Journal #2

I didn't see any affinity groups for college librarians in Ning or the other suggested lists so I decided to join an affinity group on LinkedIn called "Instruction in Academic Libraries." It can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Instruction-in-Academic-Libraries-158779?gid=158779&mostPopular=&trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1413834478850%2Ctas%3Ainstruction%20in%20a%2Cidx%3A2-1-2. There are 1,978 members of this group but it is not very active so I'm not sure how much I will learn. I already participate in a similar group through a listserv called "Information Literacy Instruction List." This is a very active group with members asking and answering questions and posting links to relevant websites, conferences, etc.

I used Google Reader for years and switched to Feedly when Reader went away. At that time I unsubscribed from all my library and technology feeds and kept only the personal feeds I was following. I have resubscribed to many of the library and technology feeds in Digg and added several new ones. I'm using the categories Educational Technology, Web Design, and Library Technology. I tried some feeds in a Technology category but found that most of the technology articles were too general--not to mention too numerous to follow. The Educational Technology and Library Technology blogs pick up enough articles on general technology news for my needs.

So far, I like Digg and actually prefer its interface to Feedly. I may move my personal feeds to Digg. It's nice to be following professional blogs again and I'm already learning a lot. I try to check for new articles every day or two. I skim the headlines and read those that seem to contain useful information.

Q1. Will the volume of articles from Digg feeds mean that I spend more time keeping up with them than doing actual work?

A1. I don't think this will happen this time. It certainly did when I used Google Reader. In the beginning I felt like I needed to at least skim every article from every blog. I have learned over the years to skim the titles and read only those posts that appear to contain new and useful content. After a few weeks it is easy to figure out which posts from each blog will probably be worthwhile and which blogs should be dropped for lack of useful content.

Q2. Is using a service like Digg the best way to keep current in my field?

A2. I think the answer is yes. I used to subscribe to many library journals to keep current. Many of those have folded over the years but those that remain seem to publish articles on "new" topics that I read about weeks ago on the blogs I follow. Plus, most blogs have a very narrow focus so it's easier to scan them than to read several journals that each have a wider scope for publication. The blogs contain links to articles that are relevant to the blog focus and are more closely targeted to topics relevant to me.