9. Locate a few library related feeds

One of the best ways to find more feeds you would like to read is to read the ones that your favorite bloggers are reading. Look for a "blogroll," a list of blogs that a blogger reads or recommends (scroll down to the bottom of the right sidebar of What I Learned Today for an extensive, categorized list of feeds that Nicole Engard reads). Also note when your favorite bloggers link to another blog--that's usually an indication that blog is in their RSS feed reader.

There are two search engines, LISZEN and LibWorm, that were created to search library and librarian blogs around the world. Try typing in one of your pet library projects, issues, or concerns, to see which library blogs cover that area.

Find some other blogs you might enjoying reading by searching in general blog search engines like Google Blog Search or Technorati. Try searches on "Cardinals baseball" or "cardinals bird," on knitting or NASCAR, on "information literacy" or "integrated library system."

Don't forget to add any blogs you want to follow to your Google Reader! And write a blog post so that the rest of us can check out the blogs you found, too.

8. Learn about RSS feeds

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Google Reader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Here's a video that introduces RSS and RSS feed readers: RSS in Plain English.

Exercise:

1. The Gmail account that you used to create your blog will also work for setting up Google Reader. Here's the starting page. If you're not currently logged on with your Google account, use the Sign In link in the upper right. Watch the video, take the tour, and/or start adding subscriptions.

2. Subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds:

• Choose one or more of our library blogs
• Read one or more of your fellow Learning 2.0 participants' blogs
• Add one or more of the blogs that you looked at in Week 1, Thing #2

3. Write a blog post about how this went. Any problems? Which feeds did you choose?

4. Figure out how you going to remember to check your Google Reader. Create a bookmark? Bring it up first thing in the morning with your email? Check it while you working at a service desk?

7. Read perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & the future

Before Web 2.0 could be fully defined in people's minds (it's still not), along came the term Library 2.0 used to describe a new set of concepts for developing and delivering library services. Library 2.0 is an extension of Web2.0 and shares many of its same philosophies and concepts including harnessing the user in both design and implementation of services, embracing constant change as a development cycle over the traditional notion of upgrades, and reworking library services to meet the users in their space, as opposed to ours (libraries).

Many have argued that the notion of Library 2.0 is more than just a term used to describe concepts that merely revolve around the use of technology, it also a term that can be used to describe both physical and mindset changes that are occurring within libraries to make our spaces and services more user-centric and inviting. Others within the profession have asserted that libraries have always been 2.0; collaborative, customer friendly and welcoming. But no matter which side of the debate proponents fall, both sides agree that libraries of tomorrow, even five or ten years from now, will look substantially different from libraries today.

Resources:

OCLC Next Space Newsletter – Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries?

Five Perspectives:

• Away from Icebergs
  
• Into a new world of librarianship
  
• To more powerful ways to cooperate
  
• To better bibliographic services
  
• To a temporary place in time

Wikipedia – Library 2.0
Library 2.0 Discussions (list of great references from Wikipedia)
RedOrbit article on Web 2.0 and libraries

Exercise:

1. Read two or three of the perspectives on Library 2.0 from the list above.
2. Write a blog post about your thoughts on any one of these. Library 2.0 - It many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

6. Read the article that started it all

The original Learning 2.0 program at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County was inspired by Stephen Abram's article "43 Things I (or you) might want to do this year" (pdf). Have you already tried 43 Things or any of the other items on his list? Write about them in your learning blog so that the rest of us know who to talk to when we're looking for someone with experience.

5. Watch a video about Web 2.0

This video on the YouTube website gives a quick impression of Web 2.0.

Watch it a couple of times--it goes fast. But don't work to hard to understand all of it (although the creating a blog part should look familiar). Some of the new things will become more clear when the "Learning 2.0 -- WU Libraries" program covers them in the next few weeks. We'll learn about RSS, flickr, del.icio.us, and Wikipedia.

Write about any thoughts inspired by this video on your learning blog.

4. Start a blog

Now that we've seen some other blogs, let's each create one of our own! The purpose of the blog you create today will be to log your experiences, thoughts, and ideas as you go through the Learning 2.0 WU Libraries program. Using the blogs, we'll be able to pool our resources, sharing our problems and collaborating on solutions.

If you find you like blogging, you can create another one for your own purposes using the same account. Or if you want to blog officially, as a library staff member, ask an Exploring Technology Committee member to set you up with the blogging software that the WU Libraries paid for, Typepad. For today, though, we'll be using the free Blogger software.

Exercise

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/

2. Log in using your new Gmail account, see my account information (okay, that's not my password) in the example below:

3. Here's step 1 of setting up your new blog:

4. After completing the above screen, you will click on the "Create your blog now" button.

5. Then, it's time to name your blog and give it a web site address (write the address down so that you don't forget where your blog is!):













6. Now, comes the fun part, choosing a template that will determine how your blog looks. If you don't see anything you like, just choose one. Don't worry, there are more options when you change your template than there are when you first set one up.

7. Write a post. What was your favorite blog of the blogs you looked at during as the 2nd Thing? Did you have any trouble with 3. Create a Gmail account? Or with starting your blog? Click on Publish when you are through and on View Blog to see your blog with it's first post.

8. Leave a comment on this blog post with the address of your blog. So that we have a directory of all of our blogs.

3. Create a gmail account

Gmail is a free web-based email service similar to Yahoo mail or Hotmail. You will need a Gmail account to sign up for your Blogger Beta account in the next lesson and for several other lessons. If you read email list servers, Gmail is an excellent tool because it collects all the messages on a topic into one thread.

Exercise
1. You can sign up on your own now! Go to Gmail.
2. Click on "Sign up for Gmail" below the sign in box
3. Fill out the form.
4. Click the "More >>" link and choose "Gmail".
5. Take some time to learn a little about your Gmail account - read the introductory emails that Gmail kindly sends to your new account.
6. Don't forget to write down your username and password unless you have a better way of remembering them.