About

The Cool Librarian Blog is a combination of my personal library blog and my old libraryland blog. I was finding it difficult to keep up with both, and tired of running so many blogs on so many platforms, so I decided it was time to merge.

I created the original libraryland about seven years ago, during my first year in grad school. It was originally designed as a resource for people in the GSLIS program at the University of Rhode Island, but quickly branched out into general library resources. The page was dismantled about five years ago when I gave up my old domain and acquired coollibrarian.com, which until now served only as the online home for my freelance endeavor.

I recreated the site - this time blog-style, so that I can add info as I find it, and interested readers can subscribe/syndicate/aggregate to be kept up-to-date on additions. As content is blogged, it is also added to a category-specific, "static" page. This allows readers to find the resources in a directory, rather than reading through the archives. Hopefully, this loose directory will take librarians, library students, and anyone else interested in online info resources to some interesting places. With the bevy of amazing librarian-run blogs and websites out there, it’s hard to be the “first one on the block” with new info. So, rather than trying to be the “newsiest,” this site will focus on being a collection point.

As for the content, well, it’s all about what I find interesting, and perhaps, useful. I am a lover of article databases, search engines, and directories, as many librarians are. I’m starting with those broad categories, and as time goes on, you might see pages dedicated to info resources on women’s studies, socio-economics, food, and retro and mid-century “stuff.” There’s no rhyme or reason for that, other than those are areas of interest to me. I am always open to suggestions, so feel free to send me your additions or post a comment.

As for me, I am currently the Director of a small public library on Cape Cod after spending four years as a reference and young adult librarian in Rhode Island. Administration is a completely different gig, and I admit that I miss reference work - a lot. But who knows, someday I may go back to it (hopefully while living in Hawaii!).