A Roundup of Library and Bookish Content Creators
These social media accounts aren’t necessarily the most popular or influential, but they are where I most enjoy spending my time on the internet in my role as a library paraprofessional and aspiring school librarian. I am not particularly active on social media myself these days, but I do enjoy a good educational scroll.
I learned about this account as a recommendation from my supervisor, who I believe originally discovered her through Teachers Pay Teachers. Bee in the Library has a lot of creative ideas around creating a bookclub, displays, and crafty programming for a school library. The account is run by Lindsay Cesari, a junior high school librarian. A fun account to scroll when things are feeling stale and you want to shake things up!
Following this account is more for my own enjoyment, although it does also have professional relevance. Shawn is a nonbinary “bookish therapist” who reviews books (primarily with LGBTQ themes), attends book events (they are local!), and just generally creates pretty fun book content. A few weeks ago I attended an author event put on by Porter Square Books, and noticed two people wearing “read with pride” t-shirts that I LOVED. The very next day, All She Wrote Books (another favorite bookstore) reposted this post, with those very same people wearing those very same outfits. It’s book kismet!
While not specifically YA, following this account has helped me stay aware of current LGBT books and local events (...and yes, I bought the t-shirt).
This is the instagram page of our very own Massachusetts School Library Association. It has fun, relevant library content as well as promotions for the conference and the MA Teen Choice Book Awards. I feel lucky to be a part of this organization, and love the vibrant sense of community that comes through on the page.
LOCAL INSTITUTIONS BONUS
I love following local bookstores and public libraries on instagram! It’s a great way to stay up to date with new releases, events, and just generally foster a sense of community. They also tend to just have some extremely fun posts!
Here is a list of bookstores and libraries that are local to me, as someone living and working in the greater Boston area, but I suggest finding the accounts of all the institutions relevant to your life and locale.
BOOKSTORES
*Page 2 Books is an exception. It’s not local to me, in fact it is on the other side of the country, but it's a great store that has cultivated a wonderful community… and is also where my sister works. She is awesome, has great taste in books, and creates a lot of the content for the bookclub related posts so personally I think everyone should follow it.
LIBRARIES
Substack
This is a regularly issued, thoroughly researched newsletter from a school librarian about the intersection of education, libraries, and AI. Honestly, I find it a little overwhelming, but its also incredibly helpful to keep at least a little bit aware of what’s going on with AI policies in districts across the country. With the paid subscription there are also often lesson plans and ideas for how to responsibly teach AI to students. I like that she’s not entirely pro- or anti- AI, and the opinions feel rather balanced to me. There are a lot of things to think about with AI, and I appreciate the opportunity to look at the issue in many different ways.
While looking through the “recommended reading” suggestions from the AI Librarian page, I was led to the Library Lab - written by Jennie Langberg! I’ve taken quite a few SSU classes with Jennie (including working on group projects together), and we recently caught up at the MSLA conference. I hadn’t realized she had such a robust newsletter/blog, and I am so pleased to have found it/ She has a series where she interviews different librarians that I find fascinating, and I’m looking forward to digging into more of the archives.
Bluesky
Kelly Jensen, the prolific teen librarian herself! This account popped up when I searched “librarian” on bluesky (or was it “school librarian”?). It looks like her main gig these days is editor and author at Book Riot, but she continues to be writing excellent articles, and on bluesky shares a lot about book banning/censorship, updates on bills, and other related topics. I especially loved this article she wrote and shared, where Jensen goes into the kind of research and journalism it takes to really track censorship efforts. Specifically this article looks into claims about explicit political and managerial influence on programming at the NY public library, and how frustrating it is when public institutions (especially one as large and influential as NYPL) is not subject to public information requests.
In a discussion about social media in my practicum last semester, I mentioned my concerns about “creating content”. Wendy shared with me her bluesky account, and explained that she tries to post something everyday and sees it as her portfolio. I do very much like this approach! I also just enjoy Wendy’s feed – it’s fun to see what people are thinking and doing in different library levels on an everyday basis.
I have yet to listen to their podcast, but this bluesky feed has a lot of up to date stories and information regarding censorship, politics, and book challenges.
Blogs/Podcasts
Modern Mrs. Darcy blog and “What Should I Read Next?” podcast
This is not library specific, and focuses on adults, but I have been very much enjoying both the seasonal reading guides and booklists from the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog, and listening to episodes of “What Should I Read Next?” by the same creators. Both were started by Anne Bogel, who still writes a lot of the content and hosts all of the podcast episodes.
The podcast in particular is a great way to learn about books, think about different types of readers, and just to get excited about different kinds of reading. It’s pretty simple: each episode Anne talks to a reader, and suggests books they may want to read next. They begin by talking about the guest’s reading life and habits, then go through three books they loved and one book they didn’t (and why). Anne usually gives around 3 suggestions of specific books for this particular reader, and for some reason it’s just so fun to listen to.
While she is not a librarian, I think Anne beautifully models “readers advisory” and compelling booktalks.
Other podcasts that I don’t listen to frequently, but am usually happy about it when I do: School Librarians United, MSLA Podcast, and SCBWI Podcast.
