23 things....the fourth: RSS

RSS feeds are appropriately named as they can fill the great maw of the Mythical Virtual Beast of the Unguarded Inbox, until one finally surrenders, acknowledging defeat and reaching for the Delete Key followed by the button that says "Unsubscribe"

Yes, the applications are many, and just think how thrilled our library patrons would be if they could have a daily nanosecond by nanosecond feed that would alert them the very instant a New DVD was cataloged and let loose for patrons to put on hold. Yes, they would be like virtual DVD vultures, hovering over their alerts, so they could be the very first to place the item on hold.

I won't go on to say what happened when I tried the RSS feeds of a library which shall remained unnamed. Let's just say I was underwhelmed when "new at your library" linked me to a static poster of a single event. So I would say before you subscribe to anything, assess the worth of its contribution to your life in terms of the time you spend on it and choose wisely.

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should"

-The Darwin Awards

23 Things...the third: Blogs

Interestingly, many blogs with popularity and "authority" as determined by Technorati are underwritten by commercial news enterprises.

It seems from their analysis that most bloggers come from the wealthier side of the street, are employed in some enterprise which is market driven, and are between the ages of 18-35.

A search with the keyword "library" yielded only nominally interesting or unique results with the exception being this:

The Nation's Oldest Public Library Is In Danger of Closing ...
21 Jan 2009

23 Things....The Second: Web 2.0

Some memorable lines from Web 2.0:

"In order to be adept at navigating L2 waters, the old fiefdoms need to disappear. L2 requires drastic and sweeping changes to our internal cultures and will require some form of institutional enlightenment"

"But if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons."

Protocol error communicating with authentication server; please try again later
--message when attempting to access Florida Electronic Library

"You can lead a man to knowledge but you cannot make him think."

-Darwin Awards

First Steps ...23 Things

One should not follow instructions blindly without giving thought to the end result.

A hand moves, and the fire's whirling takes different shapes:
All things change when we do.
The first word, "Ah," blossoms into all others.
Each of them is true.
-Kukai (774-835)
from "The Enlightened Heart"