Exploration 4 - RSS Feeds and Feed Readers

I am not sure why, but I have never been too excited over the whole "RSS Feed" phenomenon. I understand how they work. I understand how they are useful. I know a lot of people who swear by them. For myself though, I find them to be a waste of time.

I visit many different websites every day, reading up on important (and not-so-important) news and gossip. I've never found that typing in the individual web addresses (which are all very short and easy to remember) took up any more time than logging into a separate site like Bloglines to read a feed. When I view a blog or another site through a feed, I lose out on graphics and other little features that are unique to a particular site.

Where I feel RSS feeds come in handy is in the delivery of news and events about an organization that may not be a regular distributor of news (like CNN or NYT). For instance, a library website. We are not constantly putting out news stories about our organization. But when we want to annouce a particular promotion, or information about upcoming programs, we can put up a story that would immediately reach people subscribed to a feed (and who may not otherwise check the website constantly for the latest library news). In addition, having several different feeds specific to other not frequent (but important when they occur) updates, like the release of a book by an author a patron is following, or news about a particular library group, is great for keeping patrons up to date on the specific events, authors, and whatnot they rely on the library to provide.

So basically, my view on RSS feeds is this: quite useful in the library world for communicating with the public, but of varying usefulness in everyday life depending on one's needs.