Thing 22: Staying Current

I just went back and reviewed old blog posts to remember what I’ve learned during the course of this project.  While I thought some things were pretty useless, there were plenty more that I thought were great.  Some of them I’ll even use again.  I love Google Reader and Facebook!  Both are things that I use daily now and will continue to do so.  I also think I’ll use some of the photo sharing tools again.  I would like to use Library Thing more, but I just can’t find the time.  Maybe when I’m retired I can.

Keeping up...RSS feeds and Google Reader will certainly help with the ability to keep up.  I also liked Lifehacker, and I’ll make an effort to take a look at it every now and then to see what’s new.  I read library literature on a regular basis, so that will help keep up with new trends relating specifically to libraries.  It’s hard to find the time, but I’ll make an effort.  And I’ll continue to post to my blog when I learn new and interesting things.

Thanks to NEFLIN for the experience.  I certainly know more now than when I started, and that’s a good thing.  And now that I’m starting to sound like Martha Stewart, I’ll take this opportunity to end!

Thing 4: RSS & Newsreaders

Okay, I love the whole RSS feed and newsreader thing!  It solves my problems about how to keep up with my co-workers’ blogs without having to go to each and every one to see if it’s been updated.  That’s been one of my big questions about the whole “blogosphere” thing:  How does one follow blogs that one is interested in without spending huge quantities of time checking to see if there’s anything new there?  Now I know.  If only I had asked sooner...

I also love getting a list of the news headlines from my local newspaper and from national news sources all in one location.  I’m really going to have to get my husband to set up a newsreader for himself.  He likes to read online newspapers from lots of different places, and he spends a lot of time going from site to site doing just that.  I think this could make his hobby more enjoyable for him and less time consuming, and then he’ll be able to spend all that time he’s saving doing chores around the house (not!).

Here’s what I don’t like:  I haven’t been able to figure out how to make things go away or how to adjust the amount of time that they stay on the list.  I’m the kind of person who makes a list and includes things I’ve already done just so I can cross them off.  It disturbs me a great deal not to be able to get rid of the stuff that I’ve already seen.  I’m using Google Reader, so if anyone out there in the vast blogosphere knows how to accomplish this, please add a comment telling me how and I’ll be eternally grateful.