Exploration 4 - RSS

Imagine my surprise when I tried to set up a Bloglines account and discovered that someone had already used my e-mail address! Then I remembered that long ago when I was on a committee looking at new technologies, I set up a Bloglines account. At the time, I did not see a compelling need for the tool. This feeling was clearly demonstrated by my neglect of Bloglines!

Now, skip along to the present. With my current personal and professional interests, and my inability to keep up with visiting various web sites, I can certainly see a use for RSS feeds and feed readers. Although I tend to like everything pushed to my e-mail inbox (I need it in my face, or it is forgotten), this would be too overwhelming. The feed reader allows me to keep it all in one place, but a separate place from my e-mail.

I played with both Bloglines and GoogleReader. I'm still getting used to the look and feel of each, but overall they are both fairly easy to use. The plain format means it lacks character (compared to the actual site) and it takes some getting used to. As I added new feeds, I kept thinking of more to add. It was kind of addictive! Since I have more interest in using RSS feeds, I may actually keep up with it this time. But even this can become overwhelming. We'll see...

For library staff, RSS feeds are certainly a great way to keep up with library trends and ideas. Perhaps this is even more important now that our budget is limiting our participation in training and conferences.

For patrons, we do already offer RSS feeds through AquaBrowser. We could offer RSS feeds for other updates and information about the library--programs, new databases, etc...

Overall, I think this is a useful tool!