Using Google Blog Search and Bloglines

Yikes....

Google Blog Search sounded like a neat thing, until I tried to use it. At first, I found it a little (dare I say) underwhelming? I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting off the bat, but the intial search results weren't it. Maybe I wasn't using the right search terms, but I found it frustrating to get matches that weren't what I was looking for. A lot of the matches, though they contained my keywords, weren't relevent. It was hard for me to find storytime ideas, which I'll be needing soon. And Google's supposed to have all the answers, right? ;) Finally I just started searching with different terms, such as "youth services", etc. Those netted better results, and turned me into a bit of a Google Blog Search believer. After a while, it became fun to see what I could find.

I saved a few blogs to my Bloglines account, and hopefully I'll find time to read them. They did look promising and interesting. Bloglines itself seems like a nice, useful site. The cool thing about it is that all updates for blogs you're following are right there on one site. This is much better than saving individual blogs to a favorites menu -- and forgetting to check them. :-) The concept of logging into one site to see all updates to blogs you're following is very nice and really would save time over checking individual sites.

Honestly though, I'm unsure how much time I'll have to really get into the blogs and keep up with them at this time, but I am really hoping that sometime soon I can devote an hour or so a day to reading udpates on some of these blogs, as they do look like they would be both interesting and useful. This activity was fun to see what was out there and to see how many other public libraries and individuals keep blogs that might be of use to others, and not just everyday diary/journal types of blogs, which are what my friends and I keep.

First post in a new blog

This is the first blog I've ever created on Blogger (unless you count two posts made to a class blog last semester), though I do have an online journal on LiveJournal, which I post to whenever I remember. :) Some friends also have journals on LJ, and I enjoy reading their posts as it keeps me up to date with what's going on in their lives, especially since they all live out-of-state and most of us don't have the opportunity to talk to each other on a regular basis.

While I'm already familiar with some of the programs being covered in this course, what I'm really looking forward to is earning more about those that I'm unfamiliar with, mostly because a lot of them are mentioned by classmates in my masters program and I always wonder how they know about all these cool things and why I always feel so out of the loop.

I do have both Myspace and Facebook accounts, but I find myself using Facebook a lot more. I think the applications are better and the interface is easier to navigate. I also have a Flickr account but haven't updated it with new photos in quite a long time.

Right now I'm feeling quite stressed because of the two new courses I started this week for my masters program and a new job position I accepted at New Lenox as a Youth Services Librarian (although I won't start until mid-February). Add this course to the mix, and it's really turning out to be an interesting few weeks. However, I have already found that every day I look forward to logging onto the GSU courseware and checking out the new postings on the discussion board -- this course is a nice (FUN!!) break from my other classes, and I can't wait to learn more.