RSS...who knew?

Wow. I cannot believe I have been living in the dark for this long! RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is what I have been waiting for...though, silly me, it's been right in front of my face the entire time. As a fairly regular reader of a handful of blogs, the easy access provided by Google Reader just makes sense. Add to the mix my habit of reading The New York Times, BUST magazine, and the weekly Artvoice paper, and you have a very happy library student. Going into Google Reader to establish a functioning account took mere seconds, and actually subscribing to said blogs and newsfeeds took just a few minutes more. Now, instead of taking the time to look up and browse each of these information sources, I will have everything at my fingertips, each and every time I sign into my Google account. While the directions warned that mastering RSS feeds would be the most difficult of the 23 Things...I think that it has been the most useful (and enjoyable!).

Adventures in LibriVox

Though I initially had some trouble while searching for titles in LibriVox (I think that my queries may have been a little too recent)I think that the concept is a solid one. It is possible to search by title, author, and status for your desired work, while you can also browse the entire catalog. Much of what is currently available seems to be classic or literary in nature, so a definite suggestion for future recordings would be to include more recent fiction and non-fiction works, which might also increase usage of and visits to the site.

Within the website, information is also available releated to volunteering your time and voice to create a recording. To one day have access to much of the world's written word via audio file is such a tempting idea...maybe if each and every LIS student volunteered to read just one book, we'd get there a little quicker ;)