Library Stuff

Hey, I didn’t realize that the Lycos Top 50 has a weblog. How exciting! There’s even an RSS Feed.

For those that use the Mac, there is an article on Mac DevCenter that reviews some of the new Mac aggregators that have been coming out on the market.

The E-mail Run Aggregator (ERA) works like listserv subscriptions, just with RSS Feeds. Users type in a bunch of command lines (simple enough) into an e-mail and the aggregator will send an e-mail when the feed has been updated. The user gets a choice as to how often the e-mails will be sent: every hour (the default), 4 times a day, 2 times a day, or once a day. If you want to unsubscribe to the feed, just send a quick e-mail.

For those that live on e-mail and want to use RSS in their e-mail client, this might be a good option. Definitely one to mention in future presentations…I’ve tested this service with my feed. I’ll report back on the findings tomorrow. Considering the fact that I hate e-mail color me impressed with its ease of use. They should implement an IM feature in the future. I know that there a few services out there already that use RSS and IM, but I’m not sure that they work like this… (via Mac DevCenter)

So, maybe I jumped the gun a bit early yesterday with my rant about Government Technology and their lack of visible feeds. They officially announced them today:

“In addition to Web site news and e-mail newsletters — provides U.S. state and local government technology news through Really Simple Syndication (RSS), an XML-based format for content distribution. RSS feeds provide headlines, descriptions and links back to Government Technology for the full story. More data on RSS feeds and the most popular RSS Newsreaders are available online. The Government Technology RSS URL is: http://www.govtech.net/rss/topstories.php and content channels on the main site also contain RSS URLs.”

There are 16 content channels, all with their own RSS 2.0 Feed. Very nicely done.

Kim Moody has written an excellent article on online portfolios in the recent entries from LIS Career (a site that is begging for an RSS Feed, BTW). She explains in full detail how and why librarians should create an online portfolio. A quote:

“A portfolio, as you may well be aware, is a collection of examples of your work, organised in an accessible way. Traditionally associated with the visual arts, portfolios can in fact be used to showcase a variety of different skill sets, and are becoming popular in the library sphere. The benefits of creating a professional portfolio include:

–The creation process enables you to organise in your own mind how the specific skills you have attained relate to each other, to specific selection criteria, and to your role as an LIS professional.
–Looking back over your portfolio periodically provides intellectual fuel for reflection, helping you to attain a sense of progress and insight into your own abilities.
–The portfolio, containing examples of your best work across a number of skill sets, streamlines the preparation of job applications – your portfolio is your own personal one-stop reference resource about yourself.
–The portfolio can be presented to prospective employers, providing concrete examples of your expertise.”

I highly recommend reading the entire article. One of these days, I’ll have to do something like this. An online portfolio described by Moody could only enhance our professional development activities (including writing, presenting at conferences, and looking for employment).

I like the part on reflection. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I think it’s a good idea to step back and look back at the professional work that I have done over the past year and see if there needs to be some sort of adjustment. Is my blogging flat? Is it boring? Do I need to change the issues that I write about? Should I stop blogging? Take a hiatus? Reflection is good. Very good.

Teri blogs: “Currently, there are only a few bibliographic databases that let you create RSS feeds, including the alternate PubMed platforms HubMed and my.PubMed. Another one is my.OAI, also from FS Consulting. If you have ever used OAIster, this one works the same way, searching 17 major Open Archive collections (vs. OAIster’s 301 collections of varying sizes). And like my.PubMed, each search in my.OAI generates an RSS feed that you can copy and paste into your reader.”

I have used HubMed for a while now and have been absolutely thrilled with the results. This is one of those tools that awes the crowds at some of my presentations, and rightfully so. I have never used MyPubmed nor My.OAI, but am very excited to hear about these services. I’ve created a log-in and have a few feeds going. We’ll see how the results turn out.

Government Technology, an online magazine that I read regularly, now has RSS Feeds. The problem? I had a hard time finding them. The only one that I found easily was the one for Top Stories. They say that they have several, but I’ll be darned if I can see them. Note to content providers: If you are going to provide feeds, make them highly visible (unless you are just testing them and don’t want everyone using them) so that we can use them.

I’m posting a link to this article as a follow-up to my previous post on marketing. I’d be more inclined to use techniques #4 and 6:

“Technique #4. Other blogs: Find a few top blogs that cover your area of interest, and search their archives. Have other bloggers contacted them and mentioned their own blog? If so, was the response positive or did the new blogger get flamed?

“Technique #6. Good old-fashioned word of mouth: Don’t underestimate it. “I tell everyone, ‘Tell a friend, visit the site,’” Pingel says. He recently met a woman who had a friend who lived in one of the cities he had visited. He suggested that she tell her friend about his blog, where she could read about his trip to her city.”

It took me over 3 years to get the traffic that I receive today. One of the main reasons why is that I never stopped posting. I’d take a week off every now and then, but I explained why I did this. In order to get good ROI for a weblog, you need to continue writing (and of course, have “something to say” – Walt should have trademarked that phrase). It’s also a good idea to reinvent yourself every now and then as the issues in cyberland (and libraryland) change. Last, figure out what other are not writing about and go for it.

Digital Media Europe is offering a bunch of RSS Feeds.

“DigitalMediaEurope is an online daily newswire and subscription service dedicated to covering continent-wide developments in digital media.”

From the ALA Press Release:

“The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is offering a one-time Best Practices in Marketing Academic and Research Libraries @ your library® Award to be presented at the ACRL National Conference in Minneapolis, Minn. in April 2005. Sponsored by the ACRL Marketing Academic and Research Libraries Committee and funded through the ACRL Friends Fund Committee, the award will be given to the academic/research library that demonstrates an outstanding best practices marketing program. Programs must have been in place for one year and selection will be based on the most complete documentation.”

Good move on the part of ALA and ACRL. Librarians don’t do enough to market themselves. We have so much to offer, yet some of us don’t show it to the world. I am a big advocate of marketing the librarians as professionals (especially through weblogs – because it is so easy to do so), but libraries themselves need to do this as well, for many reasons. How many library systems have a marketing person on staff (for those than can afford it)? How many have hired outside marketing firms to help spread the word (again, if they can afford it)? If they haven’t, then it needs to be done internally. We are creative people and can get the word out in other ways. Use the Web. Use weblogs to make it easier. Use something. Show off your talents, successes, and, most importantly, your achievements, both as librarians and as a library as a group.