others. It is both a school and community library.  The librarians post about programs and services that are offered by the library for their students and community members.  They also post pictures of their displays, the winners of their contests, and new books to pique interest. There is not much activity on the site from the community.

It is evident to me through my research that a Facebook page can be an advantage to a library when it is used effectively. I discovered that the elementary school used their Facebook in a much more effective way than the other schools. There seemed to be more interest from the school community and the librarian seemed to make more school related posts instead of just posting reading memes. I believe a library’s Facebook page is only as good as the librarian that is promoting and running it. If the librarian is able to get the community invested in the page, the library will really benefit from the positive exposure.

Next, I will explore some librarian/teacher Twitter fanatics.

Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) is quite possibly the “go-to” educational technology guru for librarians and teachers alike. She is very active on Twitter and boasts an amazing 55.5 thousand followers. I really loved her recent tweet on using Pokémon Go in the classroom. Being able to tap into something that students are pretty much obsessed with is an excellent way to make the “real world” connection fun and engaging.  Many of her tweets include links to helpful blog posts and wonderful resources that can be used by all. I definitely recommend you follow her and start collecting some awesome ideas.

Linda W. Braun (@lbraun2000) is a learning consultant, educator, librarian and YALSA past president. She mostly tweets about technology and educational practices. I followed her link to a research paper on how to get girls more engaged in the STEM fields. It was very informative and presented good ideas on how to get girls more involved in science and math fields by appealing to their interests. Another tweet was about subways offering free e-books for commuters. I also recommend following Linda Braun as she has many interesting tweets that will benefit you as a librarian or teacher.

Buffy J. Hamilton (@buffyjhamilton) is a writing teacher that used to be a librarian. She offers many resources and strategies in her tweets about writing. Mrs. Hamilton uses her Twitter to also communicate with students and the school community.  She is also quite funny when she quips about the ups and downs of her teaching and personal life. She does this much more so than the others I mention.

The Daring Librarian (@GwynethJones) Gwyneth Jones is an avid blogger and Twitter user. She uses Twitter to promote new books and encourage reading. She also promotes educational technology that can be used in the classroom and in the library. A lot of her retweets also involve programming ideas, projects and contests that would promote reading.

Jim Lerman (@jimlerman) is a parent, teacher, and author that is a big proponent of technology in education. He uses his Twitter to share the newest technology and how it can be used in the classroom. He also uses his scoop.it to collect articles and ideas that he then shares on Twitter. I find the scoop.it format a little user-unfriendly because you have to search through the entire page in order to find anything. I prefer a format like Pinterest that allows a search option.

Between the two social media sites, I would prefer to use Twitter to advertise my library. It is easier to follow a page on Twitter without feeling like you’re divulging your personal life. I feel like people are less likely to link themselves on Facebook because of privacy issues. Twitter, however, is slightly more impersonal and makes people feel like they have more privacy and are more protected.

Textbook Chart

Evil Librarian

Knudsen, M. (2014). Evil librarian. Massachusetts: Candlewick.

Summary: Mr. Gabriel is the new high school librarian at Cynthia's school. Her best friend, Annie, has fallen head over heals for him. He's very hip, young, and handsome. After a series of events, Cyn realizes that Mr. Gabriel is actually a demon. She hears of his plan to drain the students of their souls and make Annie as evil as he is. Cyn is determined to save her friend from his evil clutches as well as the rest of the students in her school.  When Cyn discovers she is a "super roach" and immune to demon powers, she enters into the fight of her life to save her friends and the school musical.
Commentary: Cynthia or, Cyn as her friends call her, is just your average high school character. She's highly relatable with her crush on Ryan and her diehard friendship to Annie. However, she is put in an extraordinary situation when her new librarian turns out to be a demon that wants to steal her best friend. She must become more than her normal self. She must grow and become brave to save her school. Readers will love to cheer her on as she takes on the demon world.
Connections: Teacher Resources, Book Trailer, Book Review, Author Interview
Similar Books: Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron; The Ninja Librarians by Jen Swann Downey; Fat Boy vs the Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach
Textbook Connections: When I saw the cover of Evil Librarian, I knew students would really like it and are more likely to choose a book with an interesting cover.

Goodbye Stranger

Stead, R. (2015). Goodbye stranger. Boston: Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors.

Summary: Bridget Barsamian is in seventh grade with her two best friends, Emily and Tab. Bridge survived a fatal accident when she was eight years old and she has been struggling with the question of why she did. Bridge often wonders about many things like whether her friend Sherm likes her as more than a friend or if the moon landing was faked. Although the three friends vowed never to fight, Emily gets embroiled in a sexting scandal in school over something that Bridge made her promise not to do. There are multiple story lines that explore the subjects of love and relationships.
Commentary: The characters in the story are all very relatable. They are in middle school and are plagued with the problems of any adolescent readers. There are multiple story lines that help to give us a more well-rounded view of the whole story. The theme of this story seems to be that there was a reason people were put on this earth. Bridge believes there is a reason she was allowed to live through her near fatal accident.
Connections: Teacher Resources, Book Trailer, Book Review, Author Interview
Similar Books: Ask the Passengers by A.S. King; By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters; The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Textbook Connections: In Goodbye Stranger, we see characters that are growing and developing in different ways under differing circumstances.

Bossypants

Fey, T. (2011). Bossypants. New York: Little, Brown.

Summary: Bossypants is the story of Tina Fey in her early days before fame and fortune. It chronicles different events and stories in her life from when she was in high school to her days on Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey also rights about her experiences as a mother, actress, and producer and how they shaped her into the woman she is today.
Commentary: The author's style is memoir-like. It includes important events throughout her life and career. She includes a lot of humor and figurative language to communicate her lessons. Her vocabulary and word choice add to the funny scenes she describes.
Connections: Book Trailer, Book Review, Author Interview
Similar Books: Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work by Tim Gunn; I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee; The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level by Chris Hardwick
Textbook Connections: Bossypants would be a great book for reluctant readers. It is written by an actress that most will recognize and it contains a lot of humor.

And We Stay

Hubbard, J. (2015). And we stay. Chicago: Ember.

Summary: Emily Beam has moved to a new school because her boyfriend Paul threatened her with a gun and then committed suicide in her old school's library. Emily avoids forming relationships with her new classmates and focuses on her studies. However, Emily cannot avoid the poetry that she has suddenly developed the need to write. She reveals that prior to Paul's death she had been pregnant. Although she did not want to go through with the abortion after his death, her mother insists. K.T., Emily's roommate, shares that she too is there because of a friend's suicide. Emily relates heavily to Emily Dickenson and realizes that she is her muse. With the spirit of Emily Dickenson to guide her, Emily can find a way to heal herself.
Commentary: The plot of And We Stay is unique because it combines realistic fiction with a bit of the supernatural. Emily goes through some very traumatic events like her boyfriend's suicide and her abortion. Throughout the book she learns to cope with her traumas and with a spirit as her guide she is able to find herself. The theme of friendship is prevalent throughout the story. Emily must learn to trust people. She tends to push people away after her trauma, but throughout the book she begins to open up and develop relationships with others.
Connections: Teacher Resources, Book Trailer, Book Review, Author Interview
Similar Books: The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos; The Gospel of Winter by Brendan Kiely; Two Girls Staring at the Cieling by Lucy Frank
Textbook Connections: And We Stay is a blend of genres and would not fit simply under just one genre in a library.