Web 2.0 CE - Week 1

The assignment for week one of the Web 2.0 CE course was to create a blog, set up an RSS reader, and subscribe to 5 RSS feeds. I had already been using Google's reader to subscribe to several RSS feeds for quite some time, so I decided to add 5 new ones. I added the two feeds related to this course (the blog feed and the comments feed) and one to NPR's Health & Science News. To fulfill the last two requirements, I subscribed to Evidence-Based Nursing's table of contents feed and a PubMed search on therapeutic touch and breast cancer.

I use RSS feeds for several reasons. First, it's so nice to log into my Google account each morning and have news items and blog posts that are of interest to me all in one place. RSS feeds are incredibly easy to set up and use. Finally, RSS feeds help me remain current and educated in both my liaison areas (nursing and osteopathic medicine) and health sciences librarianship. I subscribe to several journal TOCs and also receive search updates.

The MSU Libraries already uses blogs and RSS feeds quite a bit. For example, on our Libraries' homepage, students, staff and faculty can subscribe to RSS feeds from various blogs covering library news, website changes, trial electronic resources, and tools & toys. This allows our patrons to remain informed about what's going on in the Libraries without even visiting the website! Many of the MSU Libraries' patrons also use RSS feeds to receive journal TOCs or database search updates. Librarians involved with liaison and instruction work have started to really advertise the ease and convenience of RSS to our patrons. They're a great tool for keeping current in subject areas that are of interest to faculty and students. As I mentioned in the paragraph above, they're popular because setting them up is so easy!

The Health Sciences Group at the MSU Libraries is almost ready to launch a Health Sciences Digital Library website (our health sciences collections are mainly in MSU's Main Library; we don't have a separate health sciences Library). This website will have a blog that posts relevant health sciences news and information. Patrons in our Health Sciences departments and colleges will be able to subscribe to the blog's feed. This week's assignment has made me think of other ways we could use RSS feeds on our website. If we wanted to pull information from other relevant websites, it would be very easy to do!