Week+8

=Week 8 - RSS & Newsreaders=



**//Thing 13 - RSS Feeds and Newsreaders//**
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. You may have seen the on a blog you were reading. This icon shows that you can easily keep track of that particular web page by subscribing to it. This is really handy for websites such as blogs and newsfeeds that get updated with new content regularly. Instead of checking back to see if anything new has been posted the new content will be sent to you just like the paper magazines or newspapers you subscribe to. The only thing you need is a place for your subscriptions to come in like a virtual mailbox. While some email programs will allow you to manage your subscriptions a more advanced option is offered through Google Reader.

__Thing 13 Learning 2.0 Tasks__
1. Take the tour so you get a quick overview of what Google reader can do for you.

2. Create an account. (If you have a gmail address you might already have an account without knowing it.)

3. Add the blog addresses of your fellow students to your reader. The addresses can be found in the Week 2 Canvas Discussion (D2). Note that not all blogs have an RSS icon. Some have a link at the very bottom that says //subscribe//.

4. You can also subscribe to news about specific topics. Go to Google news and create a search on something you find interesting. For example ~library. At the bottom of your results you'll find the RSS icon. Click that to make this query into a so called standing query and receive news items on this topic whenever they come up. Add a news feed to Reader. This is finicky sometimes and might take a few tries. Using Firefox as a browser might work better than Internet Explorer. Experiment away!

5. Remember Flickr? You can also subscribe to people's photographs so every time they post new photos you'll get them automatically! If you feel up for it, add a photo feed to your Google Reader. Remember that the more you play around with this technology, the more you'll learn. It is that simple.

===Optional stuff for the advanced === Firefox has a free add-in called Feedly. You can set up your personal Feedly page to keep track of all your web information sources gathered via RSS and Twitter feeds. You can also run Feedly on your mobile phone by downloading the Feedly Mobile 2.0 App. Installing Firefox add-ons is very straightforward.

**//Thing 14 - Finding library blogs and news feeds//**
A good application for the RSS feed is to stay up to date with your professional literature by having it automatically appear in your Reader. Read more about current awareness using RSS so you understand why this is important for all professional librarians out there. There are good librarians who will blog about issues pertinent to our profession or point you to technology to try or articles you simply must read. Blogs are a great way to stay in touch with the profession and you can count reading them as working on your professional development. A great blog to subscribe to for this class would be [|Points of Reference] which is a blog about reference sources and trends in reference.

Now that you have created a single place to check your news and (professional) blogs (i.e. your Google Reader account) it is time to learn where to find good blogs so you can add them to your list. There are three easy ways to find additional blogs: 1) look at the [|blog rolls] of your favorite blogs to see if there are any blogs among the list of blogs that your blogger is following; 2) use a blog search engine; or 3) find lists of top blogs on a certain topics.

Perhaps the best known among the blog search engines and my favorite is [|Technorati] which allows you to search for blogs (feeds) on certain topics as well as specific blog posts. You already met Technorati during [|week 7 of learning 2.0] of course. Google has a [|blog search] as well.

Here are a few fun lists for you to check out: [|100 Best Blogs for School Librarians](from 2009 - could not find a more recent version), [|Top 25 Librarian Bloggers], [|Top 10 Non-Librarian Blogs To Read] in 2008 (and probably still in 2012), and [| 10 librarian blogs to read in 2010]. It is probably a good sign for a blog to appear on multiple lists!

__Thing 14 Learning 2.0 Tasks__
1. Try out a blog or feed search engine or two and find additional blogs to subscribe to.

2. Explore one of the lists to see if they point you to additional blogs.

3. **Create a blog post on your personal blog about at least two (school) library or education blogs you have decided to follow for your own professional development**. Write which ones you have selected (title, URL) and why. You can also describe what type of information these blogs provide that is of interest to you. I am assuming you have added these two as feeds to your Google Reader!