Knowledge is tricky. Some kinds you can only acquire through experience, dug deep in the trenches amid the fray. Other kinds come easily in books and training manuals and classes held in labs. No matter how you learn, there are good resources in print for the Mac Admin, be they books and manuals, blogs and journals, magazines and other news media. This library, catalogued below, is far from canonical, but it does have the resources that I consider to be the best of breed.

If you think I’ve missed the mark for some reason, or you think I’m missing something great, drop me an email and we can figure it all out.

Please note: Some of these may be in your local library’s collection, either digitally or physically, and libraries remain great technical resources. Use yours!

General Knowledge

• Enterprise Mac Administrator’s Guide – Charles Edge & William Smith – Paperback & Kindle – Apress Digital Edition available
• Enterprise Mac Security: Mac OS X – Charles Edge & Daniel O’Donnell – Paperback & Kindle – Apress Digital Edition available
• Managing Apple Devices, 3rd Edition [Pre-order] – Arek Dreyer & Adam Karneboge – Paperback (2nd Edition (Dreyer & White) is out, covers 10.10 & iOS 8)
• OS X Server 5.0 Essentials – Arek Dreyer & Ben Greisler – Paperback & Kindle
• OS X Support Essentials 10.11 – Kevin White & Gordon Davisson – Paperback & Kindle
• Learning UNIX for OS X – Dave Taylor – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari
• Mac OS X and iOS Internals – Jonathan Levin – Paperback & Kindle
• Mac OS X Advanced Systems Adminstration – Edward Marczak – Paperback & Kindle
• Essential Systems Administration – Æleen Frisch – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari
• UNIX Power Tools – Peek, O’Reilly & Loukides – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari
• Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet – Andrew Blum – Paperback, Hardback & Kindle

Specific Products

Sometimes, you just need to get up-to-speed quickly, or need a good example of how someone else explains a product or one of its features.

• Take Control of Slack Basics – Glenn Fleishman – PDF, Mobi, ePub
• Take Control of Slack Admin – Glenn Fleishman – PDF, Mobi, ePub
• Take Control of OS X Server – Charles Edge – PDF, Mobi, ePub
• Take Control of iCloud – Joe Kissel – PDF, Mobi, ePub
• Photos for Mac: A Take Control Crash Course – Jason Snell – PDF, Mobi, ePub

Networking & Wireless

• CWNA Deluxe Study Guide – David Coleman & David Westcott – Hardcover
• CWTS Official Study Guide – Robert Bartz – Hardcover & Kindle
• Cisco Routers for the Desperate
• Network Fundamentals: CCNA Exploration Companion Guide – Dye, McDonald & Rufi – Hardcover, Paperback & Kindle
• 802.11ac A Survival Guide – Matthew Gast – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari

• Network Warrior – Gary Donahue – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari

• Learning the bash Shell – Cameron Newham – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari

• Learning Python – Mark Lutz – Paperback & Kindle – O’Reilly Safari
• Learning Python the Hard Way – Online Course with Downloads
• Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide – Matthew Mathias & John Gallagher – Paperback & Kindle
• OS X and iOS Kernel Programming – Ole Henry Halvorsen & Douglas Clarke – Paperback & Kindle – Apress Digital Edition
• Mac OS X for Unix Geeks – Ernest Rothman – Paperback & Kindle

Mac Admin Blogs

• Rich Trouton – Der Flounder
• Greg Neagle – Managing OS X
• Nick McSpadden – OS X Dominion
• Pepijn Bruienne – Enterprise Mac
• Charles Edge – Krypted
• Ben Toms – MacMule
• Graham Gilbert
• John Kitzmiller
• Various Authors – Amsys
• Flying Toasters
• Scripting OS X

Mac Admin Podcasts

• Command Control Power
• Mac Admins Podcast
• Out of School

Community

• Mac Admins Slack [Join via invite at macadmins.herokuapp.com]