RSS Delivers!

I have always liked deliveries--I feel pampered, I feel as if I am getting back to my royal roots that I had become accustomed to in a previous life. The notion that information could be delivered directly to my attention (now I am not talking about SPAM e-mails)--information that I used to have to consciously seek out (if I remembered to do so), well, that appeals to me. I have set up an account on Bloglines and have added several feeds that will help keep me informed. I like that they are all in one place, and I can see at a glance how many new items are waiting for me to look at. The only part of the learning curve that will take some getting used to is checking in on a regular basis--so as to not be overwhelmed by the sheer number of feeds accumulating on each site. From a library prospective, I think staff members could use Bloglines to keep abreast on the changing nature of all kinds of information, not just library related. I have added several library-related feeds, but also those items that I am personally interested in following. I enjoy Nancy Pearl, she is included. The Shifted Librarian looks to be interesting. As does LibraryStuff. I like food, and I have added some recipe feeds that will take care of my tummy. Keep the Faith to help with my spiritual side. The list is growing, and at some point I will no doubt reach the point of having to delete some of the feeds due to lack of time. But for now, this is a time-saver, a convenience, and lots of fun.

In Tune with Tweeting?

Since hearing about twitter a while ago, I always assumed it would be a passing fad--more so than some of the other Web 2.0 applications. Personally, I would not choose to twitter because I feel time-deprived keeping up with the connections I already have through more conventional means. BUT we live increasingly in a sound bite world--twits and tweeters fit perfectly, and I expect this to grow and become even more popular in the future. How can the library world use this? I suppose engaging a (usually) younger public interested in this sort of communication will be one use--and I saw some young adult librarians doing just that on the site. I think tweets about what we are all reading would be useful in helping people decide "what's next" on their reading lists. In our local paper, we have a "tweet" section called bits, and these short announcements could be digitalized in a tweet. What I suppose will happen is a certain segment of the population will support twitter, another blogspot, etc. so that libraries and other institutions will simply have to support and utilize all of them to (try) to keep everyone happy and up-to-date on what is going in the library world. I don't know if this just ended on an upper or a downer!