MERLIN & Blogs/Feeds

I tried Feedster, but couldn't connect, so I'm hoping they're just doing some maintenance and will try them again.

I used Technorati, and was able to find a good library technology blog located at http://tametheweb.com/ and is authored by Michael Stephens. It has some good links about trends in technology that are of interest to librarians, but it also has the fun stuff, like Second Life (which I just can't get into--why not live the first life. It can get creepy. I found a Second Life memorial to the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting, complete with mourning avatars. I guess the next step is virtual funerals. Now you can mourn great aunt Mathilda in your underwear, with a beer in your hand.) A lot of the info (and presentations are available, too!) is directly related to what the Web 2.0 and 23 Things cover, so I strongly recommend checking out this blog if you like doing the 23 Things.

One thing that would be nice is if when you search a term, when it retrieves the relevant posts, if it would automatically highlight the search term. I performed a search on this blog for the term "koha" and it returned three posts. When you open each post, then you have to perform another search for the term within the post. A minor point, I know.

I used Topix, which visually reminded me of Yahoo. I did some searches, and the thing that struck me was the number of ads on the site. I did find some good info on libraries, including a great site which recommends Native American children's literature. Evidently, many of the popular titles are horribly inaccurate. The site is found at http://www.fremonttribune.com/articles/2007/11/05/opinion/columns/doc472eff4727836465640450.txt

Another article I found listed links to a couple libraries that use podcasts for book reviews--I really, really like this idea! The article is at http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6495177.html

Unfortunately, Feedster is still down. :-(

I tried Sydic8 and the first thing that struck me is how each entry resembles a catalog record, so it was really easy for me to find the info I needed. The ads were there, but much more subdued than Technorati. Through this site, I found a nice feed for what's new in science at the Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/whatsnew/whatsnew.html