RSS Feeds

I always wondered what RSS stood for and now I know, Real Simple Syndication and that is what it is; real simple. I've had a Bloglines account for sometime and have collected a number of interesting sites. I subscribe to a really great site called librarian etiquette which is a humorous look at the subculture of library staff rooms. Your Shelves explores the world of private libraries asking people to send in photos of their home bookcases with a short explanation of their collections. 50 books is an exploration of one woman's challenge to read 50 worthwhile books a year and comment on them (though life seems to interrupt an awful lot). I subscribe to the ALIA employment page, looking to see what is available out there for trained librarians (one of which I hope to be in the next few years).

For a while I subscribed to a collection of online comics, some original and some from newspapers. As a result of this i have become addicted to online comics of all sorts which I follow religiously in my own time. I have found that RSS feeds and the recommended sites list on Bloglines allows you to try sites you would not normally have seen (as with comic page) and in doing so opens you to a great range of information and recreational opportunities.

In terms of usage for work purposes, RSS feeds are great in that they provide opportunities to easily research what other library professionals are doing all over the world, how their projects are developed and the returns they have experienced, so that such projects can be adapted and used in your own libraries. Such ideas as gaming the in the library sound great but it is also really useful to have real life feedback on how such projects are received by the average library user.