Thing #9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

I’m bloggy-eyed after trying out the various blog search tools and looking at a myriad of blogs. No wonder someone created the invaluable RSS readers! No one person could possibly keep track of all that is posted daily on each blog to which they subscribe without organizational tools to put it all in one spot and alert the user to new posts. However, the important part of all of this is finding blogs and newsfeeds that are just right for you. I liked Cool Cat Teacher’s advice about how to select your “circle of wise:” people you know, blogs listed on their blogrolls, people/organizations who inspire you, and blogs you come across on your own (whose authors exhibit the "mindset of the lifelong learner/pioneers in the field") using the blog/newsfeed search tools.

Edublogs’ list of award winners was straightforward and the easiest to use, but limiting. Bloglines was another easy-to-use site once I figured out that I needed to search using “Search for feeds.” I like the clean look of Bloglines and I liked the results I got when searching for various topics related to education, libraries, and technology. One of my favorites is Technorati. I liked Technorati’s tag layout, the well done tutorial, and was pleasantly surprised with the quality and number of the pertinent search results. The most confusing was Topix. It’s just too much of a good thing. I will have to check back with Suprglu because it was not working when I tried the link.