What is RSS?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feed-icon.svg

RSS, which stands for Rich Site Summary and is also known as "really simple syndication," is "a format for delivering regularly changing web content." (OK, I know--in English.)  Simply put, RSS allows web sites, blogs, and news sources that update frequently to get that word out to the people who want to know.  (The symbol above appears on a blog or web site to let you know that an RSS feed is available.)  To make it easier for the people who want to know, aggregators (a web site or software that collects information from multiple online sources) or web feed readers came into being.  My reader of choice is Google Reader.

Google Reader is a free web feed reader.  There are others, but since it's the one I'm familiar with, I will use it as an example.  To get started, all you need is a Google account which is free.  Rather than re-invent the wheel, I'm going to refer you to a good series of tutorials on using it.  Google also offers their own tutorials as you make your way through their various products including Reader.

Having a feed reader means that you can see changing content in one place without having to navigate to lots of different sites on the chance that there might be something new to view.  THIS IS BIG and an incredible time saving device.

I have my feeds divided into interest areas.  With the news sources, I basically scan headlines and only go to the article if it's something I'm very interested in or something I might forward to one of my teachers at school.  Things of general interest, I post to my Facebook page.  The library topic area often provides articles or links that I send to the school librarians' listserv in our corporation.  The NCSMLA keynoter, Gwyneth Jones, has a great blog, The Daring Librarian, that I have followed since hearing her at AASL in Charlotte.  Speaking of AASL, they also maintain a blog that updates the Best Websites for Teaching and Learning list maintained by Heather Moorefield-Lang, another one of the presenters at NCSLMA.  I follow a non-fiction author blog called I.N.K. (Interesting Non-Fiction for Kids) and met Sue Macy at AASL in Charlotte because of a post she published on it.  Several library blogs I read review books.  One of the bloggers, Melissa Rabey of Librarian by Day,  asked for guest bloggers when she was going to be busy for a month. I contributed this post for her.  (Nerd alert.) I read a Harry Potter fan aggregator called The Leaky Cauldron and the blog for Jo Rowling's new site, Pottermore Insider.  Of course, I follow my son's blog and mine so I can see how it displays for others.  The other feeds I read are about quilting, fiber and domestic arts, and Playbill to get the theatre news.  I also have a miscellaneous category for those blogs that don't fit any other.

Google Reader also tells me, via a feed, if anyone backlinks to my blog.  This lets me know if the people who are reading my blog are sending their readers to me.  Google uses this data to determine the Page rank of a web site.  More on all of this in the next post.

Google Reader is a remarkable Web 2.0 tool and I leave you with a link to a post on Mashable, one of my favorite tech sites, called "HOW TO: Use Google Reader like a Rockstar."  Go, Google and be a rockstar.

AASL in Charlotte

The American Association of School Librarians conference was held in Charlotte and it was a terrific place for a conference, especially in November. The weather was fabulous every day and we walked everywhere. Not only was our hotel conveniently located close to the convention center, it was also surrounded by a host of fantastic non-chain restaurants. We sampled the cuisine at Merts, Zink, Ratcliffe on the Green,and Coco Osteria among others.



Directly across from the convention center is this wonderful green. The entrance is flanked by these fantastic book tower sculptures. Needless to say, all the convention goers were photographing it like mad.



One of the seating areas in the green was home to these lovely fish sculptures. The green was a wonderful spot to spend a few relaxed minutes during lunch and many people took advantage of it.

As for the conference itself, it was dominated by sessions on Web 2.0 tools and the new Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. My half-day preconference on the new standards was with Dr. Carol Kuhlthau and her daughters. I also did a regular conference session with Dr. Gail Dickinson, one of the creators of the standards. Both were very helpful.

The keynote address at the opening session was given by danah boyd, an ethnographer who is often called "the high priestess of networked social media." It was not your momma's keynote speech, and was entertaining as well as information rich.



The Exploratorium that went on before the vendors' exhibit opened was a sort of science fair for media specialists. For my money, the best in show was this neat idea called a sticky note wiki.



Sticky notes can be color coded (pink for reference books, blue for books in the regular collection, yellow for what you think you know, etc.) The creator, Craig Coleman, even had a hands-on element asking viewers to contribute to his information gathering about genres. Many different applications come to mind using this great little idea!



The vendors' exhibits are always popular. Everyone was taking pictures of Baker and Taylor and collecting pins and bags with the pictures of the real cats. What is it about cats and librarians that seems to go so well together?



One of the highlights of the conference for me personally was getting to attend two in-person sessions with Dr. Annette Lamb. Annette and her husband, Larry Johnson are professors at Indiana University School of Library and Information Science, who teach only on-line classes. The most valuable class I had in library school was Annette's Information Inquiry for Teachers. When I first started blogging in 2004, it was for her class. Larry's classes on Electronic Materials and Information Architecture for the Web brought me to things I use every day. Meeting them both, in person, was a real treat.



Getting to spend time with authors is always inspiring at these gatherings and I had a wonderful time listening to great speeches by Laurie Halse Anderson, Linda Sue Park, and Richard Peck as well as Charles R. Smith, Jr. who was new to me. Above is Richard Peck signing books in the Penguin booth. I've been fortunate enough to meet him two other times and we chatted about DePauw and Wabash while he signed my copy of A Season of Gifts.



The closing party was at Imaginon, a fantastic library/childrens' museum/theatre complex in Charlotte. Don't let anyone tell you librarians don't know how to party!



This lovely little drawing by James Marshall is part of the collection at Imaginon. George and Martha were big favorites of my children.

In closing, I would love to see this conference go for fewer, non-concurrent sessions that blow one's socks off and really enlarge the idea of the Bloggers' Café. I was lucky in what I chose. Only one session I attended was underwhelming, but I heard several people complaining that their sessions were sort of mediocre, state convention level gatherings. When you spend $500.00 plus airfare, meals, and hotel, it should be dazzling.