#9 Exploring RSS Search Tools

The questions posed in this exercise were:

• Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Feedster wasn't one of them. When I couldn't access it, I Googled it and found this: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blog_search_feedster_quietly_dies.php That article mentioned some other feed finders to try. So, I moved on down the list. Syndic8 was a disappointment. Topix was good in that it defaulted to items of local interest - though: How did "IT" know?
• Which Search tool was the easiest for you? I found Bloglines' search tool to be the easiest for me to use. It was basically one stop shopping. I could add new sites to my public Blogline account right there.
• Which was more confusing? Apart from the confusion with the dead Feedster- Sydic8 was the most confusing and least helpful.
• What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? The hurricane and weather feeds will be helpful. There's not much out there for useful ILL blogs. A lot of non-librarians use the service and either praise or express disappointment in it. Gratifyingly, praise is in the vast majority of the posts.
• Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? Well, there is "Captain ILL". (Example: http://captainill.blogspot.com/2008/04/interlibrary-loan-of-day_24.html) who for some reason chooses to post in other languages very once in a while.
• What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds? Ummmm. I have been using Google Alerts for a while now to find search the web to find items on "Interlibrary Loan" and on "Jacksonville Public Library". It doesn't always give me THIS "Jacksonville Public Library" and "Interlibrary Loan" gets me A LOT of posts on ILL customers use of the service. Google Alerts sends me an e-mail with links to items it finds on websites and in blogs.

Here's my take on RSS-dom. My FeedReader alerts me whenever new stuff comes in. Google Alerts does the same thing, though it does it once a day or once every couple of days. Bloglines will be another site I will need to remember to go to in order to access the posts. They all have a huge advantage over doing searches on a topic or remembering to check a site for an update. Now- the problem! Some of the websites I need to check up on do not- for whatever reason- "work" with RSS. Very ironic in one case since one of them is exploring new, innovative ways to use Interlibrary Loan!

#8- RSS and newsreaders

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Cambie is my public Blogline account link.
I've been working with RSS readers since January 2007 when I found out that the ILLiad Customer Service Interface was going to add an RSS component in the next upgrade. At the time, the OCLC Help Desk pointed me to newsreaders that required me to download software to my desktop and then have to upgrade to newer versions. Bloglines is a lot easier and accessible from any computer. That's a big plus. Now, to the questions at hand:

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
The convenience. As the video in the training pointed out- it comes to you so you don't have to access the websites to get the information you want.
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
I see me using this more in my work life. My work is so tied to computers that my off-time is usually off-line. I can see entries from Library Journal that I'm interested in. Wall Street Journal runs a column on recommended books. Many of them are no longer in print so there will be ILL requests from all across the country for the few libraries that still have these books on their shelves. It's good to get forewarning. There are some ILL-related blogs that I don't access on a frequent basis. This will help me keep up with those blogs.
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
At JPL, we already are. If you use ILL, you can get notifications that your book has come in via RSS. JPL also has other RSS feeds available:http://jpl.coj.net/res/rssfeeds/index.html They help keep customers informed about new services and library programming.