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It was rather interesting to use the RSS feed finding tools. In the past I've just googled a topic and sometimes added the word "blog" to see what would happen. Or I've added random blogs from lists of blogs. I know I've seen some lists of blogs by librarians on some listservs before.
I've seen Topix come up a lot in Google searches when I have searched for local information. I don't see much use for it though because I already feel like I'm on news overload.
I found the "discovery" tool within google Reader to be limiting but the Google Blog Search was more comprehensive. You can even include dates in your search parameters and it indexed what seems like an endless number of individual blog posts. For finding feeds with it, I recommend doing an advanced search and searching for something "in the blog title".
Technorati featured too much advertising. It was on the sides but also in the middle of the page and that was a turn off.
Snydic8 seems like an interesting "from the ground up" approach since you can submit your feed for indexing and I liked seeing the stats on the approval status. But when I searched for "Cincinnati" it brought back only 88 results and most seemed like mainstream, commercial sources. Most of the results were from Topix. Some were from CitySearch. Others were from more established sites. Really I am not that into feeds that have huge followings or are from these larger sources. It seems too commercial for me. Though I did like how Snydic8 featured an overwhelming number of feed tags for different readers.
Here's what I added:
The Practical Archivist
The Pondering Archivist
The Video Archivist
Academic Librarian
I also formally added 2 blogs I already read from time to time that I have on my Firefox toolbar:
Library Link of the Day
Reflections from a Small College Library
Well, there is a lot to like with RSS feeds. It makes it easy to follow content on the web and I like it as a better alternative to saving everything into a browser's bookmarks folder. I have the worst habit of adding things to my bookmarks and then never accessing them again. "Oh, I'll want to look at this later" Oh no, I don't... You could even add a mostly static page to a newsreader so it's in a place where you know you can find it later. I also like the feature of being able to import and export from reader to reader. I want my personal collection of whatever, to be portable.
But I sort of feel bombarded with content on the newsreader. I don't like logging in and seeing a ton of bolded items signifying that I haven't read them. To me that sort of feels like a computer program has generated a to-do list for me. Sure, I gave it some guidelines but I guess I feel pressured to keep up with everything I add. I realize this is probably a time management issue or some type of psychological problem on my part, but I can't shake it.
I suppose I could group my feeds in a hierarchy with things I want to always read, things I sometimes want to check and things that I like but maybe don't want to follow constantly. And since it is fluid, I could always switch feeds in and out of the various categories based on what I have going on.
One superficial thing though. I don't like the looks of Bloglines. I like Google Reader better but I still prefer pages with more design and colors- something more like a Pageflakes page or iGoogle. I REALLY appreciate good design. I used to do layout and design in my undergrad days and I really like well designed websites that just look appealing. I don't need anything crazy looking like a teenager's Myspace page (okay, so that guy is a bit older than a teenager- here's another one) but I like customizing my colors and interface or I prefer to see how the author has designed the site. So I can't see myself actually reading in the newsreader. I'll still prefer to hit the actual site once I know new content has arrived.
Google Reader appeals to me because I am a heavy Google user. I use gmail, chat and of course their search engine. To me it just makes sense to log into Google and have all my content in one place. I also like how in the Google reader you can add tags to the feeds. Maybe you can do this in Bloglines or other readers but Google seems to make it very easy to do that.
On the topic of libraries....
Well, library blogs are a great way to inform your patrons about upcoming events or new items. Our director started up a blog on our college's intranet but as of now there is no way to subscribe to it and it is only viewable to staff and faculty, no students. Having an RSS feed might bring more regular users to your site since the content is pretty much delivered to them.
But the biggest way this could be used, at least here is the RSS integration in databases. Ebsco and Wilson Web (and probably others) have the option for you to subscribe to your search results list. Your reader will show you new material that fits your search criteria. This is a perfect way to keep up with an emerging topic. So many times students and faculty get only a few results when they search for something specific or timely. It would be great to teach them to use the RSS feed option so when new material on that topic is available, they can easily find it.
This is a great benefit because many patrons struggle with how to effectively search a database to begin with. We do a lot of one-on-one searching sessions with people on an as needed basis but I'm not sure they always retain what we have taught them. I'm afraid once you show them how to search once, some might forget or be intimated and not try to search again and therefore miss new literature in the future. This is perfect for faculty working on a ongoing research project or any other time someone wants to keep up on the current literature in the health care field.
Now I'm ready to make a tutorial on how to use the RSS feed option in the databases.
