New blogs to read

One of my every summer projects is working with the juvenile collection; shifting books in the stacks (because you never know what letter of the alphabet is going to need more room), adjusting shelves (because I'm shifting books in the stacks), cleaning shelves with disinfectant wipes (because you can only imagine), weeding books (is it historical or just old with outdated information), and contacting faculty with questions about titles in their subject areas, all made a bit more difficult because of the finite space (but, I digress). I am always satisfied when the job is complete and I can make new signs for the stacks. Finishing this job for another summer means the collection is ready for new books, of which selecting, purchasing, and reading is a great job perk. So, while in the weeding mode, it is time to review blog and news feeds in my reader.

I find it oddly easy to be complacent about outdated feeds, after all, I can simply mark them read and move on to the next entry. But there is the nagging feeling of wasted time and it bother's my happy librarian's soul to proverbially waste the space better suited for something else. I've gone through my reader and removed blogs that have not posted in the last six to eight months, have changed their locations and/or feeds, contain topics that are no longer of interest to me, or are duplicates of Twitter (feeds) and Facebook (likes) I'm also following. Now it is time to add new blog feeds to my reader, starting with library blogs. 

A good place to start for library blogs is  Salem Press Library Blog Center; they have several categories of library blogs detailed with short biographical blurbs about blog authors and contributors. For the last three years, Salem Press has sponsored the Library Blog Awards (and in all honesty, we see an increase in traffic during their voting) and I enjoy perusing their nominations and winners. I viewed the academic blog list, quirky library blogs, and newly discovered blogs and chose to add these blogs to my reader (yes, the list is alphabetical).

• Agnostic, Maybe
• Bib 2.0
• Confessions of a Science Librarian
• Hey, Jude
• K-M the Librarian
• Lucacept
• Thoughts from a Library Administrator
• Virtual Dave ... Real Blog
• The Waki Librarian

As you are reading my list, feel free to add library and educational technology blog recommendations in the comments.

Bloglines resurrected

It appears Bloglines has been saved from oblivion. After moving my feeds to Google Reader (complaining the entire time) and adjusting to the new service, an email from Bloglines/Ask.com team announced the service has been purchased by MerchantCircle. The email read in part:

"We have some exciting news to share about the Bloglines service! As you may have heard, Ask.com (http://ask.com/) has entered into an agreement with MerchantCircle (http://www.merchantcircle.com/) who has agreed to keep Bloglines up and running. Stay tuned over the coming months as MerchantCircle works to improve the Bloglines service by creating a richer and more local user experience." -- Bloglines / Ask.com

This creates a feeder quandary; do I continue with Google Reader, a service I am not thrilled with using, or return to my vacated Bloglines account? Since it appears my account will remain active, I may just wait and see what they have to offer. In the mean time, here is more information about the agreement:

• Bloglines
• MerchantCircle to Take Over Operations of the Popular Bloglines Platform
• MerchantCircle to Revitalize the Bloglines Service
• Exclusive: Bloglines Will Be Resurrected By IAC-Funded MerchantCircle

As detailed in the final link, TechCrunch reported this exclusively yesterday afternoon (my TechCrunch feed must have faltered). They provided a few more details:

"For all you loyal Bloglines users (the site has 2.7 million users), don’t fret. MerchantCircle will be keeping the former standalone service in place for non-MerchantCircle users, at the RSS platform’s present URL and Smith assures the the transition will be seamless for previous users (i.e. same log-ins and UI). One notable feature that will be missing is the Clippings feature, and users won’t be able to merge their saved clippings to the new platform. MerchantCircle will also offer Bloglines users customized local RSS feeds that users can opt into for hyper local news and deals. Smith adds that Bloglines has been tweaked slightly for a “richer, faster experience.”" -- TechCrunch, 11/4/10, Leena Rao

my Google Reader

Once in a while on a Friday afternoon I succumb to the sirens lure of my bloglines account and share interesting posts. After a week of using Google Reader, complete with browser crashes while reading feeds, instances of "oops, an error occurred, please try again," already read items returning to new status, I miss bloglines. How much is user impatience? How much is Google Reader inconsistency? Time will tell. Meanwhile, here are a few posts from my reader:

• Blog U: Are You Using RSS?
  "I'm an avid RSS (Really Simple Syndication) user. I admit it. I've been addicted to RSS for a very long time. My feed reader of choice since 2006 has been Bloglines. I have more than 360 subscriptions." - Eric Stoller, 9/17/10
• HotStuff will be taking a short break
  "The HotStuff code relies very heavily on the Bloglines API and, with the annoucement that Bloglines will shut down on Oct 1st, this means HotStuff will be unable to fetch and process new blog posts." - Dave Pattern, 9/15/10

Enough self indulgence ...

• Lessons from the Oatmeal (the website, not the food)
  "This isn’t a “get a million followers NOW NOW NOW!” type of video. It’s just a look at what’s worked for Matt, and what people want on the Web." - Digitizd, 9/15/10
• Fearlessly Facing the Freshman Seminar
  "True confession: I’ve never taught freshmen in my life. So why am I, a provost, offering a class to 18-year olds? I asked myself this question earlier this summer as I enrolled as a participant in a faculty workshop." - Steven Allred, 9/16/10
• Is Lecture Capture the New Lecture?
  "Much like learning management systems (LMS) a decade ago, or podcasting just a few years ago, lecture capture is an emerging/arriving technology: data from the 2009 Campus Computing Survey indicate that 3.5 percent of college courses make some use of lecture capture technology, up from 3.1 percent in 2008;" - Kenneth C. Green, 9/15/10
• Drexel Freshman Get Help from Personal Librarians
  "With students spending more research time in front of the screen and less in the stacks, librarians at Drexel University are trying a fresh approach to helping new freshmen navigate their resources: 'personal librarians.'"- Travis Kaya, 9/14/10
• The Rhythm of Online Teaching
  "Thought I'd try an experiment of sharing with you some of the best practices I'm trying to write up about the rhythm of online teaching, in the hopes that you will provide some ideas and feedback." - Joshua Kim, 9/14/10

A great Friday afternoon option? My shelving rods (hanging media) just arrived from Library Design Associates! I am going to build, replace old shelving with new,and Monday I will gleefully move the big book collection to their new home.