Thing #8, RSS Feeds, Part II

I am not feeling too creative today!!

Tasks:

Create bloglines account-Done
Add various RSS feeds to my bloglines-Done (I really like ones from the CDC & FDA)
Add some participants blogs-Done
Add at least 3 Library Feeds-1 Done. I subscribed to Library Garden and was able to do this successfully at home. I tried to subscribe to Unshelved while here at work and I got an error message.

My thoughts on RSS and newsreaders:

My reactions are mixed. My supervisor, Jennifer, showed me how to RSS within Yahoo Beta Mail which I have to admit was much simpler than going to bloglines. I already have a yahoo account so it is MUCH easier to just look at my feeds while I am already in my mail. So, I am kinda annoyed that I would have to go to yet another website to find news. In the same breath, going to only one website to go all of my news from various sources IS much easier than navigating through all of the sites in and of themselves. So maybe I shouldn't bite the hand that feeds (ha, ha, sorry for the pun) me.

Back to yahoo--so with www.my.yahoo.com I had already experienced having an RSS subscription. The package was just prettier. I don't like the fact that the source goes away once it is no longer a 'new' feed item.

Verdict: The jury is still out (at least until my creativity & enthusiasm returns).

P.S. How can I use this technology in work or personal life? Obviously due to the sheer amount of information that is available, it is useful to have one central location that would aggregate headlines, blogs, etc to allow me to stay in the loop. I just would be afraid that I might miss a gem hidden within a website, if all I did was look at the 'sale items'.

P.S.S. How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? I still need to mull on this. More later.