My very own mini-conference

Several months ago a colleague introduced me to Bloglines, and I have been hooked ever since. Prior to this introduction I was not an avid blog reader nor had I ever considered writing a blog (I’m still sitting on the fence regarding starting my own blog—mainly it’s an issue of confidence). Like so many others, I am now mildly addicted to reading and participating in the blogosphere. Bloglines for me is like my own mini-conference tailored for me by me. Just by logging in I am presented with an opportunity to stay abreast with the newest information on technologies and ideas in the library and archives world but I also get the opportunity to hear about the happenings of my fellow classmates from library science school at University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee (UWM). Really, could a girl living in Montana who is unable attend many of the conference offered due to finical constraints ask for anything more? I think not.

On a slightly different note, I am really jiving about the thought of using a site like del.icio.us as a reference tool. The reference desk at work has two computers, which means at any given reference shift I can not predict which computer I will be using (I’m sure you can guess where I am going from here). Imagine telling a patron about how wonderful a particular online resource is and then not being able to find it or clumsily searching the web because you don’t have the web site bookmarked on that particular computer. Del.icio.us could potentially alleviate that frustration as well as allow for information to be streamlined to our patrons more effectively and efficiently. How wonderful is that!