Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Cpd23 - Thing 4 - Twitter, rss feeds, Pushnote etc.

This week we are looking at Twitter, rss feeds and Pushnote. I'd always disliked the idea of Twitter, thinking it was just for the inane ramblings of narcissists. I started using it for my workplace a couple of months ago just to advertise events, opening hours, that sort of thing. It seems to be going okay and will get a big marketing push in September when we get the new batch of students (that sounds a bit like they're gremlins!).

My main use of Twitter started when I joined CoFHE LASEC back in February. I used it to market the committee's events and to liaise with all sorts of people and so far it has been great.  I now get my main library related information from there from people linking to blogs, newspaper articles and having conversations. It's also fantastic for following conference tweets if I can't get time off work to attend them.

I tend to use rss feeds in my work email. I read News and Features from the Times Higher Educational Supplement, Michael Martin's CILIP Qualification posts, Library Hi-Tech,Jisc News webfeed and several Jiscmail lists. I like the ease of use of the feeds as they remind that they are there and I don't have to go trawling through sites. I have just started using Google Reader after it being advocated quite heavily by my colleague, Cat Taylor, and am now going to sign up to a few more interesting ones and try getting more out of it..

I haven't used Pushnote before - to be honest I hadn't heard of it. I've now signed up and started looking for people on it. After typing in ten names and having no results I got bored. I'll perhaps try again when I know more people have joined.

Overall, this exercise has taught me that I need to expand and review regularly what I read and follow. It has also taught me not to get too carried away and try to read everything in case I miss something as I just don't have the time or the inclination - selection is the key!

No comments:

Post a Comment