The Switch To Google Reader is Official

Recent issues with Bloglines picking up feeds in a timely manner have been well documented – Walt at Random’s Are you reading this?,  David Rothman’s Dumping Bloglines, Information Wants to Free’s Bloglines Issues and my own. For the past week and half, I have been monitoring how feeds are discovered in both Bloglines and Google Reader. I did a couple of things – I subscribed to several different feeds for individual blogs (especially those that had been giving my trouble including Walt at Random, Tame the Web and my own). Fortunately, Bloglines makes this easy. I deleted all of my subscriptions in Google Reader and then imported my Bloglines opml file. Thus, the feeds that I subscribed to in both were identical.

At this point, whenever I checked my subscriptions, I logged into both Bloglines and Google Reader simultaneously to check what was new. Sadly, I didn’t really find anything conclusive. The only solid thing that I can say is that the number of new feeds that I had to read in Bloglines and Google Reader was never the same. So far, there were always more new articles in Google Reader (by a lot). Other things that I have noticed were that different feeds for one blog do not ever get updated simultaneously – while the atom feed might get updated first in Bloglines, the FeedBurner feed might get updated first in Google Reader. Although FeedBurner feeds seem to get picked up by aggregators prior to other types of feed, Bloglines and Google Reader do not discover them at the same time. It all seems to be remarkably random. However, Google Reader does not seem to have the same problems with serious lag times that Bloglines does. As such, I have officially switched. I still log into Bloglines from time to time in order to log through my clipped articles. Eventually, I think I will be able to weed them all out.

Bye, bye Blogines – I am a bit sad to see you go!

Information Commons Resources

These are the resources that I used for my facilities paper on the information commons model in academic libraries.  

Information Commons Bibliography

• Albanese, Andrew Richard. “Campus Library 2.0,” Library Journal, Vol.129, Iss.5 (April 15, 2004), pp.30-33.
• Bailey, Russell and Barbara Tierney. “Information Commons Redux: Concept, Evolution, and Transcending the Tragedy of the Commons,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Vol. 28, No. 5 (September 2002), pp.277-286.
• Bartle, Lisa R. “Designing an Active Academic Reference Service Point,” Reference & User Services Quarterly, Vol.38, No.4, pp.395-401.
• Bazillion, Richard J. and Connie L. Braun, “Building Virtual – and Spatial – Libraries for Distance Learning,” Cause/Effect, (Winter 1995), pp.51-54. Available at http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=CEM9549. Accessed on February 24, 2007.
• Beagle, Donald. “Conceptualizing an Information Commons,” The Journal of Academic  Librarianship, Vol.25, No.2 (March 1999), pp.82-89.
• Bell, Steven J. “ New Information Marketplace Competitors: Issues and
  Strategies for Academic Libraries,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.2, No.2 (2002), pp.277-303.
• Church, Jennifer. “The Evolving Information Commons,” Library Hi Tech, Vol.23, No.1 (2005), pp.75-81.
• Cowgill, Allison, Joan Beam and Lindsey Wess. “Implementing an Information Commons in a University Library,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol.27, No.6 (November 2001), pp.432-439.
• Davis, Philip M. “Tragedy of the Commons Revisited: Librarians, Publishers, Faculty and the Demise of a Public Resource,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.3, No.4 (2003), pp.547-562.
• Fagerheim, Britt Anna and Sandra J. Weingart. “Using Focus Groups to Assess Student Needs,” Library Review, Vol.54, No.9 (2005), pp.524-530.
• Favini, Robert. “The Library and Academic Computing Center: Cultural Perspectives and Recommendations for Improved Interaction,” ACRL National Conference, Nashville Papers, Nashville, TN, 1997. Available at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/nashville1997pap/favini.htm. Accessed February 24, 2007.
• Frade, Patricia A. and Allyson Washburn. “The University Library: The Center of a University Education,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.6, No.3 (2006), pp.327-346.
• Fu, Tina C., Kim Bartosz and Guy La Haie. “The Impact of “Scholar’s Workstations” in an Undergraduate Academic Library: Would a Holistic Approach Work?” The Reference Librarian, No.74 (2001), pp.187-205.
• Gardner, Susan and Susanna Eng. “What Students Want: Generation Y and the
  Changing Function of the Academic Library,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.5, No.3 (2005), pp.405-420.
• MacWhinnie, Laurie A. “The Information Commons: The Academic Library of the  Future,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.3, No.2 (2003), pp.241-257.
• Malenfant, Chuck. “The Information Commons as a Collaborative Workspace,” Reference Services Review, Vol.34, No.2 (2006), pp.279-286.
• Mangan, Katherine S. “Packing Up the Books,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol.51, Iss.43, (July 1, 2005), p.A27-A28.
• McKinstry, Jill and Peter McCracken. “Combining Computing and Reference
  Desks in an Undergraduate Library: A Brilliant Innovation or a Serious Mistake,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.2, No.3 (2002), pp.391-400.
• McRobbie, Michael A. The Library and Education: Integrating Information Landscapes – http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub119/mcrobbie.html.
• Spencer, Mary Ellen. “Evolving a New Model: The Information Commons,” Reference Services Review, Vol.34, No.2 (2006), pp.242-247.
• Van Scoyoc, Anna M. and Caroline Cason. “The Electronic Academic Library:
  Undergraduate Research Behavior in a Library Without Books,” portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol.6, No.1 (2006), pp.47-58.
• Warnken, Paula. “New Technologies and Constant Change: Managing the Process,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol.30, No.4 (July 2004), pp.322-327.
• Whitchurch, Michael J. and C. Jeffrey Belliston. “Information Commons at Brigham Young University: Past, Present and Future,” Reference Services Review, Vol.34, No.2 (2006), pp.261-278.

