#8 RSS Feeds!

I couldn't wait to get to this one! There is a world of opportunity just waiting behind that little orange icon! I have been dying to know how to incorporate it into my world! And now that I do I feel very smug! (Okay, more jubilant than smug. . .) Anyway, there's so much I can do with this, personally -- news updates are a given. This is even better than the Google alerts, because with that tool, I had to know what key word to alert Google to. With RSS, it feeds me updates, regardless of key words. Some of the info I'll disregard -- just like reading a regular newspaper. Other bits I'll hone in on. But I can do RSS feeds on fun stuff, too: hobbies, words of the day, weather in faraway places, pictures from Flickr from photographers I think are cool . . . it's endless. And then there are professional considerations. Wow. It's like taking staff development, practically. (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.) However, it's a great way to stay on top of what people are talking about in terms of technology usage, the how-to's of the library world, etc. The RSS feed is a great way to provide encouragement to people professionally, because we read what other real librarians are doing out there in the world through their updates in blogs. I know when I read Doug Johnson saying he's discouraged because he's not seen such and such being used widely, I feel a tiny bit better about my own little world. I mean, come on -- if a big hitter like Doug Johnson goes through hi's and low's like I do, I must be on the right path.