Blogging news

Dabble, dabble, dabble! (Which rhymes with babble!)

I've now dipped my toes into Bloglines - eehnh... not my favorite - Google Reader - better. And
added a bunch of RSS feeds to various things.

Personally? I use news feeds right now to follow my favorite magazines and pundit's latest items.

What I've discovered thus far:

• RSS feeds into my email just don't get read as much. I'm better off limiting those to journal subscriptions and search alerts. (Did you know you can set up RSS feed from any of the publications in EBSCO?)
• RSS feeds to my blog - those I like. (But I knew that already.)

For library use, adding & keeping many of these tools up-dated depends on having ready access to your library homepage. If you don't have ready access it's critical to carefully select your news sources for coverage relevant and appropriate for your online audience. Feeding ALOnline, for example, would be useful for a staff page, but I'm not sure all of our patrons would be thrilled.

A feed from the Chronicle of Higher Education, on the other hand... hmmm.....
Might just have to act on that thought!

If you have access rights and can edit your library's home page, changing out the RSS feeds that run in response to seasonal or current interest and events would be great. Right now, election news from NPR topics: politics or CNN's Political Ticker are timely. But why not follow Super Bowl coverage, MLB Playoffs, college basketball's Sweet Sixteen, Elite 8 & Final 4, especially if you know that sports materials are popular with your patrons. Even something as simple as finding a feed from your local news channel, or following regional weather is value added.

Or CREATE a blog that's relevant to your patrons' needs - what about homework help, or database searching tips & tricks geared specifically for parents and/or students who need to know what to search and how. In a school location? Work with teachers on resources appropriate to upcoming assignments. Add a feed option to your blog, and your patrons can subscribe. Add the feed directly to your library's site for easy discovery.

Less work? Select a few popular magazines or local newspapers, and if they offer feeds, profile them on your website with a "read more at your library" note.

As to locating sources? GoogleReader has an easy to use search interface, and also allows immediate "block" subscriptions to popular blogs & news sources grouped by topic. Bloglines offers similar options. Ot type your topic (e.g. music, sports, etc.) into any search engine along with the phrase "news feed" for pages of results.

Have a favorite print title, sportscaster, or news personality? Chances are there's an accompanying blog, and usually an RSS option.