Library Information Specialist Vaughn Branom picked up her recent award for the Best Library Blog from the comfort of her own home. Vaughn’s year-old professional blog was named the best overall by educational blogging host Edublog during a “virtual” ceremony held in Second Life, the increasingly popular, Internet-based virtual world.
Vaughn, a veteran SBISD librarian, created an avatar named Maribelle Jaxon to visit the Edublog Awards ceremony held in Second Life. She moved her avatar, Maribelle, around and “sat” in a virtual outdoor auditorium to hear the awards announcements.
Through her blog, found at http://alibraryisalibrary.blogspot.com/ and published under the title A Library by Any Other Name is Still a Collection of Information, Vaughn shares tips, tricks and web tools with educational applications. The hardest part for her was picking just the right title for her blog, she says.
She picked up the web blogging bug several years ago but never dreamed that what she wrote would ever be rated so highly. “I was shocked to be nominated for the Edublogs Award! It was a surprise and such a nice thing. When I realized that I was in the same company with so many other bloggers that I knew and admired, I was floating on air,” she says.
She received the award late last year, winning the right to have the winner’s banner posted on her blog. Vaughn estimates that she reads about 50 other blogs weekly, and 50 more each month. “It’s easy to do with a ‘reader.’ I go to one place and only read the ‘new’ postings. I have ‘met’ some wonderful people because of this and been able to share with folks I would never have known,” she says.
A past librarian at Spring Woods high and middle schools, Vaughn has taught or been a librarian in Texas schools for 33 years. Her two daughters attended Pine Shadows Elementary, Spring Forest Middle, and then graduated from Stratford High.