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^ohh callout block this is soooo convenient for navigation! Though, it just looks like the OneNote hierarchy or a wordpress template…
and this smaller column effectively acts as a margin for other features or pictures or annotations!
Body text (i wonder how this two-column format will display on smartphone screens…(
“Whoa, what’s this? A blog? Tell me what it’s about!”
Hi there! My name is Jed 🙂. I have been studying about Libraries at a vocational college (TAFE) in Australia.
I believe that Libraries are wonderful places - special spaces that lie somewhere between the comfy leisure of a home 🛋️ and the communal learning of a school 🧠, and which come alive as people flow in and out of the doors or as books circulate from shelves, just like a beating heart at the center of a lively community 💓 (though that may just be my background as a science grad talking haha 👨🔬🔬🧬).
The opportunity arose for me to enrol in a library studies course, so I took it! I want to find out more Libraries, how they operate as organisations, and perhaps even work within one someday.
A major feature of this blog will be a database collection of library-related book reviews (’Jed’s Library Book Review Database’ 📚), scored in a (semi-) quantitative manner with some level of rigor, along with some brief subjective commentary. Not all books are created equally, unfortunately and some are less practicable or helpful than their covers and blurbs would lead a reader to believe.
Other features include some aspects about Library knowledge that I think are worth reflecting on , such as learning library classification systems 🗃️ in a fun and mind-friendly manner, a section on Manga since it’s a unique format type that I have been engaging with for many years (if I ever work in a Library, I’d like to contribute to managing the manga collection), and an aggregation of useful resources and support groups for library students 🆘that can provide some help and guidance beyond the limits of the classroom, which also has a dedicated page containing tips for studying at TAFE💡.
If there is anything in particular in this blog that you are looking for or want to know more about, try using the search function near the top of the page and type in some keywords 🔎.
This blog is best viewed on a widescreen monitor. The intended formatting may not display properly on a smartphone with a vertical aspect ratio.
For another blog related to learning about libraries, visit Librarianship Studies and Information Technology which is packed with detailed knowledge of the discipline.
In case you are living or are otherwise interested in Sydney, go check out Biblioburbia: The Library Files created by Vanessa Berry to see her superb blog that chronicles her visits of the public libraries throughout Sydney!
About:
I started developing the basic ideas💡contained in this blog - such as the Library Book Reviews, some Manga Librarian topics, and Library support groups - when undertaking a part-time Certificate IV in Library and Information Services at TAFE, but it was really just writing notes to myself in OneNote and some paper notebooks to satisfy my own curiosity and cater to a need to look things up for later 🧠🗃️ (Reference is another aspect of library operation that is incredibly interesting to me and which I’d like to work in or contribute to).
It was only when I progressed onto the Diploma of Library course that the thought of putting and organising all of that material into a blog-type format, which could be publicly shared, really took hold - and it was a year into the diploma when I felt more confident at using online platforms and actively searched for suitable blog-type platforms to use. The possible choices were Wordpress, Blogspot, Squarespace, and Wix (maybe Canva sites too), but I ended up settling for Notion for the time being since it’s fairly simple (as far as I know, no knowledge of web dev coding like HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. is necessary) and it’s free to use for the kind of features that are sufficient for my intentions (i.e., text processing and hyperlinking, image uploading, simple design, and simple database hosting).
An incredible youtube channel for figuring out Notion is ‘The Organized Notebook’. Sara (the channel producer) makes tutorial videos on seemingly every feature that is available on notion, so her channel is definitely worth checking out if you’re thinking of making a website for yourself 😃
Intellectual property disclaimer stuff:
All non-URL text is written and owned by me (’Copyright Jed B 2025’ or whatever) unless quoted from a cited source, so there may be typos or grammatical errors there and there, and my understanding is limited by my own experience and awareness. Please refer to actual authoritative sources to cross-reference my text; I’ve included links to such sources where possible to aid fact-checking and to substantiate my own words.
Pictures of book covers in the book review database were mostly sourced from Amazon since their listings are hi-res, and the rights belong to their respective copyright holders. The banners are stock photos from Unsplash that Notion automatically provides. Many images of the covers and pages of manga were photographed by me. I have given credit to the original creators where/when images from other websites or creators were used, such as the back covers of manga volumes to depict age ratings from Canton Public Library. All instances of using copyrighted pictures or works in this blog are covered by the Copyright Act 1968, namely Division III Section 40 Fair dealing for purpose of research or study and Division III Section 41 Fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review.
If you want to use any material from this site, cite this blog as “Jed B’s Library Student Blog (2025)”, with ‘Jed B’ as the creator, and include the URL of the page that you are referring to. It was randomly generated as “thrilling-quiet-60b…” which is uncannily apropos for a library student’s website that features book reviews.
I don’t yet know if this website is indexed by google ¯\(ツ)/¯, though it is definitely something to look into once the blog is more ‘polished’.