Thing #8- RSS feeds

Really Simple Syndication! Who would've thought, and the name is great.

Wow! I'll say it again. Wow! I very much like the newsreader. Once you find a blog that seems to suit your needs, either for information or for pleasure, having it all together in GoogleReader is really handy. It saves you going to your favorites, checking, having no update, wishing there was an update, and then moving on to the next favorite. Love it. It saves time, and the links that the blogger provides are usually things that you are interested in, too. Stands to reason.

I did find that each blog develops a "personality". There were blogs that I looked at that did not appeal to me because of the tone, or the lack of readability. It really brings home the concept of presentation, because several of these blogs were full of helpful information. I guess it boils down to picking blogs that you need to pick, as well as picking those that you want to pick.

I also like the idea of being able to tag different blogs, so that you and others who are searching can more easily navigate the list.

For school, this would be an easy way to keep me updated on a number of things that I often have to search for, or forget to search for, or "don't have time" to search for. It would be a time saver, and I could check in, scan the articles to see if anything was what I needed, and possibly get other ideas that I hadn't expected to find. I found a blog from a music teacher who is using tons of technology, and has lots of ideas and suggestions. As far as personally, I will always enjoy being updated on the latest Green Bay Packers news, books that people of similar taste recommend, rose gardening, music news about favorite bands,and just this and that.

As far as in the library, other librarians can share their thoughts and reviews of particular books and technology suggestions are available. It's a time saver. I wonder if a librarian could gather different blogs on different subjects or areas of interest. I also wonder how very careful you would have to be...the blogger would have to be highly reputable. How would you screen the blogs?