Wednesday, August 27, 2008

23 Things-Library Thing #3 (RSS)

I chose to use Google Reader because I can also access it from either the library or school. I will also be using it for an upcoming Library 2.0 class this fall term, so it was good to be able to dink around with it at my own pace rather than rush to get everything all set up and not fully understand what in the world was going on.

I like that all the content comes to one place and I don't have to go to my eleventy-zillion bookmarks to see whether or not a site has been updated. There's also a way on Google Reader to get RSS updates from sites that don't have an actual feed subscription, which is handy. All I had to do was add the URL of the site, and then sort it into whatever folder I'd set up for that category.

I'm still undecided as to whether I will use the Google Reader much in my personal life. I can definitely see how it will help in my professional & school life. I have lots of bookmarked Favorites on both home & work computers, and sometimes they get lost in the shuffle of everyday life, even though I have them organized into Folders. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how MUCH knowledge there is in the collective world culture, but I also know as a librarian in today's digital culture, I don't have the luxury of hiding under a rock!

So, what did I put in my Google Reader? I started by subscribing to their News bundle, but deleted all but BBC and Google News (the only 2 I read on a consistent basis). Then, I started going through all my bookmarked Favorites on my home computer to see what I had that would be good- I came up with 5 others. I skipped over the ones that frequently updated-I think for now that would be WAY too overwhelming. I may add and delete over the upcoming weeks, especially after I start school.

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