Thing #7

Thing #7: Finding Feeds

Add five more feeds to my reader? I already feel like I spend too much time reading the feeds I have! (Okay, I'll confess--I just scan the titles and headlines and read only those that interest me. I'd never get any work done if I actually read everything.)

Okay, let's start with Technorati, which I've never used before. I was all fired up to search "libraries" but I decided I already have several general library sites, so I searched "grammar and punctuation" in the hopes of finding an educational blog that will help me improve the quality of my writing.

The first thing I note is that Technorati is slow, and it locked up my browser. Maybe it's just the connection I have today, or maybe their server is bogged down, but if it's this bad on the library's super-speedy internet connection, I'll definitely pass on using this with dial-up at home. Part of the problem might be the "Snap" previews, which kill everything else when they fail. After restarting the browser, Technorati worked much better, though, so perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on it.

Okay, back to "grammar and punctuation." The first blog to come up is CuteWriting. I read a couple of the recent articles. Seems informative, so I'll add it.

Also up is Language is the Peoples. Their most recent article is about the addition of "meh" to the dictionary, which I had been pretty excited about myself. (Well, as excited as anyone can be about an expression of pure indifference.) So I'm adding them, too.

I also found Punctuality Rules, which had a recent article explaining the "nth cousin" and "so-and-so nth removed" family relationships, which have always baffled me. It's not grammar, but it is useful, so I've got my third new feed.

So, I'm done with grammar and punctuation for now, but not with Technorati. Now instead of searching a term, I'll browse through their directory. Under Technology, Web 2.0, I found 2 Cents Worth (actually, it uses the symbol for "cents," but I don't know how to type that). They're talking about technology applications for 21 century classrooms. Since I work at a university, I'll add it for now and see if I find it useful.

I figure, just because I'm adding these feeds now doesn't mean I'll have to keep them if they're not informative or useful on an ongoing basis. If after a week or so I find I'm just not interested in the articles from a particular feed, I can ditch it.

On to Syndic8. Under "feeds" they offer a list of site names and information about when they were created, last updated, etc., but not anything about the content/purpose of the sites. Backing out of that essentially useless list, I searched for "cataloging." I found Catalogablog, which I've heard of before and looked at in the past, but totally forgot about. I'm adding the feed so I don't forget it again.

And now, on to Topix. Something cool here--my first visit to the site, and without my having to input a zip code or anything, it recognizes that I'm in Omaha, Nebraska. I presume it is doing this based on IP address or some such. I wish more sites did that. In fact, this is one of the topics discussed in David S. Platt's Why Software Sucks, which I recommend to anyone who gets frustrated with user-unfriendly software and websites.

So I'm already impressed with Topix. Glancing at their news and newswire, I see a lot of articles about things that I don't hear about on the Omaha World-Herald's metro/regional news. So I snapped that up. In fact, looking around other parts of Topix, I like the presentation for non-local news, as well. Yahoo news recently became essentially unusable with dial-up and an old browser, so I've been looking for a new news source. I'll have to try this one at home to see if it works as smoothly as it does on the library's computer.

Okay, now I've added six new feeds to my Bloglines account. That's enough for now.

P.S. -- The most useful (note: not "most interesting" or "most informative" but "most useful" in the sense that I consider them absolutely essential for my day-to-day work) feed I already had before this exercise is Typo of the Day for Librarians. No cataloger should pass this by. If you want to improve the searchability of the items in your catalog, search and destroy those typos! And this is a handy way to do that just a tiny bit each day without taking too much time out of your schedule.