Looking to be inspired

As part of the #edublogclub year-long challenge to blog on education. While the official club has ended, they have still shared posts to continue the journey through 2017. This week’s prompt was blogs we follow. 

A few years ago, my colleague and I wrote an article for School Library Connection about being local book bloggers. In addition to contributing to a books blog for our local newspaper’s online community, I have maintained this blog for a few years and have grown into what I want the blog to be about. And my message in our article was that for years I was inspired by others and it was time to give back (also my theme for professional development).

Here are my six sensational blogs to follow and why I follow them:

1. Seth Godin
   • There are so many valuable insights he provides that I actually have a folder called Godin-isms and there are three posts that are printed and sitting on my computer at work to inspire me. Godin’s posts tend to be short, succinct, and pointed in their advice or question about why we do the things we do.
2. Reading While White
   • I’m white and I work at a school that is predominately non-white. I always need to explore my biases, especially when reading and reviewing books as I do. The offering of multiple perspectives is what keeps this blog fresh.
3. Librarian Leaps
   • Yes, she’s a colleague and a friend. She’s also an elementary librarian. And while I’m at a high school library, she’s a go-getter and inspiration. She even guest posted for me as part of another edublogs prompt.
4. Mrs. ReaderPants
   • When I want to know what’s going to be published in middle grade and young adult, I look no further than Mrs. ReaderPants. I’m guilty of not paying attending to publication dates especially since I do so much reviewing and receive so many galleys that I hardly ever pay attention to when they’re available to the masses. She keeps me grounded in when everyone has access to the amazing-ness that is YA books!
5. 500 Hats
   • While not frequent in her blogs, when she does post it’s always something to stop and read. Her premise being that as librarians’ we wear so many hats and who would disagree?
6. Goodreads
   • It’s no secret that I love Goodreads since it keeps my reading life organized– gone are the days of laminated pages in a binder using Microsoft Word. So it makes sense that I would follow their blog of book candy.

And this isn’t to say I don’t follow more local, national, and non-librarian blogs because I certainly like to keep my inbox full, but these are a few that pique my interest when they arrive in my mailbox. Consider them for yourselves.