Note: This ' library thing' made me thing of a book that is on my "Ultimate Top 10" list. Feed by MT Anderson. It's a must if you want to think about what it might be like to have an Internet feed insdie your brain.
Thing 3 was to learn about RSS aggregators and since I already had a Blogines account, I decided to create a new account for Google Reader. Having gone through the set-up steps in both readers and played with both a bit, I think I like GR more than BL There is something about the simplicity and layout in GR that is just simply more user friendly than in BL.
I still have some issues with both. Meaning that both do things in ways that I don't like or wish it would do or display in another manner. I don't like that BL makes all feeds "read" if I mistakenly click on that RSS feed or folder. I keep thinking I can change this setting, but even after playing around with the settings, it still does this. I don't like that some feeds don't display the full entry and the only way to read the whole entry is to click on the Blog (or whatever) name and go directly to the cite. (Joyce V's SLJ blog is an example. It must be SLJ's plot to get us to their website.) If I'm going to have something aggregated for me and all in one spot, let's really make it that easy to do and not just tease people with the feed.
My husband also tried to add me as a friend in his GR account and share a feed with me to see how easy that was to do. It was relatively easy, but had it's flaws. You basically end up sending someone an email of your "shared" entries and then I ended up clicking the link in the email. The link took me to a HTML web page where I just copied the URL from the address window and added it to my subscriptions in GR. We were actually just hoping to share an entire feed link for one of our favorite blogs, but it only shares entries he marks as "shared." Although, this in itself is cool, because he can mark things he wants me to see or read about to talk about later and then I'll see them in GR. Of course, then I'd have to check my GR account frequently....But right now this is not a problem. Ask me in 2 months. :)
I also had 26 items that I was collecting feeds from in BL. For GR, right now I have about 5 and need to limit it to no more than 10. Anything more than 10 and it is just too much information for me. I have enough problems keeping up with LM-Net Digest emails, personal emails and blogging that I'm not sure how much more I can take. Although, with my old bloglines account, I was desperately trying to keep up with the professional world of libraries--be it school libraries, tech trends, book news and research updates. But I just stopped because when the number of feeds to read passes 1000 (because I haven't logged into my account for several months because I already don't have enough time, when will I read a book for crying out loud?
And with that, I run to my cup of hot chocolate and my book. Love the technology, but love the printed word and tactile feeling of turning the pages.
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