OK, I'm doing some of the things out of order. We just returned from our Summer vacation to see all 3 kids and 6 grandkids. For awhile we didn't have wifi access, and then we were just too pooped to pop. However, following a wonderful nap and waiting for the Fourth of July specials to come on TV, we're up and at it!
I've been using Twitter for a couple of years now, although I was on a self-imposed hiatus for about 9 months. When I first started using it Twitter seemed like a Round Robin conversation where everyone speaks and no one listens. Have you ever been in a conversation where you were talking about one thing, and then after pausing, the other party began speaking about something completely unrelated? Well, that was Twitter--then.
Twitter:--now has morphed into sharing news and other websites with your followers. It's a way of keeping followers up on the latest news, and as such is a valuable tool for libraries. My branch has several programs each week, so there's always something new. We can communicate with patrons who are followers to keep them updated on the latest program. I like this approach to twitter much better.
RSS feeds: It's very easy to get inundated with RSS feeds and not have time to read them all. Be careful what you sign up for! Again RSS can be a valuable resource for libraries in communicating new events to patrons. Recently, I purchased an iPad and found a magazine-style RSS aggregator that I like very much. It's called "Flipboard." It comes with facebook and twitter feeds as well as news, sports, lifestyle, tech, and flickr interesting. You can add RSS feeds of your own to the app. All the pages show photos, icons, and text arranged in a magazine format--so very visual and easy to read. If you have an iPad check it out!
The new thing for me is Pushnote. I had not heard of this app/extention before and am still learning about it. Setting up a Pushnote account was easy as was the download and installation of the extention in my Safari browser. Initially I tried downloading it on my iPad, but that didn't seem to work. Pushnote's fax indicates that mobile extentions will arrive soon.
My Safari browser has a new star located in the address bar. When I click on it a new window opens with the current browser page listed. Supposedly if others have rated the page the star will turn colors. Maybe it's if other friends have rated the page the star turns color. None of my facebook or twitter friends apparently use pushnote yet. Anyway after assigning 1-5 stars you can add a short comment about the page. You can also view other "hot" pages highly rated by other pushnote users.
For Pushnote to become a valuable library tool more folks will have to begin using it, and I certainly have to keep playing with it to learn more of its functions.
Are any of you using Pushnote? How valuable have you found it to be?
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Hey, when you get too many RSS feeds going you CAN drop a few. :-) I actually do that from time to time. Now I'm just having fun reading blogs by Nebraska librarians. I may or may not add some of them to my Google Reader list.
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