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I've got to admit that I really empathize with what Roy Tennant is saying in his LibraryJournal blog entry of August 31, 2009. He starts with: "After going a full six weeks without reading my blog aggregator, I have to wonder what's up."
I have to confess that's it's been a lot longer that six weeks since I looked at my aggregator! It's one of those things I promised to do when I took the 23 Things program, but I knew back then that it was probably the least likely thing I would keep up with.
Twitter wasn't included in the first set of 23 Things on a Stick, so I can't say what I would have thought of Twitter back then as a replacement for RSS. But I've got to agree with Roy again when he says that Twitter acts as a secondary filter: "If your blog post is good, people will tweet or retweet it."
Food for thought.
Showing posts with label RSS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RSS. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Thursday, April 17, 2008
14 "Other" Ways to Use RSS Feeds
This time I've been reading my immediate colleagues' blogs and found a link to "14 'Other' Ways to Use RSS Feeds" on the Tranquil Landing blog.
The one Alison found intriquing was SendMeRSS, also known as R-Mail. This allows you to take any feed and forward the updates to your e-mail. It checks for updates at least once in every two-hour period. This one appeals to me, too. I'm always forgetting to go look at my aggregator!
I also like no. 5, FeedJournal, which allows you to convert multiple RSS feeds to an "elegant printable ... newspaper-style document." Could be quite useful for sharing information with the whole Reference Department.
ZapTXT (no. 11) enables you to monitor RSS feeds for specific keywords. You can also get alerts when a new article appears that includes the specified keywords.
The one Alison found intriquing was SendMeRSS, also known as R-Mail. This allows you to take any feed and forward the updates to your e-mail. It checks for updates at least once in every two-hour period. This one appeals to me, too. I'm always forgetting to go look at my aggregator!
I also like no. 5, FeedJournal, which allows you to convert multiple RSS feeds to an "elegant printable ... newspaper-style document." Could be quite useful for sharing information with the whole Reference Department.
ZapTXT (no. 11) enables you to monitor RSS feeds for specific keywords. You can also get alerts when a new article appears that includes the specified keywords.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
KISS Meets RSS
Simple is the operative word in both Keep it Simple, Stupid and Really Simple Syndication. Helping you keep it simple is what RSS is all about.
I've known about RSS for over a year, always meant to do an aggregator, but never seemed to have time. That's one really nice thing about the 23 Things, you have to make the time to learn about and use these tools.
Yesterday (Wednesday the 27th) the Reference Dept. had a special staff meeting with presentations on aggregators, blogging, and wikis. Staff who are ahead of the rest of us in these areas showed us what they had discovered. Based on that I chose Bloglines as my aggregator.
I already knew some blogs I wanted as feeds (Tame the Web, of course), but also added some that the 23 Things on a Stick recommended (both of the MINITEX blogs -- the reference services blog and the digital reference blog -- and Unshelved), and even two that Bloglines recommended in their Wordsmith package when I first signed up (Librarians' Internet Index and the Shifted Librarian, another "of course" one). I'm writing this from home and tomorrow at work I have some archivists' blogs that I will add.
I think the true key to making an aggregator useful is to have a specific time every day that you set aside to look at it! Checking one's email seems to have become the first thing we all do in the morning and I think checking one's aggregator will soon become my second.
How will this be useful for work? The obvious is helping keep current and spot trends. I think that it also might be useful to mine for potential postings on the Researchers Notebook blog. We'll have to see how that develops!
I've known about RSS for over a year, always meant to do an aggregator, but never seemed to have time. That's one really nice thing about the 23 Things, you have to make the time to learn about and use these tools.
Yesterday (Wednesday the 27th) the Reference Dept. had a special staff meeting with presentations on aggregators, blogging, and wikis. Staff who are ahead of the rest of us in these areas showed us what they had discovered. Based on that I chose Bloglines as my aggregator.
I already knew some blogs I wanted as feeds (Tame the Web, of course), but also added some that the 23 Things on a Stick recommended (both of the MINITEX blogs -- the reference services blog and the digital reference blog -- and Unshelved), and even two that Bloglines recommended in their Wordsmith package when I first signed up (Librarians' Internet Index and the Shifted Librarian, another "of course" one). I'm writing this from home and tomorrow at work I have some archivists' blogs that I will add.
I think the true key to making an aggregator useful is to have a specific time every day that you set aside to look at it! Checking one's email seems to have become the first thing we all do in the morning and I think checking one's aggregator will soon become my second.
How will this be useful for work? The obvious is helping keep current and spot trends. I think that it also might be useful to mine for potential postings on the Researchers Notebook blog. We'll have to see how that develops!
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