#3: RSS, Bloglines, oh my!

Thing #3 is another one I've already done. I use Bloglines, and I really like it. I have a few options that I do regularly: to skim for interesting posts from favorite bloggers, to read all posts by those bloggers since the last time I checked in, or to know it's been updated and to click through to their actual blog and read it from there. It's also one of those browser tabs that rarely gets closed once I open it in Firefox. I just keep it up and look at it once or twice a day when I want something to read.

I think one of the most useful applications of RSS could be for libraries and teachers to put out timely information on a feed instead of e-mailing or expecting users/students to login somewhere. RSS makes it easy to update the masses without masses of 'extra' information overload.

To be completely transparent, I will say that the only reason I found out about Bloglines 2 years ago was because I attended a session on Library 2.0 in Willmar, taught by Michael Stephens himself. I was the only one in the room of about 30 library staff who'd heard of or already used half the things he was talking about (last.fm, Facebook, Flickr, to name a few) and he literally told me, "You need a Bloglines account," so I went home and made one and never looked back.

I used to visit a lot of blogs on a regular basis, just to see if they'd added anything new, and now I don't have to waste time hunting around for updates. Aggregators, I find, are especially nice for keeping up with Michael Stephen's blog, Found Magazine's Daily Finds, and the combined list of LIS jobs. As of right now, I have 43 feeds in my Bloglines. Instead of hunting down where a feed is on a site, I usually just type the URL into Bloglines and let it search for the feed.