8. Learn about RSS feeds and set up your own Bloglines newsreader account.
Well, I did set up an account at Bloglines, and added a bunch of newsfeeds. Then I started thinking about one of the tutorials which mentioned that Google has a newsreader…and I realized that while I think RSS is a great technology, I don’t want another place that I have to log into! So I went to GoogleReader and got down to business. I actually went a little overboard…signing up for the Onion, NPR, Common Dreams, Yoga Journal, Unshelved, the PLA blog, and a few more. We’ll soon see if I added too many! As a side note, I found it interesting that neither the Democratic nor the Republic Parties seem to offer RSS feeds. I sent an email to one of them suggesting they do so.
Overall, I think this is a very useful technology in my personal life, both by collecting some of the websites I have went to in the past and bringing their new content to me. It also is a good reminder of websites and blogs that I like but sometimes forget about. My public page is here…it looks like Google Reader is pretty similar to Bloglines.
As for search tools for feeds, I didn’t find that particularly useful for myself, simply because of the direction of my approach toward information-seeking. I don’t simply want to have a continuing stream of information about anything related to fake and/or satirical news. However, I’ve been known to check out The Onion website, so I therefore subscribed to their feed. I am aware of what I feel to be a dichotomy with all the emerging technology in the world and the availability of information…while it’s great that so much is available, I need to moderate it and filter it in order for it to be useful. If I had too many feeds in my reader, I’d simply scan the headlines and never actually read the text. What good is that?
9. Explore MERLIN and then locate a few other library-related blogs and/or news feeds.
I looked around MERLIN and subscribed to the feed…although as I type that I’m reminded of the book Feed by M.T. Anderson, which is about a futuristic dystopian world where everyone has a “feed” implanted in them that is always throwing information and advertisements at you, mostly about trends, clothes, hairstyles, cars, and other consume oriented information. Great book. Now I’m disturbed…
