My Librarian Blog Reading List…..For Today

February 26th, 2006

For the past few weeks, I’ve been in OPML heaven. I’ve been continuing to add feeds to my Web 2.0 Company Blog List, which is available via OPML, and I’m learning a heck of a lot from the amazing folk on the OPML Newbies Group.

After reading Blake’s “10 Blogs to Read in 2006″, I realized that it was the perfect reading list. Reading Lists are supposed to be small. They are supposed to encapsulate around 10-15 blogs that you enjoy most and would recommend. They don’t have to be topic-based, but most are at this point. Also, the great thing about Reading Lists is that they change. What is on my list today may not be tomorrow. I might have to bump my 10th favorite with a new blog that knocks me to the ground with it’s amazing content. My tastes may change as well. Reading Lists are not static. When (not if…WHEN!) aggregators start to support Reading Lists, their promise and usability will show. So, I figure I’d follow in Blake’s footsteps and post my librarian blog Reading List (It’s in OPML). Again, it will change…

+ Library Careers
+ BlogJunction
+ Infomancy
+ Information Wants to Be Free
+ ACRL Blog
+ Science Library Pad
+ Rambling Libarian
+ Library Dust
+ J’s Scratchpad
+ Library Marketing

What would your Reading List look like? Remember, they need to be small (I’d say max it out at 15) so you’ll have to think about this if you read a lot of blogs. It’s a great excercise if you had to narrow down your blog reading to a small amount.

If you want to create your own Reading List, I’d recommend the OPML Editor, but OPML Workstation works well too. If you do create an OPML of your list, make sure it validates.

Last, another important part of Reading Lists is to share them with others. Link to them on your blogs (instead of a huge/useless Blogroll!), send them to your friends. Subscribe to them in your aggregator (again, only 2 aggregators that I know of support Reading Lists - the OPML editor and Blogbridge - so you might have to check them every so often for new entries/deletions).

If you happen to create one, post the URL to your list or your blog post about your list in the comments section below. If many people start to create them, we can move them to some sort of wiki environment.

For more on Reading Lists, see Dave Winer’s guidelines.

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