Week 3 - RSS

Here I go with Week 3 - RSS.....

Which five blogs did you subscribe to?
For the LA Times, I subscribed to: California - Local News and Showtracker (TV news).

The other blogs were:

Webware.com, a site where computer users can learn about really cool new and useful Web applications. Among the goodies I have found so far is information about Picnik, an online photo-editing site (you don't need Photoshop, shiny, no?); Tripit, which is for travel geeks, and can aggregate all your travel info (airlines, hotel, rental car, etc.) onto one page; and SlideFlickr, which can help you make slideshows from your Flickr photos and embed them into your blog or other application. Lots of nifty tech stuff here.

LibraryStream : watching the flow of the social networking library, is chock full of information about web 2.0 applications and tips and tricks for using them. It's not just dry, informational stuff, either. There is some humor as well. Here is a sample of one entry:

To the tune of “The Major-General’s Song.” With apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan… and you…

I advocate creation of a social network library,
Dispense with thoughts a-plenty in my blog much like a diary,
And show how common MySpace is, it dominates the territ’ry
‘Cuz people like to share their lives;
it’s really quite extraordin’ry.

I upload pix of our events on a communal Flickr page,
And make it easy to YouTube; that latest clip is all the rage.
Encourage interaction for our young and old of any age,
Makes working here as fun as anything they do at Cam-ba-ridge.

I recommend Delicious, Facebook, wikis, Ning, and R-S-S,
Use tag clouds, gaming, apps and widgets, and I twitter to excess.
It matters that our patrons are involved with our transparency.
I advocate creation of a social network library.

Props to anyone who can actually sing the above!!

Virtual Hosting Blog is another tech-related blog. Can you tell I am kind getting into this?

Lifehacker has lots of tech stuff too, but it's not just computer stuff. There are tools for DIY wedding planning, a guide to finding better prices for digital photos, and how to get started with stock investing.

And just for fun (because everyone needs to laugh now and then, I subscribed to:

A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette, which is a tongue-firmly-in-cheek guide to various workplace issues such as: Containers, Approving; Climate, Controlling the (particularly appropriate, dontcha think?); Up, Catching; and Library 2.0, Embracing. Perhaps not to everyone's taste, I still found myself cracking up, and there is actually some interesting and helpful information contained in readers' comments. And yes, I replied to the climate control entry. :-)

LOL Librarians, another lol site. Very funny!! However, please beware of the opening title on the LiveJournal site; it is very rude.


Which method of finding feeds did you find it easiest to use?
Personally, I didn't like Syndic8.com. I found blogs via Technorati and the search function on Google Reader and both were easy enough to use.

Do you think you will continue to use your Google Reader account to stay uo-to-date with information or news?
I have not yet decided. I will certainly drop the LA Times feeds. I actually read the Times every morning, so see no need for those. And I have a link to Google news feeds on my awesomestart.com homepage.

I have had a Bloglines account for months now. This is another RSS aggregator. My feeds are a combination of personal and professional blogs. I originally thought I would use the Google Reader account for my professional blogs, but I really like Bloglines features much better. The one that is particularly useful is being able to mark various blog posts as new, which saves them so you can go back and read or consult them later. Putting a star on a Google feed does something similar, but all starred items are lumped together, which means you have to scroll through lots of entries to find the one you are looking for. Bloglines' saved entries are within the actual feed subscriptions, so you can go right to slashdot or I Can Has Cheezburger and it is easier to find the posts you want.

How could the library make use of RSS feeds?
The main value of RSS aggregators is to bring the information quickly and directly to you without having to visit numerous sites individually. This would be invaluable to patrons who would not have to check back again and again to see if there was something new (of course, we do want patrons to visit our website again and again, so I suppose it is a two-edged sword, alas). If our blog (or blogs :-) ) were set up as RSS feeds, patrons could subscribe to those they found most interesting or helpful - new books, what the staff is reading, etc. Perhaps the most valuable might be program/event feeds. Patrons could then subscribe to Kids and Tweens, Teen, or Adult Programming feeds. Or, perhaps Friends or Museum events. The possibilities are almost endless.

Staff can also utilize RSS feeds to keep in touch with professional journals, blogs, news, technology information. Again limitless possibilities.