Thing 3

As you will have noticed if you've visited before, I've been doing a little housekeeping. The theme is now blue rather than pink, and I've added some links to blogs in the sidebar on the right - not just Cam23 2.0 blogs, but also a couple of cpd23 ones and some others which may be of interest. The list will continue to grow.

Thing 3 - RSS feeds

I already subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds, but have been unhappy with my system for some time. I have got into the dubious habit of using Internet Explorer as a subscription agent, and I know I am not alone in finding IE so irritating as to have dispensed with it now almost entirely. Its RSS aggregation facility is sluggish, with minimal functionality.

Bill Gates - he'll have some explaining to do on judgement day

Google Reader is much friendlier. Once I had added my first blog I was pleasantly surprised to see that the small number of blogs I had chosen to follow with my Blogger profile since registering last week were already present in the sidebar as 'Blogs I'm following'. Convenient. It's also convenient to be able to access all of your blogs from any computer via a login, not only from a single computer at home.

Google Reader has a similar function to iGoogle in that it acts as an aggregator, gathering several things into one place; only Google Reader seems more intuitive, which perhaps comes from its being born of necessity. If you want to follow a large number of blogs, it's immeasurably simpler if you can do it all from a single page. iGoogle by contrast is something of a mishmash unless, I presume, you learn to manage it skilfully (which clearly I haven't yet done).

I'm still exploring Google Reader, and there is much to be explored. I like the option to 'star' particular posts. I set this post as a starred item so I have it easily to hand as a reference timetable for the programme.

In the spirit of spreading the word and encouraging intercommunication, here are some blogs which may appeal. There are bloggers like thewikiman who write about the challenges facing the 21st-century librarian with humour and insight. Until now, though, I have tended to gravitate naturally towards blogs which look back rather than forward, dealing with special collections, library discoveries and the like. For some months I have enjoyed reading MusiCB3, the blog of the UL Music Department and the Pendlebury, both of which I loved with great devotion as an undergraduate. The Cambridge Library Collection Blog is the brainchild of CUP's Kate Brett and Caroline Murray, who write about the out-of-print books they are gradually making available again.

On a more frivolous note, the Orkney Archive has a reputation for being both fun and fascinating. I have followed The Age of Uncertainty for a couple of years - it's the blog of a second-hand bookseller who frequently chronicles the items that he comes across at work. And in searching for Cambridge library blogs I encountered this. Wrong Cambridge, but it's a useful reminder of the diversity of libraries, and of the manifold applications of blogs. Whether it will become a regular read or not, I can't say.

How about the rest of you in blogland? Have you discovered any exciting features of Google Reader - or any better blog aggregators? I'd be delighted to receive any tips, and will keep tabs on other blogs in turn.