Week Four - Finding Feeds...or what I did last time.

Let's see...when I created my Google Reader account, I added some sites I already visit along with a few of the sites suggested by others (some by using the feed icon on the page), and used the browse feature. I also organized everything into descriptively named folders...yippee! The only thing left to do in Discovery Exercise #1 is check out some search tools....

....check!

I goofed off a bit with each of the suggested search tools, but to be honest I found very few feeds to add this way. It isn't that the tools don't "work." I'm sure that, for the most part, they definitely do. To be honest, I was not truly looking to add feeds while I was trying these tools out for a few reasons: 1. I added WAY too many feeds during the first part of this set of exercises, and may need to scale back; 2. I added many of my feeds through way of my other feeds (i.e. suggested sites); and 3. I added the rest based on what other trusted/admired librarians (some of whom I know in real life, some not) are reading. For now, I feel much more comfortable trusting others in terms of finding "professional/informative" blogs/sites than I trust my own searching, visiting, evaluating, and choosing. Some may call it lazy, but...okay, maybe it is lazy! However, until I get a bit more comfortable, I think I will keep it this way.

It appears that I am getting much better at keeping it short and sweet.

Week Four: Make it "really simple" with RSS & Newsreader

This week's Discovery Exercises promised to "make life 'Really Simple' with RSS and a Newsreader." Discovery exercise numero uno suggested that I watch another video from commoncraft, "RSS in Plain English." This video is another great one, and I love the style/format of these "in Plain English" videos.

Although I have known about RSS for a while now, I never seriously considered signing up for an account. I just didn't think I visited enough sites to warrant one; however, after creating a Google Reader account (Discovery Exercise #2 - check) and subscribing to some feeds (Discovery Exercise #3 - check), I quickly began to realize that I visit WAY more websites than I realized. At first, I just added news and a few sites I visit for fun or giggles. Next, I thought that I should probably include a few library/librarian related blogs, since I have been actively attempting to add more of such sites to my daily Internet rounds since being admitted to the SLIS. Before I realized it, I had tons of feeds! That's when I started to wonder just how much time I had been wasting visiting these sites, especially on days when there was nothing new to see. This is going to save much time and energy. Then again, I added quite a few new sites, ones that I had not been visiting. Now I wonder if I will be saving time by not wondering out to all of my usual sites one by one, or if I have made my site reading more time consuming by adding new sites. Hmm...I guess only time will tell. I can always delete a few.

I promised myself last posting that my next posting would be shorter, so I think I'll keep that promise...I have some feeds to read anyway!