10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010

10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010
I started the “10 Blogs To Read This Year” 4 years ago to help highlight people writing in the many different areas of librarianship. Those people who are doing some of the most interesting and original writing on the web. Each year we’ve attempted to gather a group of librarians whose writing helps increase our understanding of the profession and it’s place in our rapidly changing world. Again this year we tried to choose 10 writers who cover very different aspects of our profession, 10 sites that inform, educate and maybe amuse. By following these blogs I think you’ll find something new to read, and a place to gain better understanding of a part of librarianship that’s outside of your normal area. We all have much to learn from each other, and these bloggers are working hard to share their knowledge and understanding with you. Read on below to see why each site made the list, and why there’s an honorable mention this year. This year I also made an OPML File for your reader. Here’s the list in alphabetical order:

1. Academic Librarian (Feed)
2. Awful Library Books (Feed)
3. The Best Of PubLib (Feed)
4. Disruptive Library Technology Jester (Feed)
5. Everybody’s Libraries (Feed)
6. The Library History Buff (Feed)
7. Library Garden (Feed)
8. The Merry Librarian (Feed)
9. The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries (Feed)
10. Walt at Random (Feed)

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Honorable Mention:
Agnostic, Maybe (Feed)

1. Academic Librarian: “On Libraries, Rhetoric, Poetry, History, & Moral Philosophy” Wayne Bivens-Tatum is the Philosophy & Religion Librarian at Princeton University and a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program. He focuses mainly on the Academic world. His essay length posts explore academia and other topics of interest.
2. The Best Of PubLib: A simple idea! Contributors to the popular listserve PUBLIB wanted a place to view some of the best strings of comments from the collective mind of nearly 8000 members. PubLib members include librarians of all sorts, trustees, support staff and library friends from all over the world.
3. Disruptive Library Technology Jester: Peter Murray is The Disruptive Library Technology Jester. His blog is “all about exploring the expanse between those two points, with a tendency towards the disruptive (but not destructive) side of the spectrum.”
4. Everybody’s Libraries: The “About” Page says it all: “This is a blog about everybody’s libraries: Libraries for everybody, by everybody, shared with everybody, about everything. The reason and focus for the blog is described in more detail in its first two posts: The Rise of Citizen Librarians and Everybody’s Libraries.”
5. The Library History Buff: “Promoting the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of our library heritage” The Library History Buff Blog was one of only 2 blogs we could all agree on. Larry blogs about, well you can probably guess from the name, library history. It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come, and yet how little some things have changed.
6. Library Garden: Library Garden has one of the best descriptions I’ve read: “Library Garden has been conceived as an ongoing conversation among librarians with differing perspectives (public, academic, consortial, state, youth, LIS) but one shared goal: ensuring the health and relevance of libraries.” Bromberg and crew cover a wide range of topics with some insightful and interesting writing.
7. Awful Library Books: “This site is a collection of public library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for public libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection. Contained in this site are actual library holdings.” It was hard to pass up Awful Library Books. You can’t help but ask, “what were they thinking when they picked THAT book?”
8. The Merry Librarian: “True Stories from a Library Near You…No “Shh”!” The Merry Librarian was the clear voter’s choice favorite this year. “The Merry Librarian is intended to give librarians and library employees everywhere a place to document the stories of their daily lives that are so bizarre they can only be true.”
9. The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries Kathy Dempsey & Nancy Dowd are the brains behind: The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries, “Marketing tips and trends for libraries and non-profits.” Let’s face it, Librarians need all the marketing help we can get.
10. Walt at Random: “The library voice of the radical middle”
    If you’re reading this you’re most likely a librarian. If you’re a librarian I don’t need to introduce Walt, I just need to make sure you’re reading his blog!

11. This year I decided to break my “no honorable mentions” rule and include an honorable mention. Andy’s “Agnostic, Maybe” would have been a “Blog To Read” for sure this year, but I didn’t feel right including it on the list because much of the blog gets cross posted to LISNews. It felt too much like I’d be recommending LISNews. It also didn’t feel right ignoring his work because it’s just so darn good. Just in case you missed his posts here, or there, be sure to check it out.

Our past lists:

10 Blogs To Read in 2006
http://www.lisnews.org/node/17775
10 Blogs To Read In 2007
http://www.lisnews.org/node/20341
The LISNews 10 Blogs To Read In 2008
https://lisnews.org/node/28830
10 Blogs To Read In 2009
http://www.lisnews.org/10_librarian_blogs_read_2009