SLQ Week 5 - RSS Feeds

Am up to Week 5 of the State Library of Queensland's Licence 2 Test Drive, and this week we are looking at RSS feeds.  I could not imagine living without RSS feeds as they are such a time saver.  I really like the following Youtube clip as it clearly explains what an RSS feed is, and why you would want one.



I have been using my Bloglines account now for over two years, and I could not imagine ever going back to the old way of looking for information.  My Bloglines account automatically retrieves updates and is separated into three different folders : a professional libraries folder encompassing library, librarian and library related blogs; a friend folder that tracks the lives of many of my online non-librarian friends and finally a news/weather and other interesting sites folder.  All of the information comes to me in one place, and I can view all blog posts or updated information whenever I want.

My Bloglines account is a vital professional tool, and it enables me to keep up to date with what is happening in Library land.  I follow blogs from information professionals from around the world, and this global perspective encourages me to think and do libraries with a broader/wider understanding, and from a deeper knowledge base.

I really like the Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the day blog.  This is such a great idea and is a wonderful way to share the amazing photos contained within their collections.  I think our local history library could do this, and share the story that the photo contains.  It is also a way to engage with the community as it promotes conversations and connectivity.

I am thinking of changing Feed readers at the moment, and exporting my Bloglines account into Google Reader as I have had a lot of trouble lately accessing my information.  I was sent this link via twitter after making a comment about the reader being offline again which explains some of their problems.