Real Simple Syndication - was it?

This week we were asked to explore RSS feeds. RSS is something I've used in the past but for some reason tend to dip in and out of. I used to avidly use Googlereader but logging in today I noticed that for some reason I must have decided to neglect it at some point over the past two years. I have no idea why! For the past couple of months I've been saving any interesting blogs I find into my favourites bar and then clicking on them randomly whenever I feel the need. Now I'm thinking about it, this is both (a) time consuming and (b) makes following posts more difficult than it really could be if you remembered about the simplicity of RSS! I think my favourite option of the three tested was definately Google Reader. One of my favourite things about it is that it marks the posts so that you know when you have read them (just like emails)

Thing 5 To the right you can see 'Thing 5'

My virus troubles last week prompted some good advice from Emma about using Firefox so this was my browser of choice.

Thing 6 - My google reader (starring all of you lot!)

Thing 7 - My NHS MyLibrary RSS reader. I can see how this could be a really good resource for NHS staff as its just one place where they can search for journal articles, keep on top of current health news items etc.

This task has been a great reminder of just how 'simple' RSS can make things! No more trawling through the favourites bar for me then...

Thing 4

Thing 4 proved quite troublesome to me as whilst searching Google blogs on the enquiry desk I somehow managed to click on a link that then gave the computer a virus...panic! So 23 things can now also be credited with teaching me a lesson about being careful about what links I click onto! If anyone has any other tips about avoiding viruses (apart from the obvious about having updated anti-virus software) I'd be interested to know!

Drumroll and here is my 'thing 4' found via searching Google blogs...

http://www.blogminster.com - a blog following all MP blogs/tweets and general political drama. (I did originally have something a little more fun but after the virus experience I decided to stick with some snoozy safe politics)

Thing 1 and 2

So our first task was to create an igoogle id and personalise our pages which proved to be quite fun. To the right you can see my igoogle page and what my work tab looks like. It looks slightly boring with just the newton widget and the calculator so far...if anyone has any suggestions of what to add, let me know!

To the left you can see my 'personal' tab on igoogle. It did include a tab with penguins roaming about and also another one with a game...but I found this a bit to distracting!! I think that could be one of the potential downfalls of igoogle and perhaps an interesting discussion point. When does a work sort of tool become a 'not so work' type of tool? I think it would be very easy to cross that invisible boundary. Which I guess is a big plus of using the separate tabs as you can keep work/personal separate or do as you choose. So maybe I'll consider re-adding my poor orphaned penguins!

I also had a look at pageflakes and netvibes - again interesting tools and I can really see the advantages of using these, especially when in a situation where you are using the same computer (enquiry desk etc) and you don't want to lose any of your bookmarks. I personally preferred netvibes..although I'm not entirely sure why...to be continued!

The start of 23 things.

Hello! and welcome to all. This is my first post as part of the 23 Things programme which staff are currently undertaking at Cambridge Medical Library.

A very brief history of Jenni's web 2.0, 23 things 24 year old life so far...

As an 80's child (legwarmers anyone?) I think I've probably always been exposed to some form of computer (probably first beginning at school and then at home) and then I.T lessons at school from about 13. However, I.T still wasn't compulsory at my school about 10 years ago. I think those who wanted to do it at GCSE had to take the classes in their lunchbreak and after school! (Guess who doesn't have GCSE I.T...) So it's quite interesting to see how quickly things have moved on...and how they are constantly moving very fast!

My impressions on 23 Things so far and what I'm looking forward to the most

Some aspects of the 'web 2.0 world' come fairly naturally to me whilst some of it doesn't. Even when looking at the outline of the 23 things programme, I don't really think I used things like google scholar and google advanced search to their potential when I was at university a couple of years ago...it was just plain old google. Infact I think I was one of those students who *shock horror* didn't really even understand the concept of what a journal was at first. Or a library catalogue! (I think in my first two years I just went to my subject section, browsed, and hoped for the best!) This is one of the reasons why I think it's really good we're doing the 23 things...as things move so fast, I'm looking forward to becoming more 'information literate' so I can any answer questions about certain topics more effectively whilst on the enquiry desk...or anywhere!

Over the last couple of years I like to think I've got to grips with things a little better than my school days. I've even recently joined twitter! (although I'm still getting used to it)

I'm most looking forward to exploring the use of googledocs, delicious and podcasts as these are things I haven't ever used much before. Also I'll be really interested in the ebooks week as I had to write an essay on the the pros/cons of ebooks and google books in particular last year... perhaps I'll attach it here when we get to that 'thing' and those of you suffering from insomnia can have a good read...it will be sure to put you to sleep!