Blog and Blog Readers

I have heard of feed readers but never really them. Once I started reading about them- I realized I already have one. Duh!!  A feed reader is also known as a blog reader.  I use Bloglovin to collect my blogs all in one place that is emailed to me daily. I don’t always have time to read or check up on them very often. The ones I follow regularly are also emailed to me directly as well, so I have a tendency to read those instead. After reading an article, I decided to check out some of the other feed/blog readers. The two others that I focused on were Feedly and Inoreader. I didn’t care for Inoreader. It says that it is the best reader for long term archives but I found  it hard to navigate and find the blogs I wanted to follow. I also checked out Feedly. I liked it and if I had to choose another reader to use, I would have chosen this one. I chose to continue  with Bloglovin because I already had several blogs listed on there. I did go back and clean out some feeds that I really have no interest in reading anymore. I added many more that followed on my own. This will be nice to have them all in one place.

Some of my favorite library blogs that I follow:

http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com/

The Library Displays has been one of my favorites to find ways to promote books or seasonal displays. Elaine’s blog is exactly what its name says: She shares her library displays that she has used to decorate her library. She goes all out when decorating and displaying books for the holidays. She is in a high school library but I loved some of her bulletin boards and book displays that could still be used in an elementary setting. In fact I have taken some of her sayings and created my own bulletin boards in my library. I’m sad that her last post was in December and she shared that she’s taking a break from her blog. I hope she comes back and continues but I think she may be switching jobs.

http://librarylearners.com/

I love this blog! She posts lessons she has done in her library, as well as those that others have done and shared with her. She does centers in her library, and shares the different ones she has for holidays and seasons. I haven’t done centers but I have taken a lesson or two and have done it with my whole group. At the moment, she is doing a book club online with the book Reading Picture Books with Children. She shares her take-away for each of the chapters as she reads.  She also has some great ideas for Dr. Seuss week that I will be using next week in my library. She also has a blog post about this spring’s Scholastic Book Fair.

http://thetcherlibrarian.blogspot.com/

I found this blog last summer while searching for library lessons on Teacher Pay Teachers. She posts a lot of ideas that are relevant to elementary libraries. Many of her posts are lessons she has designed for the library and sells on TpT. I check it regularly to see what new activities she has for upcoming seasonal or highlighted monthly activities like Black History Month, etc. She also offers freebies such as library signs, borders and other simple lesson samples. I have used and bought several of her lessons this year.

Lessons by Sandy

http://lessonsbysandy.com/

This blog is another one that found last summer while looking for lessons for an elementary library. I also found her on Teacher Pay Teachers. She shares lessons as well as book talks/reviews. Each month she shares a variety of books that could be used to read aloud or to review important concepts in the library. It includes a short review, the main themes/skills, and extension activities that could be done with the book.  I have used several of her lessons this year such as her Digital Citizenship lessons for elementary. I’m looking forward to trying out her research lessons.

Awful Library Books

http://awfullibrarybooks.net/

I found this blog once when searching libraries online. It shares information about weeding the library and why we should weed. It also shares books that participants found in their library. It fun to read about the old books they find and just how inappropriate they are for today’s libraries.  There is also a bit of discussion about should certain books be weeded. It is somewhat informative but mostly entertaining. 

I also played around with Tumblr. I didn't really care for it, it is too similar to Twitter rather than a blog. I did make a page. You can see it here. 

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/quietunknownreader