Site of the Month: Warrior Librarian

Warrior Librarian Weekly
www.geocities.com/bibliophist

Especially now, we all need a certain amount of humor to get through the week, and Amanda Credaro (abcredaro@ozemail.com.au) has taken on the challenge of running a humorous—but pointed—page for school librarians worldwide. It's called the Warrior Librarian Weekly, based on a character Credaro created to inspire all of us—Biblia the Warrior Librarian.

The ideal vs. reality: Credaro, a teacher-librarian at Richmond High School in New South Wales, Australia, began her site as a library school student in 1999. At the time, she used the page to post papers, which she signed, "Amanda, the Worrier Librarian." What was she worried about? She had experienced life in a real school library by then, and it didn't jibe with what her instructors had told her. "Where were all these highly motivated students that wanted instruction in advanced searching?" she remembers wondering. And hadn't she heard something in her classes about all the benefits of cooperative planning and teaching? Why, then, didn't these teachers want to give the library copies of their assignments? "From here," says Credaro, "Biblia was born."

The funny side: Among the features of Warrior Librarian Weekly is the "School Library Virtual Tour," in which Credaro uses historical photographs to skewer the differences between educational doublespeak and the (slightly exaggerated) reality. The "What Librarians Can Learn from Kids" page includes nuggets such as "Tear-proof book covering has not been invented yet," and "Barcode wands or guns produce strange reflections in people's eyes." And "Vital Latin Phrases for Librarians" offers a way to state your true feelings to your patrons—without them knowing what you're saying.

A serious side: There's a serious side to the pages, too, in Credaro's "Controversy Corner." Credaro says that she tries to stimulate their thinking and lift her peers' spirits, and she finds that they lift hers, too. "One public librarian called the site 'a gift from the gods,'" she says, while "a message from a law library professional told me that I 'rock.' Being an ex-geologist, I found this very flattering."