2006 Best Blogs

List of selected weblogs (see for more) by Blake Carver, as posted at LISNews.

1. The ALA Tech Blog The ALA Tech Blog is a breed apart from the rest of us. They are a group of talented writers paid to write. They have an editor, and they write lengthy original posts. In short they're everything I've been trying to make LISNews be for the past 6 years, they just found the money to do it. Though their focus is narrow, the Tech Source Blog should be a shining example of what any collaborative blog could be.
2. Carnival of the Infosciences The Carnival of the Infosciences is a weekly weblog post that endeavors to showcase the best posts in the blogosphere about topics related to the wide world of Library and Information Science. Started by Greg "Open Stacks" Schwartz, the carnival moves from site to site each week and is a great place to focus if you want to know what's going on in the minds of those who write library blogs. The Carnival summarizes writings from dozens of sites in one place.
3. Lorcan Dempsey's blog Though it seems hard to believe he'd have time to write so much and still work as the VP of research at OCLC, Lorcan Dempsey proves that not all bloggers are underplayed kids with too much time on their hands. His posts are insightful, interesting and well thought out.
4. A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette A polite librarian is a good librarian." Sometimes snarky, occasionally nasty and almost always hilarious, the LGE is a perfect Friday afternoon stop if you need a good laugh.
5. Catalogablog Just in case you think there's nothing you need to know about cataloging, add David Bigwood's site to you list of reading. Who would've thought cataloging could be so interesting? The OPAC is still the backbone of the library, and how things end up in there should be on the top of your mind.
6. Library Marketing-Thinking Outside the Book Jill Stover's description says it all; "Resources, readings, news and ideas for librarians who seek outside-the-book marketing innovations for their libraries." Jill points to a wide variety of sites that can help spark ideas you can use to better market your library and yourself.
7. The Kept-Up Academic Librarian Steven Bell describes his site as " designed to provide academic librarians with news about developments, events, new research, and more - almost any news about higher education I can find that may be of interest to an academic librarian." If you're working in an academic library you should get Kept-Up on a regular basis.
8. Librarian.net Jessamyn has probably been on every damn list of blogs ever written by a librarian. She writes regularly, covers some interesting and original stuff, and she's been doing it longer than any of us new kids. Her writing covers many different areas of librarianship, and is good for it's breadth of coverage.
9. Library Link Of The Day A daily link for library enthusiasts. Also available via e-mail or an RSS feed. The Link O' The Day is a blog that posts only one link a day, so is it really a blog? Well, it's close enough . It's easy to fell overwhelmed when presented with 20 links from one site in a single day, why not just focus on one?
10. Conservator Conservator's "Thoughts on libraries and freedom". If you're a librarian chances are you're not conservative, and I bet you don't read much from those on the other side. Conservator is one place to get a feel for why the other side is right, and you're so wrong. Jack Steven's opinionated site provides a different view point of what a librarian's role is in society, and how a conservative approaches what is a very liberal profession.

Added 20060222 by Brian Smith:

1. Alternative Teen Services: A newish, but excellent blog about providing library services to teens.
2. Bookslut Blog: Not exactly a library blog, but a must-read, at least for public librarians.
3. Dave's Blog: David King discusses library tech and marketing issues, and what he says is usually very practical.
4. Walking Paper: When talking about trendy tech stuff, Aaron Schmidt's tone tends to be one of inquiry and investigation, rather than evangelism. He gets into other facets of library services, too.