Steven M' Cohen

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Keeping Current on Professional Advances
Steven M. Cohen PubSub Concepts Library Stuff
TLA 2005
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How do you keep current?
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What is currency and why should I care?

• Knowing what is going on in your profession.
• Professional Development
• Reference Work

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Why Currency is Important

• Find new reference sources
• Become an advocate for your profession
• Competing with other professions
• Competing with Search Engines

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(No Transcript)
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Why Currency is Important

• Educating our patrons
• Becoming a better reference worker
• See what other librarians are doing
• Keeps you out of trouble

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NEDS

• "NEDS is an acronym for new economy depression
  syndrome. Its a mental state that a result of a
  combination of information overload and frequent
  interruption resulting in and erosion of personal
  close relationships. The symptoms are anxiety,
  fatigue, stress and lower productivity and
  irritability in a team environment.
• Tim Sanders
• http//www.gotneds.com

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More Tim Sanders

• Theres a motto across my cubicle that says
  In a world of Inforuption, love is a killer app
• Interview with Tim Sanders
• http//www.webtalkguys.com/article-neds.shtml

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Ways to Keep Current

• Trade Publications
• E-mail alerts and Listservs
• Web Site Monitoring Software
• Weblogs
• RSS Feeds and News Aggregators

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Trade Publications
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Trade Publications (Pros)

• Arrive like Clockwork
• Professional Looking
• Good Reference Desk Reading
• Articles written by pros
• Have articles not found online
• Accessible

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Trade Publications (Cons)

• Outdated? (not current enough)
• Expensive
• Circulation among staff
• Too many of them

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My Advice

• Pick 2 Trade Journals
• Read the TOC First
• Pick Your Favorites (1 or 2)
• Photocopy the articles
• Read them at your leisure
• Dont waste time browsing

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E-mail Alerts(Not Mailing Lists)

• Google News Alerts
• http//www.google.com/newsalerts
• Cnet
• http//news.com.com/2030-52-5149595.html
• Moreover
• http//w.moreover.com/categories/category_list_dai
  ly_email.html

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E-mail Alerts (Pros)

• Uses familiar tool (Outlook, Lotus)
• Takes data from multiple sources (i.e. news
  sources)
• Links to stories are provided
• Categories display relevant data
• Most are free

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E-Mail Alerts (Cons)

• Sometimes too much is sent
• Where is data coming from?
• Not extensive enough
• Major crossover
• Changes in e-mail addresses
• You have to use e-mail!

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My Advice

• Pick one with most scope.
• Run test searches and refine as needed.
• Use one e-mail address.
• Tracking news can be done with other methods.
• Use 1 or 2.

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Listservs (Pros)

• Lively discussion
• Ask questions, provide feedback
• Great way to network
• Find librarians with similar interests
• Can be very broad or narrow in scope
• Can subscribe in multiple formats

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Listservs (Cons)

• Flames
• Too much to read
• Discussion doesnt relate to the readers
  interests
• Can pile up in the inbox
• More often than not, posts will not be
  interesting

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My Advice

• Subscribe to 3 listservs, tops
• Subscribe to the digest
• Read the TOC
• If nothing looks interesting, delete
• If this happens for 2 months, unsubscribe.
• Purge!

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Web Site Monitoring Software

• Will notify you of changes to web sites
• Software or Online
• Highlight changes
• Filtering By Keywords

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Examples and Demos

• Watch that Page (Demo)
• www.watchthatpage.com
• Track Engine
• www.trackengine.com
• Infominder
• www.infominder.com
• Web Site Watcher (Demo)
• http//aignes.com

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Web Site Watcher
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Web Site Watcher
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Uses of Web Site Monitoring Software

• Sites that update within listings (ODP)
• News engine results
• New magazine issues
• Directories within engines
• Press Releases

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Web Site Monitoring Software(Pros)

• Easy to set up
• Only get new data
• Add more resources to repertoire
• Relatively cheap
• Bookmarklets for easy addition
• Many advanced options

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Web Site Monitoring Software(Cons)

• Some cost money
• Information Overload?
• Download software (multiple computers)

