My Blog Highlights: Short Showcase of Sites and Blogs

Starting off this blog and learning about other library blogs and Web sites has been an eye-opener for me. With this post I highlight just a few of the blogs and Web sites from my sidebar that I believe are worth further mention.

CMRLS (Central Massachusetts Regional Library System) - For my part this is a beautifully laid out Web site with lots of resources for librarians and not just for those in the CMRLS.

ilovelibraries.org - This a new site launched by yhe ALA (American Library Association), where any library lover can find out more about ways in which they can help libraries, find out about books, sign up for an E-Newsletter, find a library, ask questions, (Ask a Librarian) and learn more about America's libraries in general.

Information Research: An International Electronic Journal - This is an open access, international scholarly journal presenting research findings in information-related fields from around the world. It is published by Prof. T.D. Wilson, Prof. Emeritus, University of Sheffield, with support from Lund University Libraries in Sweden and the Swedish School of Library and Information Science.

Library Technology Guides - The subtitle for this site is Key Resources in the field of Library Automation. The "website aims to provide comprehensive and objective information related to the field of library automation. This site has no affiliation with any library automation company." The site is good for whether you are "in the process of selecting a library automation system, or just want to keep up with developments in the field." The site was created and is editeed by Marshall Breeding, the Director for Innovative Technologies and Research at the Jean Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University.

Public Knowledge - This is the Web site of a Washington D.C. based public interest group, that is involved in advocacy for of public digital rights. This site also has a link for a policy blog on digital matters.

FOLUSA (Friends of the Library USA) - This is just another site I feel I needed to promote so that even more people across the country can support the work of libraries. FOLUSA has a listserv and resources for library advocacy.

NCAC (National Coalition Against Censorshop) - Founded in 1974, the NCAC is "an alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. United by a conviction that freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression must be defended..."

SAA (Society of American Archivists) - I thought to include this site beause many people do tend to forget the important work of archivists in collecting and preserving information.

Cataloging Futures - This blog focuses on the future of cataloging and metadata in libraries. The site is authored by Chrisitne (Chris) Schwartz, a cataloger with 18 years experience, who is Head Cataloger at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey.

The FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) Blog - Here the name is supposedly self-explanatory unless of course you know what is and the background behind FRBR (which the blog commendalby provides via a link What is FRBR). Essentially FRBR provides guidelines for clearer descriptions on library items for classifiaction. A short quote from What is FRBR explains:

"FRBR offers us a fresh perspective on the structure and relationships of bibliographic and authority records, and also a more precise vocabulary to help future cataloging rule makers and system designers in meeting user needs. Before FRBR our cataloging rules tended to be very unclear about using the words “work,” “edition,” or “item.”2 Even in everyday language, we tend to say a “book” when we may actually mean several things."

Library Marketing - This is a blog authored by Jill Stover, an Undergraduate Services Coordinator at Virginia Commonwealth University. The subtilte of this blog is Thinking Outside the Book. This is what Stover attempts to do with this blog, by providing librarians with unique and surely non-conventional ways to promote libraries.

Pimp My Library - This is also a library promotional blog. The name, of course, is quite noticeable and the blog's purple backgroud also adds to its spunk: fun to read and also chocked with good information.

Cool Librarian - This a is combination personal andlibrary blog. It focuses a lot on providing information and resources on databases and directories. It seeks to promote information sharing as well among librarians, by seeking to host articles submitted articles to the site. The blog also has a Join Library Links listing of librariain blogs. The is a lisitng that any librarian can place their blog with a link back to the Cool Librarian.

Whatt I Learned Today - This is essentially a technology focused blog authored by Nicole Engard a Metadate Librarian at Princeton Theological Seminary (second person from that instituiton on this list...purely coincidental). This blog is focused on covering topics such as blogs, RSS and Wikis as they relate to libraries.