Blogs and Blog Readers

With the demise of Google Reader in 2013, Feedly won the RSS reader war after many different readers attempted to attract all of Google Reader's former fans. It is easy to tell why Feedly now reigns as feeder King. After browsing other RSS readers and researching the latest, Feedly seemed to have all of the components I was looking for in a reader, so I decided to check it out.

Feedly is easy to use and navigate for those without any prior knowledge of feed readers. It is aesthetically pleasing; not too stark and not too crowded. All of your feeds are organized on the left-hand side, displaying which blogs have updated material that are unread. However, my favorite offering of Feedly's is the ability to easily find related material to what you are interested in. Feedly offers a "Discover and Follow" button above your feed list that allows users to search by title, URL, or #topic. Once you find something of interest, it is extremely easy to add to your feed. A similar option of Feedly's is that it offers "related feeds" suggestions to help guide users to other blogs/articles/videos they may be interested in. Best of all, Feedly is also easily integrated with Facebook, Twitter, and Pocket. Yay! Feedly out performs both Flipboard and Digg, which I found to be visually overcrowded and behind the times, respectively.

5 BLOGS I RECOMMEND:

1. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning
I chose to follow this blog because it is a great "resource of educational web tools and mobile apps for teachers and educators." This blog, written by teachers and based out of Canada, is a wonderful resource for the latest technology info, and can even be searched by category.

2. We Need Diverse Books
This is the official Tumblr page for the 'We Need Diverse Books' official campaign. WNDB promotes books that highlight the diversity of humans by age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, abilities, etc. In turn, WNDB feels that kids will be empowered by reading about more diverse characters they can relate to.

3. Mighty Little Librarian
Mighty Little Librarian gets into the nitty-gritty of what it is to be a school librarian. She covers topics like genrefication, professional development, elementary/middle library lessons, digital citizenship, etc.

4. American Library Association
The official Tumblr of the ALA is worth following because it gives lively updates as to the goings-on of the ALA. It's a great space to find information about this week's ALA conference in Orlando, as well as the latest book campaigns and informational articles. And best of all, they post incredibly cute cat gifs!

5. The Daring Librarian
Gwyneth Jones is well known in the librarian circle due to her timely updates, relevant content, and refreshingly colorful graphics. Her blog has won many awards
She is a teacher librarian at Murray Hill Middle School, and her school library blog can be found at http://daringlibrary.edublogs.org. Her blogs cover the latest ed tech, book reviews, provides killer resources, and fantastic project ideas for your school library.


I did a thing!

I created a Tumblr @ https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bookdrunklibrarian