Title: ALSC Blog
Author:Various ALSC members contribute to the blog, but Mary R. Voors is the blog's overall manager.
Publisher: Association for Library Service to Children
Year: The blog offers recent postings and is updated on a daily basis.
Format: The blog is available online via a Wordpress site. It is available at http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/.
Summary:
The blog is full of various articles of interest and relevancy to librarians that work in children's services. The content posted in the month of April includes the following: book lists for STEAM programs, updates on the ALSC 2016 Institute, information about state standards and how school librarians and public librarians can help interconnect their resources and activities to support learning, after-school programs for school-aged kids, booktalks with meaningful ways to utilize the featured book in children's programming, and how to build and utilize tinker labs for preschoolers.
Audience:
The ALSC blog is definitely geared to librarians that serve children whether in public or school libraries. It focuses much more on teaching, curriculum development, collection development, and pedagogy than simple reviews of materials (that might be of more use to parents and children).
Strengths:
The blog provides the following things:
- Relevant material that addresses current needs, interests, and problems facing children's librarians
- Varied content and voices from different writers (races, genders, locations)
- User-friendly format: easy to read articles, searchable content, short-mid-length articles, intuitive layout, good use of white/blank space in website design, tagged submissions
- Calendars
- Opportunities for guest postings
- Contests
- Professional networking
- RSS feed
- Highlighted subtopics throughout articles with links for further reading
- Credible, authoritative governing body to ensure accuracy and peer-reviewed material
Some potential weaknesses of the blog:
- Reads a bit more like a scholarly journal, so it lacks some of the humor, creativity, and personal touches of blogs like "The Daring Librarian."
- Since it is geared for children's services in general, you might have to sift through several articles before you find one that directly applies to your personal situation (private/public school library, etc.)
The ALSC blog is useful for staying fresh and current in the field. It provides easy access to information related to teaching and library services. It is a great resource for anyone working in the field.
Awards:
The ALSC provides the awards for nearly all the notable pieces written and/or produced for children. If a librarian does not know about ALSC, then he or she is out to lunch. This is without doubt, one of the first places to go to find book lists, award winners, credible information about the industry, grants, and scholarships.
Overall Rating:
I would give the ALSC blog 5 out of 5 stars for providing great content that is relevant to my job as a librarian who works with children. It offers just about everything, and I know that while I will not necessarily agree with all its publications, I can certainly breathe easy about the content and knowing it's trustworthy and of high quality.
The ALSC provides the awards for nearly all the notable pieces written and/or produced for children. If a librarian does not know about ALSC, then he or she is out to lunch. This is without doubt, one of the first places to go to find book lists, award winners, credible information about the industry, grants, and scholarships.
Overall Rating:
I would give the ALSC blog 5 out of 5 stars for providing great content that is relevant to my job as a librarian who works with children. It offers just about everything, and I know that while I will not necessarily agree with all its publications, I can certainly breathe easy about the content and knowing it's trustworthy and of high quality.
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