Can you recommend sites that can help me be a better librarian?

Well, MeFi's own mod Jessamyn runs a

I'm more of an administrator than a reference librarian these days, but I find these pretty useful: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog http://theipl.wordpress.com/the-link/ used to be better when it was LII, but it's still pretty good Multiple RSS feeds from http://www.libraryjournal.com/; take your pick http://www.librarystuff.net/ http://www.earlyword.com/ (essential if you do any book ordering) http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack (a little full of itself, imho, but better signal/noise ratio than The Shifted Librarian and others of its ilk) http://stephenslighthouse.com/ (see: Librarian in Black) http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/ http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/

All of the above are great (another plug for jessamyn's blog here), but what makes me a better librarian (to the extent that I am) is keeping abreast of my field (in the case of the public library, I suppose that means keeping abreast of as much as you possibly can). I read politics blogs, tech blogs, news blogs, culture blogs, anything I can get my hands on. Sometimes it's too much information, but that's what we're paid to deal with. In any case, here are a few more recommendations: http://www.bespacific.com/ (Sabrina Pacifici; law and gov docs) http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/ (a sometimes contrarian take on librarianship from a great writer named Rory Litwin) And on the lighter side, sometimes grimly so: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/librarian/index.html (McSweeney's) Don't forget http://www.lisnews.org/, which is hit and miss, and seems more desultory than it used to be, but is still worth checking out.

I've recommended this before, but you should check out http://www.unshelved.com/, especially as a public librarian. The days when you get frustrated with babysitting latchkey kids and tired of dealing with crotchety old folks who can't use the mouse let alone open their email? That's when you open Unshelved's web site and say 'ok, I get it, this is a universal issue. now that I've laughed at it, I can let it go and do my job better tomorrow.'

Nthing all of the above. Also check out http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/, which is a blog by a public reference librarian. Has a great reference question of the week where he analyzes a question he is asked and details the resources he used to find the answer.

Are you in a public library, an academic library, or a special library?

Whoops...I am in a public library.

Heh. Messed up that link. http://www.librarian.net/

Thanks, everyone....I will be sure to check these out in the weeks ahead...and any more posted. You guys rock!