RSS is Cool!!

So, onward we must go and onward I did go. Having just finished week 3 I've embarked on week 4 with gusto. Although I really like the concept of RSS feeds and can see the time-saving advantages of them I can also see myself getting a little addicted and signing up for way too many of them. When I started this entry I had 5 RSS feeds set up, now I have 20.

Although I started with general run of the mill feeds, I progressed to looking for more specific library-related ones and followed links to related blogs, and followed more links and did more searches and I'm having way, way too much fun with this. Doing Learning 2.0 has opened my eyes to just what's available on the web. It's just phenomenal and absolutely inspiring to read about how other libraries, and not just public libraries, have used and are using RSS and widgets and so many other things. The passion expressed within posts is energising.

The idea that we can encourage customers to set up RSS aggregator accounts or use those built into their web browser and make recommendations based on their interests is exciting. We can encourage them to sign up for our RSS feeds for our blogs. Equally, I love that we can more easily keep up-to-date with the ideas of others in our profession. I remember being told several years ago that it was our responsibility as Librarians to use technology to provide services not have our services controlled by technology. We have such potential to be responsive to the needs of our customers and to share ideas within the profession.