This post is designed to cover Thing 8 of the OCL Web Challenge. I have been a fan of feeds for going on three years now. Hard to believe! I got a Bloglines account after hearing Jessamyn West of Librarian.net talk about them at the April 2005 New Jersey Library Association Conference. She planted the seeds of the web challenge idea, telling librarians to get out there and try these cool new Web 2.0 widgets.
Like many of these Web 2.0 tools, Bloglines is addictive. It's an easy way to keep track of favorite and inconsistent bloggers. I have divided my many feeds into different categories, including: News, Libraries, Books, Health & Nutrition, Hip Moms, Technology, and the Brain. Some of my favorite News feeds are: Yahoo Most Viewed, The Daily Nightly, and Slate. I also think it is a legitimate way to keep up with trends in the library profession. I think it would be great if OCL could add catalog feeds listing new acquisitions in a given subject. I would sure love to receive a feed listing newly purchased books on autism spectrum disorders, or Asperger's Syndrome. Wouldn't it be cool to be one of the first to find out about the latest cookbooks purchased by the library?
For this web challenge, I've added The Asbury Park Press news feed for Ocean County and an interesting blog on the changing job market from the New York Times called Shifting Careers . I also subscribed to the feed for my branch's events, as well as the OCL Web Challenge feed. (I already subscribe to Unshelved). Bloglines is a great tool - simple and intuitive.
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