Digg.....er....ado!

Much ado about Digg. I went to the site and found some cool stuff by using their groupings/headings. I found I was not all that interested in the general top "Diggs" of the last day or so. I was more interested in those that were listed under "Technology" or "World and Business."

If only there were a way to have "libraries/books" as a heading! That would be ideal for me.

I wonder if we could use the same concept in our library. For instance, could we tap into what our patrons "DIGG"? That would help us know what programs, communication, or other ideas were most important "dugg?" by our patrons. Instant feedback!

Tweeting

I have signed up for Twitter in the past and posted a few tweets. As a personal choice, I don't tweet anymore. It was interesting, but not vital. I figure with Facebook, text messaging, and emails that I am connected as I want to be to my Followers.

However, I can see its uses for libraries who have Twitter Followers. We could tweet out news on a daily basis. News about new parking garages, holiday hours, special programs, resuming children's programming, summer reading, noteworthy books, book sales, festival info. Then if we wanted, we could even try 140 character book reviews each Friday or Sunday. That might be fun.

Let's see:

Lost City of Z by David Grann-In 1925, explorer P. Fawcett disappears w/ his son in the Amazon jungle. Join the search! Gripping nonfiction.

Hmmm. 140 characters would be a challenge!

Picasa

Just created the Picasa account and uploaded a couple of digital photos. It was very fast and easy. I can see how this would be a very good way to quickly share digital photos. You could have them loaded into Picasa before the program was even over! Nice way to share library ideas with other librarians.

Communicator

Now we have a new "communicator" at work. Not sure how we will use this Instant Messaging technology any differently than we would our email. If you're at a computer and your email is up, you get a notification when a new email comes in. Seems this would be about the same as being notified of an IM. Now for chats, I can see the relevance. I just haven't been in many chats since about 1996.

We'll see how this pans out.

RSS Feeds

Now:

I am following some blogs in my blog reader. (only if sent a reminder in my email)

I have many things sent to my personal email automatically. (This I do find convenient)

I now have RSS feeds in my work Outlook account. (I've no idea how long those Microsoft RSS feeds have been sitting in there unread).

I still have bookmarked sites I will visit infrequently.



Query:

IF I have to have a reminder that there is new content for me to go look at, is it really important?



To wit:

I don't have to be reminded to do most things I enjoy. Eat, sleep, walk & play with Pluty, etc.

I don't need extra reminders of things I am compelled to do. Laundry, dishes, grocery shopping.



so,

If I have to be reminded to go look at a website, get the podcast, etc. Do I REALLY "need" this?

Sure, I understand the convenience of it. But what if you didn't watch an episode of a tv show, a football game, a movie? What if you didn't check the headlines, weather, scores? Would any of it really matter? Don't you think the stuff that really matters would somehow be on your mental radar screen anyway?



Discuss:

What are some RSS feeds that I probably can't/shouldn't live without?

Which ones would make me a better librarian?



Reflections on the assignment:

Yep, I can see that we could push information out to patrons.

We could make sure patrons know about a variety of RSS feeds in their areas of interest.

Blog Readers

Okay, I will expand on my previous post about blog readers.
I don't think that I will be using one. I have set one up. But that is where my use will end.

Back in the dark ages when I read blogs, I found that if I bookmarked the blog to my favorites and gave it a cute name, I could find it whenever I wanted. Simple.
1. Internet browser
2. Click under favorites,
3. Click on "Blog of Choice."
4. Read blog entries or ignore them

After I was introduced to "Delicious," I learned that I could take my favorite bookmarks to any computer I used. Yay!

So, I now have my 23 Things blog and it has a handy gadget. "Blogs you are following"
I can follow blogs from my blog rather than from a blog reader.
But goin' old school, if I want to be in control, I just use my bookmarks.

Here is my reasoning. I follow a blog about uncluttering. I also follow a blog about progressive/liberal politics. I follow a blog by my coworker Larissa. None of these blogs have a ton in common. At least not the reasons I follow them.

So, if I use a blog reader, it sandwiches a post about healthcare reform between a post about cleaning out your garage and a post about Larissa's recent trip to Brazil. It would be like reading a page of Utne Reaer, a page of National Geographic, and then a page from The Nation. This is not how I read. Or at least it is not how I choose to read blogs. If I want to read about Larissa's trip, I will go to her blog and not be interrupted by a post about kitchen gadgets gone bad.

I am merely pointing out that blog readers don't work for me. I know they have a ton of coolio features that I am missing. I know that they purport to make my life oh so much easier. But so does a digital watch with date, time, calendar, calculator, etc. I just choose an analog watch as my preference.

reader

I just set up my reader account and added 23 ?Things, Unclutterer, and also the link to the blogs i am following from this one.

The time savings have been huge! I used my saved time to read the collected works of Proust.

Patrons

People who use public libraries are already in the plus column as far as I am concerned. If they are here, that is a good thing. But people who come everyday freak me out a little bit. I get paid to be here and I'm only here 5 days a week. When I see the same faces almost everyday, I get a little worried. Really? You don't want to take a day off and spend it doing something else?

Required Post

Here is my required post for FPL's 23 Things