#9 Finding feeds

After much delay, I now get to writing a post about finding feeds.

Of the suggested tools that I had a play with Topix wasn't helpful in locating something of interest. I think this had much more to do with the layout than the content provided. To me it seemed that there were a few too many options. However, I liked the local content that was presented on the homepage, useful for the current election. Which reminds of a Blog that I must and will now subscribe to, Crikey.

By contrast, I really liked Technocrati, it's simple to use and search. I love the way that from the homepage there were 7 headings to choose from and when I clicked on one of the links (Entertainment - of course) I saw interesting stuff straight away - poor Kanye. And the scrolling information shows how much is out there.

But because I'm still a bit new to all this feed stuff, I think I'll come across feeds when I'm reading print. A bit old fashioned I know, but at the end of the day when you're on dial up at home, there's only so much searching and waiting you can do. However, I do like the fact my Internet explorer browser at home has an RSS function which I think will be a lot easier to add feeds.

One last thing, I did use the RSS feeds for journals found in our online databases and I think there is a lot of potential with this. Personally its a great way for me to manage various library journals according to my preferences.

#8 RSS, Newsreaders and bloglines

Well, it took awhile, but I finally did it, and if I have to say so myself - yay! Once I had seen feeds appearing on other blogs, I wanted to do the same. Three days/sessions later, over a few weeks and I have managed to add a selection of feeds to my blog. I think my biggest hurdle was navigating around the Bloglines site which I found to be a little clunky. After re-reading the instructions numerous times, and a bit of fiddling, I worked it out. So the moral of the story is - if you want to do something enough you will work it out.

RSS would definitely make life easier for those who want to keep in touch with what's changing on a whole lot of sites. The potential it holds for groups of people who share a common interest would be infinite. And I can see why there are so many library related blog popping up, but it makes you wonder is there a blog overload. (Probably not as everyone is part of their own niche.) I guess, a less techy way of explaining RSS would be - a means of going to one website, to see what's been happening in all your favourite websites.

There are a lot different ways that libraries can implement this type of technology and I've already been thinking how our library service's web presence can implement these tools.