Thing 4: Flickr

It was good to play around in Flickr. (Again, I enjoyed the common craft video) I was already signed up for Flickr, but I didn't know how to run it very well.

I also enjoyed looking at how St Jons/Bens was using Flickr and other web2.0 opportunities. But again, it calls into question, the cost/benefit of investing the time and enegy in doing things like this. What if we threw a party and nobody comes? Our staff is so small, we can't spend alot of time on R and D.

Moving around in Flickr, (I also tried webshots and photobucket, and while I was at it Twitter) I was again struck by what a waste of time this can be. Did I really accomplish much in the time I spent doing this?

I am still not sure how this can fit in my library's limited control of our web presence, but I will withhold judgement till my 23 things are done.


Any way, here's my first first photo saved into my blog.

Thing 3: RSS Feeds

I've been signed up with some RSS feeds in a separate reader and wasn't so hot on them. I used the Google reader which was very easy to sign up since i already had a google account. Finding the feeds and adding them was very simple.

The thing I find difficult about RSS feeds is trying to find some thing worth reading. I guess it shows me that I like the news feeds better than the blog feeds. The blogs can be helpful at times, but they also veer (I wish bloglines had a spell check!) into personal thoughts or their next presentation, etc. I find it annoying, like having to overhear co-workers conversations because their desk is nearby. I think I will stick to the news feeds. I am just not convinced that blogs are worth it. Can 50 million people have that many interesting things to say?

I think the news feeds can be especially helpful in small libraries to stay up to date (or even get caught up) on things that are going on in the large spheres of education, technology, and culture.