Feed Me

This is my first time being exposed to RSS.  I thought the video and Robin Good's "The future of rss" were helpful and explanatory.  Good provided numerous ways in which RSS feeds can be beneficial.  As a consumer, I know that these feeds are helpful to the information world because you are receiving organized information that is searchable, cost effective, private and time effective.  Also, in response to last weeks reading by Scout, which discussed blogs as marketing tools, RSS fees are argued to be an ethical form of marketing because the subscriber is in full control of their feeds and can tailor them to their personal needs.  I think in the abundance of information on the internet paired with a huge amount of advertising and spam, RSS feeds allow users to access the information they need and want without being bombarded by alternate or counter information.

 One issue with this "customization" of information is that users will potentially lack in different perspectives and opinions and perhaps become biased on a specific area of interest.  However, I do not see this is a large concern, since users have the freedom to chose what they will read and be informed, but it is something to keep in mind in writing/reading library blogs and considering our audience using RSS feeds.  

In learning about RSS feeds, I decided to subscribed to a few in order to get the real picture.  First, I subscribed to "Unshelved" the library comic site and blog.  Because the idea of RSS feeds is to organize and customize the information world to individuals, I subscribed to a few that interest my personal life, such as Q 107 rock report, CBC radio 3 and a new fiction list. Because I am new to this form of communication, I think the one thing getting used to is actually checking Bloglines for additions.  While I have four different email accounts, adding one more account I am sure is nothing!  I think it is interesting in my response to RSS that Good also claims that RSS--though not replacing email--will challenge email's distribution quality.  I think it would be convenient to have the two together, but I also think it is important to keep the two worlds separate since they are two different forms of information, email being a "two-way communication" and feeds only one.  

Over all, I think RSS is a great way to sort through the entire world of information.  For libraries in specific, I can see two benefits of feeds:

•  Feeds that bring and distribute news, new information and library content (books, events, questions)
• Feeds to the library from other libraries and influential partners (government news and updates, local representatives, news and events, CLA and fellow libraries).  Feeds from, for example, the Toronto Public Library would be useful for a rural library.  Libraries can learn from others' and take examples in order to make the whole world of libraries better!