Thing 4 - Current Awareness - Twitter, RSS and Pushnote

As Meatloaf likes to say, two out of three ain't bad.  Poor grammar aside, this week's thing includes two tools that I make use of regularly, twitter and RSS (for me Google Reader).

I've used Twitter mainly to follow my library's activity and other feeds on topics that I want to learn more about, for myself and my work.  I have been following the CPD23 twitter feed, my library's Twitter feed and several others through my Google Reader.  Since starting this project, I've "branded" a Twitter feed for myself, mainly to use to follow others, but it would be a way to promote the blog when I've updated a post.

I originally used Bloglines as my RSS feeder and it worked really well.  Then, like Mark Twain, the reports of its death were an exaggeration.  I had switched to Google Reader at this point and didn't go back.  One of the nice features of Bloglines is that once you read a message, if you don't note/highlight it, it disappears and you don't have to see it again.  With Google Reader, I can view new items or all items, but I haven't found a way to see all new items and only those items that I've starred. 

I wasn't familiar with Pushnote before reading this week's Thing, but it does seem like another way to use one tool to do a connect with a number of sites in the same place.  Any tool that makes things easier without having a large learning curve could be a help in keeping up with what is going on in the larger world of librarianship.

Thing 3: Personal Brand

To paraphrase Judy Garland, I’m somewhat under the radar for my online presence, but with this project, I’m taking the bull by the horns.  Along with my blog, I’ve established a blog-specific email address and twitter feed.  I see the twitter feed as a way that I can keep up with what I’m interested in, rather than a broadcast tool for my views.  Like all things on the Internet, it can be subject to change.

I liked the idea of consistency of naming across all online tools and this can be a challenge if you are well-established in one area and are not able to register that identity in another (ie, your preferred twitter handle has been taken by someone else).  This is probably a bigger problem for celebrities than for the rest of us “regular people”.

The personal/professional identity

Once I had my blog in place, I wanted to be able to use it to express myself professionally, but also personally, if I was so inclined.  I liked Jo Alcock’s “profersonal”approach. 

Activity

As I don’t have a Facebook account, I haven’t found me near the top when I Googled my name. I have found professional listings for me and also found another woman in the same general geographic area with my name.  I’m not worried about her though, nuns are pretty safe.  I didn’t find me on the first page of a Google search, but is that a bad thing?  Yes, people don’t tend to go too many screens deep when they are perusing the results, but since I’m not promoting a business or myself, do I need to be in the Top 10 list for my name?  It’s not always a good thing to be on Letterman’s “Top10” list.

Thing 2 (CPD23)

The post title remains the same, but the project is new.

Having recently completed a “10 Things” project with our local 3Rs in upstate New York, Thing 1 for the 23 Things project was easy, I have a blog. I hadn’t really planned on starting a blog before embarking on that project, but I must admit, it was very easy, painless and enjoyable. I hadn’t wanted it to end, hence the decision to start the 23 Things project.

Part of Thing 2 is to check out the blogs of some of the other librarians who are also involved in the project. With so many people taking part, it isn’t easy to decide where to start.   Working in a public library and reading a number of blogs by librarians in the United States, I decided to read a few from those in other types of libraries.

Natalie’s CPD23 seemed like a good place to start: http://nataliescpd23.blogspot.com/ and I find that I agree with her on some of the social networking tools though I am a convert to RSS feeds. 

Bear Bachoochie http://www.bearbahoochie.co.uk/ has combined Things 1-3 into one post. That’s an efficient way to do it and would allow me to play catch-up much more quickly. One on the other hand, the more you blog, the more often people will come to your site to see what’s new.

On the public library front, there is http://thefalseprotagonist.blogspot.com/. I love the title of this blog and like the author, enjoy reading blogs with a sense of humor (or should I say humour for the Brits and Canadians out there). Having grown up in Canada, I sometimes manage to combine US and Canadian spelling on words and then Word really doesn’t know what I’m trying to write!

As part of the “Googlization” of the world, I found out that I could add blogs, twitter feeds and any URL to my Google Reader. I remember quite a few years ago when “push” technology was the newest bell/whistle and you wouldn’t have to go to websites, the information would be pushed to you to review at your leisure. Google Reader allows me to add a link to any website and see when it has been updated, without having to go around to a large number of sites at the same time. This is a much more efficient use of time. I use the Google Reader for both personal and professional sites, and once I joined the dark side and started using it, it made it much easier to track and categorize sites.  One-stop shopping as they say.   In fact, I decided to jump further into Google and joined Google Plus recently. I have resisted joining Facebook, but since my husband, also a librarian, invited me to join Google Plus, I took the plunge. Within minutes people had found me. Interesting and scary at the same time.