This exercise was an opportunity to discover the true purpose of those "small funny tags on websites" and what RSS really means and what it can do for me. Setting up an RSS Reader was easy because it already existed--I just never accessed it! Thanks to my gmail account, conveniently, my Google Reader was there waiting for me to fill it up with subscriptions.
I used to frequent the blogs of my favorite poets and websites, visiting my bookmarks daily in the hopes of encountering new content. After a while, however, I grew tired of waiting for updated posts and I slowly stopped visiting them. Thanks to newsreaders, I can re-connect with these lost links as well as save time and stay informed of new content. I can also search for new blogs and websites that interest me and subscribe to them as well.
Libraries can utilize newsreaders when planning events and programs for patrons and discovering new books for their collections; taking advantage of newsreaders' instant dissemination of fresh content. After reading the post on RSS for educators in this blog that I found on the school library learning 2.0 page, I was excited that the writer was a former English teacher who assigned homework to his students through blogs! So to spin-off this idea, libraries could use newsreaders to subscribe to the blogs of the members of their book or homework club. RSS appears to be an exciting forum for information seekers and sharers. I am curious to discover how libraries have utilized them to enhance and improve their library services.
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2 comments:
I, too, found that "visiting" blogs was frustrating, so I didn't do it--but with a specific purpose in mind, an rss feeder is a lifeline! This is especially true for keeping track of assignments.
Bloglines keep track of all current and "graduate" School Library Learning 2.0 participants. I couldn't survive without bloglines, and it also links nicely to the right-hand side of SLL2.0 so all can see how many CSLA members are or are becoming web 2.0 savvy!
Best wishes.
- JackieS
CSLA 2.0 Team project manager
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