Links

• The Ames Library - Virtual Tour – Illinois Wesleyan University – http://www2.iwu.edu/library/information/Tour/entry_commons.shtml. 
• Collaborative Facilities – Information Commons – http://www.dartmouth.edu/~collab/facilities/information.html.
• Davenport University – Library Information Commons (LInC) – http://www.davenport.edu/tabid/142/default.aspx.
• Emory Libraries – Information Commons Home – http://web.library.emory.edu/infocommons/.
• Hardin Library – Information Commons – http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/commons/.
• Indiana University Libraries – Information Commons – http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=310.
• Information Commons: A Directory of Innovative Services and Resources in Academic Libraries – http://www.brookdale.cc.nj.us/library/infocommons/ic_home.html.
• J. Murrey Atkins LIbrary – Information Commons – http://library.uncc.edu/infocommons/
• Lewis & Clark State College – Library Commons Virtual Tour – http://www.ecampustours.com/VirtualTours/VirtualTourSub.aspx?FafsaCode=001621&ItemID=2.
• Miller Nichols Library – Information Commons – http://www.umkc.edu/lib/MNL/About/info-commons.htm.
• Oregon State University Valley Library Information Commons – http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/computing/.
• Simmons College Library Tour – http://libfs2.simmons.edu:9000/librarytour/?page_id=14.
• University of Calgary: Information Commons – http://library.ucalgary.ca/services/informationcommons/.
• University of Southern California Libraries – Leavey Library – Information Commons – http://www.usc.edu/libraries/locations/leavey/ic/.
• University of Washington – Bothell – Library Virtual Tour Index – http://www.uwb.edu/library/tour/tourindex.html.

I’ve Been Outed!

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post about trying to do something to create a social environment for distance education students at Southern Connecticut State University. I had created a Facebook account and started poking around to find out what Facebook is really all about. I did end up creating a Distance Education group – but admittedly, didn’t get much beyond that. It isn’t particularly useful to play around with social software sites without a community. I thought a bit about ways to market it. However at that point, school got a bit in the way (it’s kind of funny how that keeps happening) – and I forgot a bit about the whole thing.

So, I was quite happy to read a post over at Frequently Answered Questions by Rebecca Hedreen (distance education librarian at SCSU) outing my distance education group. As such, I probably should formally invite any distance education students at SCSU to join in. Hopefully, we can build a community for students to find answers to questions, get some help and form a support system.