Thing 2: Google Reader and RSS Feeds

I love Google Reader. That's right, I'll say it. Google Reader provides a way for Internet users to subscribe to their favorite websites and track changes and updates to blogs, news sites, and other websites. Google Reader is one of the easiest reader sites that I've ever tried to use--they just ask you to list the websites that you want to follow. A lot of blogs have a special links in case readers want to follow on Google Reader or other RSS feeds. I could spend hours a day on Google Reader.

I use it to follow several things, including library blogs and comics.Two of my favorites are Awful Library Books, which posts scans of books that are horribly out of date that are found in public library collections and discuss why some more recent library books might, just might not be right for a public library collection and Unshelved, which is a web comic about working in a public library and the types of situations that we encounter on a daily basis (its quite funny). I also use it to follow healthy food blogs; two of my favorites are Iowa Girl Eats (because all the most awesome bloggers are from Iowa) and Skinny Taste, which provides nutrition information (including Weight Watchers points!) and lightened up recipes for some of my favorite foods. Because there are just times that you need spinach and artichoke dip. : D I also use it to follow the Onion's AV Club, which provides reviews of movies, books, and music and a news feed for anything happening in the pop culture universe and NPR's music news. Needless to say, there are usually hundreds of items that pop up everyday on my Google Reader--but its just so much more handy than having to go to all of the individual sites everyday.

Google Reader could be useful for reference librarians to follow reference blogs (and perhaps to help other librarians answer their unanswerable questions).

Do you use Google Reader? What sorts of sites do you follow? Do you follow any library sites? (I just thought that it might be cool to subscribe to the Madison Public Library site for their updates!)

Next up: A discussion of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and what it means for librarians and the world!