OCLC Online Computer Library Center Getting to the On Ramp A presentation for the OLC Technical Services Retreat by George Needham Vice President, Member.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center

Getting to the On Ramp

A presentation for the OLC Technical Services Retreat

by

George NeedhamVice President, Member Services

April 26, 2006


A relevant quote…

“If you’re in control,

you aren’t going fast enough!”

Mario Andretti


Today’s agenda

Definitions and examples

Three ways to discover new treasures

Two easy ways to get information delivered to your desktop (and a few others)

My personal favorite sources and tools


Credits

Stephen Bell’s Keeping Up Website http://staff.philau.edu/bells/keepup

Rush Brandis, “Blog the Web with RSS: Is it Really Simple Syndication?” http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=9098

Genevieve Foskett (post to “It’s All Good,” Thursday, April 20, 2006)


Credits, page 2

Judith Siess, “Thinking About…Keeping Up---It’s Not an Option” OPL: Newsletter for Librarians and Management (22:2, June 2005, updated April 2006) [email protected]


Listservs

Electronic mailing lists

Provide updates directly to your mailbox

As each post is added, or

Daily (or more frequent) compilations or digests

Older, less interactive, but simple

Examples: PUBLIB, WEB4LIB, AUTOCAT


Blogs

Web-based

Periodic articles or entries

Online diaries

Many are subject focused, even if that subject is simply one middle-aged librarian’s look at the world

Examples: It’s All Good, Shifted Librarian


XML

Extensible Mark Up Language

Powers the various ways of getting information around the Web

Why should you care?


RSS

Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary (the controversy continues!)

Creates a link to content from site A (the creator) to site B, your e-mail, aggregator (next slide), or home page

Just look for the logo!


Aggregators

A tool to bring it all together

“Pull” versus “Push”

Examples: My Yahoo!, Sharp Reader

Sounds expensive. How much is this going to cost me?


Three Ways to Discover New Sites

Blog rolls

“Best of” lists

Cross references


Blog rolls

A list of blogs that a blogger

reads or recommends


“Best of” lists

Only as good as the person or

organization that compiles the list (or counts the

votes!)


Cross References

Bloggers are reflexively cross-referential

We frequently point to other posts to help propagate a new idea…

…or, occasionally, to embarrass the miscreant who suggests something dumb

Again, consider the source!


Three ways to get content

My Yahoo!

Sharp Reader

iTunes (podcasts)


My My Yahoo, Before


My Yahoo!


My Yahoo: Three Steps


My Yahoo Create 1


My Yahoo Create 2


My Yahoo Selections


Adding Lorcan


Adding Lorcan 2


My My Yahoo


Sharp Reader

OCLC Online Computer Library Center Getting to the On Ramp A presentation for the OLC Technical Services Retreat by George Needham Vice President, Member.

Documents

yahoo slide

tools slide

autocat slide

librarian slide

entries online diaries

mario andretti slide

simple examples

various ways