Amanda Brennan
{{Short description|Writer on internet culture}}
{{Update|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Amanda Brennan
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| nationality = American
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| education = Rutgers University (MLIS)
Drew University (BA)
| occupation = librarian, blogger, writer
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Amanda Brennan is the former Head of Editorial at Tumblr and is known as the "meme librarian." At Tumblr, she sorted through site's content and cataloged trends.{{cite news|last1=Carpenter|first1=Julia|title=Meme librarian is a real job — and it's the best one on the Internet|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/21/tumblrs-meme-librarian-has-the-best-job-on-the-internet/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=October 29, 2016}} She began her career at Know Your Meme where she gained her nickname. Due to her history of cataloging trends, she has also been called "The Librarian for the Internet."{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/10/tumblrs-meme-librarian-tracks-our-online-obsessions.html|title=Tumblr's 'meme librarian' tracks our online obsessions {{!}} Toronto Star|website=thestar.com|date=10 January 2016 |access-date=2016-11-02}} She is frequently quoted in the press because of her expertise on internet memes and statistics about internet memes.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/19/2015s-best-tumblr-memes-were-all-about-playing-with-language/|title=2015's best Tumblr memes were all about playing with language|last=Carpenter|first=Julia|date=2015-12-19|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|access-date=2016-11-02}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/11/us/the-dress-that-broke-the-internet-is-gone/index.html|title=The Dress: Blue & Black? White & Gold? Cease & Desist?|author=Masuma Ahuja|website=CNN|date=11 December 2015 |access-date=2016-11-02}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/15/star-wars-fans-are-very-very-afraid-of-spoiler-trolls-right-now/|title='Star Wars' fans are very, very afraid of spoiler trolls right now|last=Ohlheiser|first=Abby|date=2015-12-15|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|access-date=2016-11-02}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/amanda-brennan-is-a-meme-librarian-at-tumblr-cataloguing-the-best-bits-of-the-internet-a6782601.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224040603/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/amanda-brennan-is-a-meme-librarian-at-tumblr-cataloguing-the-best-bits-of-the-internet-a6782601.html |archive-date=2015-12-24 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Tumblr's 'Meme Librarian' has the best job on the internet|date=2015-12-22|newspaper=The Independent|language=en-GB|access-date=2016-11-02}}{{Cite book |last=McCracken |first=Allison |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/x346d608w |title=a tumblr book: platform and cultures |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-472-05456-5 |pages=37–47 |language=en |chapter=Going Down the Rabbit Hole: An Interview with Amanda Brennan, Head of Content Insights and Social, Tumblr |doi=10.3998/mpub.11537055|s2cid=213691692 }}
Education and early life
Brennan attended Drew University, graduating in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a minor in Linguistics. In 2011 she earned her Master of Library and Information Science degree from Rutgers University.{{cite web|title=amanda brennan, meme librarian|url=http://resume.memelibrarian.com/|access-date=29 October 2016}}
Meme librarianship
In a 2014 interview for the Library of Congress blog, Brennan describes the importance of cataloging memes, saying "Recording these smaller moments are like recording local history, tiny bits that make up a whole that would have been incomplete in the future. They're also representative of how current culture reacts to life, which will be important to understand how this era thought about the world."{{cite web|last1=Owens|first1=Trevor|last2=Fernandez|first2=Julia|title=LOLCats and Libraries: A Conversation with Internet Librarian Amanda Brennan|url=https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2014/07/lolcats-and-libraries-a-conversation-with-internet-librarian-amanda-brennan/|website=The Signal|date=14 July 2014 |access-date=29 October 2016}} She continued those thoughts in 2015, remarking to the Washington Post that, "The importance of sitting down to find these sources gives the creator the credit he/she deserves. Sometimes it gets buried under all the we-heart-its and the rebloggys, but without sitting down and saying, "This is important," the creator loses his content – and that's not fair."{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/21/tumblrs-meme-librarian-has-the-best-job-on-the-internet/|title=Meme librarian is a real job — and it's the best one on the Internet|last=Carpenter|first=Julia|date=2015-12-21|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|access-date=2016-11-02}}
In 2024, she delivered a presentation at the USTLG conference,https://www.ustlg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Amanda-Brennan-USTLG-AI-Presentation.pdf emphasizing the integration of artificial intelligence in STEM education and its implications for digital librarianship . Additionally, Brennan has been vital in developing Tumblr's Fandometrics. {{Cite web |last=Lorenz |first=Taylor |title=The burning of the Library of Alexandria for fandoms |url=https://www.usermag.co/p/the-burning-of-the-library-of-alexandria?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=www.usermag.co |language=en}}
Publications
- "Librarians and Felines: A History of Defying the 'Cat Lady' Stereotype", Dorothy Gambrell and Amanda Brennan, in The librarian stereotype: Deconstructing perceptions and presentations of information work. 2014{{cite book|editor1-last=Pagowsky|editor1-first=Nicole|editor2-last=Rigby|editor2-first=Miriam E.|title=The librarian stereotype: Deconstructing perceptions and presentations of information work.|date=2014|publisher=ACRL|isbn=978-0838987049}}
- "Everyday I'm Tumblin': Strengthening Your Library's Community Through Tumblr" presented at NJLA conference, 2012.{{cite web|last1=Brennan|first1=Amanda|title=Everyday I'm Tumblin': Strengthening Your Library's Community Through Tumblr|url=https://prezi.com/euhhgdbkrnkn/everyday-im-tumblin-strengthening-your-librarys-community-through-tumblr/|website=Prezi|access-date=29 October 2016}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Rutgers University alumni
Category:Drew University alumni
Category:American women bloggers
Category:21st-century American librarians