The second blog that I followed (as much as I could follow along anyway) was The Librarian in Black. "Amazingly informed and therefore properly opinionated" is the tagline, and never have I read a tagline so accurate as this one. The reason that I was drawn to this blog is that it is almost entirely dedicated to technology in libraries, a subject with which I am not entirely familiar. The author, Sarah Houghton-Jan, works as the assistant director of the San Rafael Public Library (where she was recently hired, having previously been the Digital Futures Manager for the San Jose Public Library System.) and is also a consultant for InfoPeople. The librarian in black is also very active in professional organizations, and blogs about her presentations and reviews and opinions of seminars she attends.
Over the past few months, many of the blogs have centered around the e-book issue, and particularly the controversy surrounding Harper Collins. (If you don't know what this is about, then you have NOT been reading any blogs relating to libraries at all in the past few months...) The LIB is opinionated- and that is good, because hearing the arguments and debates from a passionate point of view is good. Also, I happen to read a number of blogs relating to writing and publishing...and the opinions don't always match up, but sometimes they do, and that is important too. I don't know that this issue is going to be resolved any time soon, but it is certainly important to the future of digital collections in libraries, and therefore worth following. In addition, entries on digital music collections and Digital Rights Management are informative (and did I mention, opinionated?) and mostly written so that a novice like myself can follow and learn.
Also, she blogs about the seminars of the Computers In Libraries Conference of 2011, which I found to be very helpful in understanding many of the issues related to technology. I feel that in a few minutes of reading the entries, I can at least obtain a basic grasp of the issues and a rudimentary understanding of the directions in which library science is headed. Among the interesting panel discussions blogged, the ones regarding search engines, and how to get the best value for the search were particularly enlightening. These panels are relevant to me not only as a future librarian but as a current student. Learning how to search effectively, and where to do so, certainly saves time when conducting research and improves accuracy, so thank you LIB for bringing me these tips.
One of the entries which I was most interested in was a survey posted for a friend, a student at library school, who was conducting research on book challenges and removal in libraries. The results of the poll were disturbing, particularly as this related directly to the topic on which I was writing my research paper at the time. The greatest part of the blog setup, though, is not the blog itself, but the comments- stories and opinions from librarians all over the place, chipping in their opinions and anecdotes. The stories in the comments give a much clearer view of real life situations that we will encounter in our future careers. Plus, the stories of the patrons hiding materials and peeling off stickers, or of library assistants simply throwing away an entire series of books because he felt 'they were trashy' are funny, but wait they are true- so not that funny- but still kind of funny.
One of the things I found most fascinating is the manner in which many of the librarians seem to echo the idea that the ethics and lessons taught in library school just don't make it out into the work force; Putting your job on the line to defend intellectual freedom is a risk that many are not willing to take. In addition, it seems that some view challenges as an insult to their collection development and selection process, and that many feel that there is no reason to report challenges or removals to the professional organizations.
For this assignment I followed a variety of blogs to try to get a bigger picture of the field of information science. This included blogs about cataloging, about books, about libraries, and about librarians. But sometimes you have to just laugh. So...
As a parting note, one of the other sites that I followed while bookmarking blogs is Unshelved, by Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes.
Be warned, I have lost hours scrolling through these...
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