Blogs & Blog Readers

I took a look at several blog readers including Bloglines, Bloglovin', Digg, Feedly, NewsBlur, and Newsvibe.  After checking them out I narrowed it down to Feedly and Bloglovin'.  These were the two that were most appealing to me.  NewsBlur and Newsvibe were good, but they just cover news.  At the end I decided the best one for me was Bloglovin'.  I chose this one because the layout is easy to work with for me.  I like that the posts are spaced out and they don't look too cramped or too busy.

As far as Tumblr is concerned, I'm still confused about what it is exactly.  I had to open an account for this class, so I did.  I'm not sure exactly what to think of it though or just how I will personally use it after this course.  It kind of reminded me of Pinterest, which I also had to create an account for last year.  To be honest, I never check it.

As far as looking into school librarian blogs, this is definitely something I can use.  In doing this assignment, I noticed that some of the same people that we had to follow on Twitter also have blogs.  For example, Gwyneth Jones, The Daring Librarian, can be found at the following link:  http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/.  In her blog, you can find videos, book displays, lesson plans, and many links to resources for librarians.  She also shows her Twitter account there and something called Feedjit, described as a "live traffic feed."   Tiffany Whitehead, aka The Mighty Little Librarian, is at: http://www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/.  She too has lesson plans, videos, and other resources for librarians.

Another blog I looked at was by Cari Young.  It's called  Library Learners and can be found at at http://librarylearners.com/.  Cari includes many projects that she does in her library as well as videos, and lesson plans.  I like this blog because it is neat.  Sonya Dykeman with The Library Patch is at http://www.librarypatch.com/.  This is another blog that I enjoyed and found quite useful.  It has ideas for projects and many resources for teachers.  It also has links to
16 other librarian bloggers!

Lastly, a blog that I particularly liked was that of Mrs. Lodge's Library:  Resources for Elementary School Library Teachers.  This is found at:  http://www.mrs-lodges-library.com/blog/.  I really liked this one because of how it's organized.   It is more structured, very neat, and easy to read.  She includes topics as well as grade levels for quicker searches.   She also includes some good lesson plans, free worksheets, and pictures.  Mrs. Lodge also has links to her Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Twitter accounts.

To briefly summarize, school librarians are using blogs to share ideas for projects, to share lesson plans, to share videos, and to highlight events in their schools or libraries.