Can you recommend sites that can help me be a better librarian?

March 15, 2010 12:21 PM

I am a new reference librarian (but have been out of school for 3 years...yes, I drifted a bit). I was wondering if any MeFites, librarian or otherwise, could recommend some sites that would help me be a better librarian, specifically sites on librarianship. I have found some on my own but respect the metafilter input. Thanks for your time.
posted by snap_dragon to Society & Culture (11 answers total)

Are you in a public library, an academic library, or a special library?
posted by mareli at 12:45 PM on March 15, 2010

Regardless of what kind of library, get on FriendFeed and join the Library Society of the World group. The best description of LSW comes from this Movers & Shakers bio of the founders: "an online social network of like-minded librarians that has attracted a host of librarians affectionately disaffected from the more formal organizations of librarianship."
posted by dicaxpuella at 1:00 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Whoops...I am in a public library.
posted by snap_dragon at 1:32 PM on March 15, 2010

Well, MeFi's own mod Jessamyn runs a great site.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:39 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm more of an administrator than a reference librarian these days, but I find these pretty useful:
ALA TechSource
The Link used to be better when it was LII, but it's still pretty good
Multiple RSS feeds from LJ; take your pick
Library Stuff
EarlyWord (essential if you do any book ordering)
Librarian in Black (a little full of itself, imho, but better signal/noise ratio than The Shifted Librarian and others of its ilk)
Stephen's Lighthouse (see: Librarian in Black)
Libraries and Transliteracy
LibraryLaw Blog
posted by willpie at 2:02 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

All of the above are great (another plug for jessamyn's blog here), but what makes me a better librarian (to the extent that I am) is keeping abreast of my field (in the case of the public library, I suppose that means keeping abreast of as much as you possibly can). I read politics blogs, tech blogs, news blogs, culture blogs, anything I can get my hands on. Sometimes it's too much information, but that's what we're paid to deal with.

In any case, here are a few more recommendations:

beSpacific (Sabrina Pacifici; law and gov docs)

LibraryJuice (a sometimes contrarian take on librarianship from a great writer named Rory Litwin)

And on the lighter side, sometimes grimly so:

Dispatches from a Public Librarian (McSweeney's)

Don't forget LISNews, which is hit and miss, and seems more desultory than it used to be, but is still worth checking out.
posted by blucevalo at 2:19 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Heh. Messed up that link. Correct route.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:38 PM on March 15, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone....I will be sure to check these out in the weeks ahead...and any more posted. You guys rock!
posted by snap_dragon at 6:04 PM on March 15, 2010

I've recommended this before, but you should check out Unshelved, especially as a public librarian. The days when you get frustrated with babysitting latchkey kids and tired of dealing with crotchety old folks who can't use the mouse let alone open their email? That's when you open Unshelved's web site and say 'ok, I get it, this is a universal issue. now that I've laughed at it, I can let it go and do my job better tomorrow.'
posted by librarylis at 9:56 PM on March 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Nthing all of the above. Also check out Swiss Army Librarian, which is a blog by a public reference librarian. Has a great reference question of the week where he analyzes a question he is asked and details the resources he used to find the answer.
posted by bryghtrose at 5:57 AM on March 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

In the Library with the Lead Pipe
posted by Gor-ella at 12:28 PM on March 16, 2010