Resource Review #2: "Syndicate to Communicate"

Meredith Farkas article "Syndicate to Communicate" is an encouragement for all librarians to embrace and adopt RSS feeds as a way to stay in touch with their users and make it easy for them to be kept updated and aware of library activities in a timely manner.

Farkas suggests that by placing an RSS feed on the library's website, it will stay refreshed automatically, without ever having to contact the server. People can simply subscribe to the library website RSS the library's online presence will be substantially increased. In circumstances where the library may have different web pages devoted to different subjects, they could use an RSS feed to collect current information on that topic.

Overall I found this article to be very easy to understand; it was informative without being overwhelming. It would be a great introduction to RSS technology, even for people that are usually resistant to adopt new digital tools, because of its accessibility and pleasant tone. The technological explanations were clear and easy to grasp.

Also, the suggestions made about how RSS could work in favor of promoting the library in a low-maintenance way were valuable ideas--practical, with great potential for increased visibility and awareness of the library.

Just now, I checked to see if Madison Public Library offered an RSS feed. When I clicked on the familiar orange box, I was presented with a scene that says, "Coming Soon!"

Farkas, M. "Syndicate to Communicate." American Libraries v. 39 no. 5 (May 2008) p. 40.

Resource Review #1: LibWorm!

In browsing a number of "digital tools" to focus on for my research and exploration, I came across LibWorm.com, "a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries." I thought that seemed relevant, so I took a look.

What I found, was a website that collects updates from around 1400 RSS feeds, all related to libraries. These feeds are then freely available for searching and subscribing to the user. Users can subscribe using their preferred aggregator, or use LibWorm's built-in aggregator.

It was developed by Frankie Dolan, who built the infrastructure for MedWorm.com. David Rothman, a medical library paraprofessional approached Dolan with the idea that the same concept would also work for the biblioblogosphere. Dolan agreed, and they worked together to create LibWorm. TaDa!

So far, I think it's a great tool to simplify the work of finding and browsing blogs, websites and journals for library news. After researching for reviews on this resource, I found that there were not many formal evaluations. Hence, for my 644 project I thought I might broaden my scope to include RSS feeds in general. We'll see where that takes me...