Before taking LIS 6010, I never really had attempted to create my own blog or even attempted to read others. When I was asked to create a blog and I saw that I had an assignment that included a post about others blogs, I felt that this assignment would give me some great insights into what a blog is, and what it can be about. I followed along with two blogs for the past month or so, and found that they were similar to what I was doing on my own.
One blog that caught my attention was the "Annoyed Librarian" (http://lj.libraryjournal.com/blogs/annoyedlibrarian/page/2/).The Annoyed Librarian portrays each post as a venting session, but often also tells a story that shows a behind the scenes for librarians. At first I was a little scared that a librarian speaking so candidly could lead to trouble for the person behind the Annoyed Librarian. However, librarians are apart of the community that they work in, and their opinions are just as important at the patrons themselves.
The Annoyed Librarian voices their opinion on what is happening to libraries around the world. It may even be some sort of a tactic to deflect criticism on others to make about their own library. Several of her posts deal with misguided changes that are happening in libraries. The Annoyed Librarian attacked a Huffington Post article (Oct. 27, 2014), and mainly because the Annoyed Librarian felt the author was a fake. The Annoyed Librarian also seemed to attack herself, as well as others, in her post entitled "Tone It Down A Little" (Dec. 4, 2014). This post focused on the fact that librarians are excited to make exciting changes to their libraries, because they are afraid of a library being portrayed as boring. However, according to the Annoyed Librarian, boring might be what many patrons actually want from their library.
I like that the Annoyed Librarian gives a voice to librarians that seems more real. The Annoyed Librarian makes what is posted seem more fair in the willingness to not let anyone off the hook. The Annoyed Librarian labels every post as annoyed, and I think it is good to admit that. To pretend everything is okay, or to pretend that problems occur for libraries only from the outside, is to ignore many of the important changes that need to be addressed. Plus, I am sure it will be fun to compare my stories to the Annoyed Librarian on tough days for myself.
The other blog I followed over the course of the semester was "The Darling Librarian", which is written by Gwenyth Jones (http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/search?updated-max=2014-10-26T15:18:00-04:00&max-results=7). Jones portrays a much happier side to being a librarian than the Annoyed Librarian, but that could have been deduced just from looking at their names. While the Annoyed Librarian will stray from library topics, for example her "A Little Boring is Sometimes a Good Thing" post on Thanksgiving and Ferguson (Dec. 1st, 2014), Jones has many more non-library posts. Over the past two months Jones' posts have covered parenting topics, cooking, technology, libraries and blogging.
Reading Jones' blog made me realize that you can kind of do whatever you want with your blog. Jones' blog is very flashy with lots of pictures, graphics, and videos. The Annoyed Librarian, perhaps portraying an annoyed persona, was minimalist in their approach. Each of their styles helped to portray the attitude that their blog was about. Also, each had their followers and their purpose. Each was focusing on the communities that they were servicing. Just as librarians themselves need to understand and adapt to the people that they are servicing.
Unfortunately for me during the class, but fortunately for me going into the future, Jones had a great post about "11 Reflective Blogging Tips and Ideas" (Dec. 7th, 2014). This post is one that most beginner bloggers should read. If you have already spent time on the Jones' blog none of it will surprise you, but each suggestion is one that made me feel more comfortable about being myself on my blog. Which is what I think the theme is of each of her suggestions. Jones even goes so far as to remind people that blogging is optional (Dec. 7th, 2014). No one, well okay maybe Dr. Maata Smith, makes you blog. So a person should only blog when they want to, and about what they want to. I hope to continue blogging, but I will do so without putting pressure on myself. Instead of focusing on what other people may want to read about on my blog, I will instead just focus on blogging about what I want to instead.
Blogs Cited
"Annoyed Librarian": http://lj.libraryjournal.com/blogs/annoyedlibrarian/
Jones, Gwenyth "The Darling Librarian": http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/
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