Thing #9

I have to admit, I wasn't 100% comfortable using the non-bloglines RSS searching sites. Especially with Feedster. I did several "blogs" searches with that tool, and couldn't really tell what the results consisted of. I like to find out more information about a feed before I subscribe, but the links provided in the search were Feedster widgets and didn't actually lead anywhere when I clicked on it. Although the feeds themselves worked when I attempted to subscribe to one. I wouldn't recommend Feedster to an RSS beginner.

I liked Topix a lot, though. It weasels out information on a subject or location that you search for and sends everything it finds to the feed you subscribe to. After a few searches, I settled on a feed on my home town. Most of the articles on that subject come from local newspapers.

I found Technorati the easiest to use. You search for what you're looking for and the links go right to the text of the blog or news source so you can actually read more than a line or two before you subscribe. The advanced search link is right there on the front page so you don't have to go spelunking for it.

I found a few interesting library blogs:
Librarian in Black (I searched for this one by name as it was mentioned by Maria at the Wiki presentation)
http://www.librarybytes.com/
http://super_librarian.blogspot.com/
http://www.popgoesthelibrary.com/

The vast majority of the library blogs I found were written by professional librarians for professional librarians. I have to admit that when someone starts talking OCLC and ALA and MARC and statistics, my eyes glaze over and I lose interest. I did some searches for paraprofessionals and circulation, but most of those were interdepartmental blogs that really wouldn't mean anything to anyone but them unless one was searching for a something specific: checking to see what a particular circ staff does in response to claims returns, for example.

I was surprised at how few library blogs actually reached out to patrons. If my results are typical (And I hope they're not! Please tell me I screwed up! :-), blogging is a really underutilized outreach tool.

After searching for library tools and feeds, I did a search for book reviews and found some pretty nifty things.

Tennessee Text Wrestling
"an East Tennessee gal's thoughts on being a novelist, a reader, a cat wrangler, a biker chick, a pianist, and a nerd"

SciFiChick
News and Reviews

Geeks of Doom
(Really well designed blog on geekery!)

Reading Dirt
"Reading our way down the garden path: a site for the literary gardener."
(I thought this one was very unique! A review site dedicated to gardening books.)

Bookninja