Library Stuff

TMCNet (a technology resource for numerous press releases, articles, and more), just released a News Alerts and RSS Feeds feature. The feeds are personalized by keyword, which is impressive and useful.

I think that Mark Fletcher changed the RSS world today. Kinda. It won’t effect me (I don’t think). I don’t use Bloglines, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, or Blogbot. Oh well. But, if I understand API correctly (and I’m not sure that I do), my aggregator of choice will just have to support it for me to use it. Also, the press release talks about desktop aggregators. What about web-based ones like Feed on Feeds?

The Digital Librarian writes:

“[I]t occurred to me while talking with some of my colleagues who work in our University Archives that linking together a finding aid with Wiki functionality might bring together an interesting system. Imagine if users could leave behind comments or annotations to a finding aid – providing additional information related to the materials located by the finding aid. It would open the door to sharing research experiences, allowing for collaborative research, and making it easier for future researchers to find the materials they need in a particular collection. Of course, it would also open up the possibility of allowing incorrect information to be added, but again, Wikis are amazingly good at allowing community correction of incorrect or inappropriate information.”

I actually got the chills after reading that paragraph. This is a perfect implementation of wikis into the library environment. Here’s another one: How about a wiki for FARQs (Frequently Asked Reference Questions)?

I just subscribed to the feed for Future Now – Emerging technologies and their social implications. They also have a Del.icio.us page.

I’m not sure that I will keep the subscription, as it seems a bit too “techie” for me. But that’s the great thing about subscribing to RSS Feeds (as compared to magazines, etc). No money down (yet), low advertising (for now), and I can unsubscribe anytime I want without any penalties and hassles. Geez, that sounded like an infomercial.

Say hello to Blawg Republic:

“Blawg Republic is an online service that collects the latest news and commentary from the top legal oriented weblogs (blawgs).

Blawg Republic provides a search engine that allows you to track the latest blawg news, and subscribe via RSS to keyword searches. All blawgs in the index have been categorized into one of over 30 law categories and RSS feeds are made available for each law category.”

Very nice, except the law libraries category is sorely lacking in resources… (link via Blog Herald)