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My advice

• Be creative.
• Get the most bang for your buck
• News sites are key
• Use the bookmarklets

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Weblogs

• Web site, listed chronologically, with written
  content and links.
• Most use software to easily post and publish
• Calendars, permalinks, archives, RSS Feed,
  blogroll, comments.
• Easy easy easy to start one

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Examples of Library Weblogs

• Library Stuff http//www.librarystuff.net
• LISNews http//www.lisnews.com
• ResourceShelf http//www.resourceshelf.com
• The Shifted Librarian http//www.theshiftedlibra
  rian.com
• Librarian.net http//www.librarian.net

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Finding and Searching

• Weblog specific search engines and/or directories
• Daypop www.daypop.com
• Feedster www.feedster.com
• PubSub www.pubsub.com
• BlogDigger www.blogdigger.com
• ODP, Google (a few tips for using these)

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Finding and Searching

• Subject specific directories
• Library Science
• Peter Scotts List - www.libdex.com/weblogs.html
• Library Weblogs ODP - http//tinyurl.com/ew7o
• Blog Without A Library www.blogwithoutalibrary.n
  et

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Weblogs (Pros)

• Current information
• Subjective
• Comments from readers
• Subject specific
• Easy to be a Blogger
• Forces one to keep up
• Great for library web pages
• Easy to find new blogs

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Weblogs (Cons)

• Information Overload?!
• Have to continuously update them
• Takes time on behalf of the writer
• Crossposting
• Subjective
• Reliability of content
• No Rules

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Market Yourself with Weblogs

• Stand out in the crowd.
• Grow the Profession Marketing the Librarian
  (http//www.liscareer.com/cohen_marketing.htm)
• Best way to publish without trade publications
  (on your own terms)
• Finding your niche (http//marylaine.com/exlibris/
  xlib185.html)
• Write everyday

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My Advice

• Read 10-15 every day religiously
• Use RSS or Monitoring Software
• Choose your weblogs carefully
• Start your own (Its really easy)
• Submit stories to other weblogs

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RSS 101

• Stevens Daily Online World
• (DEMO)

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Examples of Companies that Syndicate Content via
RSS

• Chronicle of Higher Education
• http//chronicle.com/help/rss.htm
• Reuters
• http//www.reuters.com/newsrss.jhtml
• New York Times
• http//www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html
  
• Christian Science Monitor
• http//search.csmonitor.com/rss/index.html

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Customize your RSS

• Customization is the future of RSS.
• The future is now
• Be a hero _at_ your library (law firm example -
  outcomes)

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Examples of Customization

• PubSub
• Feedster
• Blogdigger (ITI Groups)
• Amazon / Amazon Wish Lists
• HubMed
• Econtent
• RSS Weather
• DayPop

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More Examples

• Topix
• - Yahoo News
• Wired News
• Moreover
• ODP Directory Feeds
• Find Articles
• Ebay
• Fedex/USPS/UPS
• Ingenta Connect
• Find Articles

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Open Tagging Systems

• Furl
• del.icio.us
• Connotea
• Cite U Like
• Digg It
• Unalog
• Technorati
• Tagsurf
• FeedMarker
• Tagsy
• Wists

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Disadvantages of RSS

• No filtering by keyword
• Can become unruly, quickly
• Not Everything is RSSified
• Difficult to synchronize aggregator between
  multiple computers (but...)

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Advantages of RSS

• Cutting edge technology
• No advertisements to deal with
• More and more join RSS every day
• Saves lots of time (4 hours ? 30 minutes)
• Can be syndicated onto a web site
• Syndication works well for frequently and
  infrequently update sites

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My Advice

• If there is a feed, syndicate it
• If not, put it into web site monitoring
• If no feeds are putting out relevant content,
  delete
• Keep up with new feeds

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Some Stuff I read

• Yahoo Technology Feeds
• NYT Technology
• Personalized RSS Feeds
• Wired
• BBC News Technology
• Chronicle Wired Campus
• CNet News
• ResearchBuzz

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Thats It!! Im Done Its your turn

• AOL IM NYlibrarian
• Skype stevenmcohen
• Phone [phone]
• Stevenmcohen_at_gmail.com