Thing #17: ELM productivity tools

I'm trying to step things up here with Sept. 15 coming up fast. Will I be the first dog to complete the 23 Things? Can I request a flavor for my 23 Things flash drive? Do you have liver flavor? Peanut butter?

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One of the perks of working at St. Olaf is that I have access to the databases included on ELM as well as many others at work and at home via a proxy server. But it's wonderful that anyone in Minnesota who can get online can also access these databases for free. I wonder what percentage of MN residents know about this terrific service.

Since I'm lucky enough to have direct access through St. Olaf (no login) I did most of this Thing by going through the College's electronic resources page rather than through ELM. St. Olaf's implementation of SFX also allows me to find a copy of an article from a citation using the "Find it" button.

For my search alert I created a feed from LISTA. I hadn't known I could create a feed to my reader that will automatically notify me of new results for my saved search. I don't know if this is something that students and/or faculty know about and make use of. I would think faculty would find it especially handy.

Also, I had no idea that one could get audio feeds in search results from InfoTrac. Very impressive! I'm realizing how far behind I am in using indexes and databases.

The EBSCO page composer is a bit of a mystery to me as I don't understand its intended use. (Perhaps I'm having a senior moment.) Also, I got terribly frustrated trying to use the composer. Among other things, when I added a link my text disappeared. And since, again, I don't understand the purpose of creating a web page in EBSCO, this gets a pretty low rating from me! Maybe it will all become clear at a later time.

Both the Proquest and NetLibrary assignments were learning experiences for me personally. Our reference librarians are very skilled at searching and making use of the features of all kinds of databases so I don't imagine there's much new here for them. But I can use all the help I can get so for the most part I enjoyed this Thing.

OK, this doesn't feel like my best post, but I'm very tired, so that's all for now!

Thing #3: RSS feeds

My initial reaction to this was: "Oh no, I have to read more than what I already get via email?" I'm on many professional email lists. Here's my not-very-effective method of monitoring these lists: Step 1) I have my account set up to sort them into folders to reduce the volume coming into my inbox. Step 2) When I receive a system message saying "you've exceeded your email quota" I go in and delete all the accumulated email in my list folders! Ta da! (Actually I do try to read the stuff, but things tend to get out of hand pretty quickly.)

But that's my cynical side. I'm doing my best to see the positive side of RSS feeds. It's true, I don't have any blogs or web pages that I regularly view, so this will be an addition to my regular online reading. However, the introductions to RSS feeds that I read/viewed made me realize that 2 of my favorite tools use the same concept as these feeds: podcast subscriptions from ITunes and DVDs from Netflix. I adore both of these services!

A potential advantage of feeds over email could be that most(?) of the feeds tend be be authored by one or few people; at least they aren't being added to by the sometimes thousands of people subscribed to a listserv. I imagine following the feeds to which I subscribe may end up being a better use of my time than wading through email.

There are blogs and other online content I've seen (usually linked from one of those darn emails!) that I would be interested in reading regularly. (Of course now I can't remember what they are...) Email has always been my way of keeping up with online content relevant to my job, because I didn't have to go out and look for it. Now the same will be true for other online content. So, if I can perhaps learn what I need and want to know for my job using the reader, maybe I can cut back on the email lists and save time in the long run.

On my Google reader I added links to 2 fellow "23 things" bloggers, as well as feeds to 2 other library-related blogs. I promise to add the 3rd, as required, when I find another one that interests me!

Now I just have to remember to open my reader, right? Hmmm....