Thing 4: RSS

Setting up the RSS feeds through Google Reader was very simple. I can see where this could be very helpful and save time. Some of my favorite sites were not equiped to do this, so I would still have to pull them up separately. I will spend some time working with this and decide if this is something that I will continue to use personally.

Thing 3: Blog Search Tools

I tried searching three different search engines for blogs about a few of my current interests. Although they were easy to use, I found that Google was easiest for me to use. I am sure this is due to the fact that I use Google all the time. I was able to find info faster on this one than the others.

Once you start looking, there is so much information out there. Wish I had more time to explore!

Thing 2 - Library 2.0

Reading through all of the articles listed about this concept, I like this thought best:

"We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning." (Away from "Iceburgs", Rick Anderson)

Working with the teens at our library branch, I find them reluctant to use books to find the information they need. All I have to do it show them the databases from our website and they take off! Using computers is their preferred way of learning and we will have to continue to meet that need. There will always be patrons that neither use nor want to learn to use computers. Our challenge is to meet the needs of both types of patrons. That's why I love the above quote! We are here to eliminate barriers!

Thing 1

Here's hoping that I am doing this correctly!