The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 5 years to get that many views.
When: Tuesday, December 19 @ 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Where: The Library Instruction Lab (1006R)
What: Have you ever asked yourself “What on earth is a blog?”. Do you know what a blog is, but haven’t had the time to explore how they work or how to access them? Well, this session is for you. (more…)
Last week several staff from the library attended the Netspeed Conference in Edmonton. Netspeed is a technology conference for all things library. We learned a lot about how to use technology to make the library more accessible. Three of our staff members – Sona Kothari, Kristine Plastow and Lillian Teh-Frenette – presented “Beyond Blogs” to a group of about 100 eager library folk. If you want to look at their presentation it is available via the Netspeed website or you can find it under the NEW “Presentations” section on the main page of this blog. Check this section regularly to find out what new and fabulous presentations the library staff have created.
In our last post we showed you how to use the FindArticles search engine to add searches to your aggregator. Now we are going to tell you about a similar tool, called “search alerts.”
With search alerts you can receive continuous updates on your area of research via e-mail or RSS feeds from databases to which the library subscribes. It works on the same principle as FindArticles, except that you do your searching in one of our online article databases. Search results are sent to you when a database is updated. (more…)
Be the first to know when there’s a new post on our Library blog (and all those other blogs you’ve already discovered, or are soon to discover), by using a blog subscription tool, also known as a news feed reader or a news aggregator. (Look for “Subscribe!” on the sidebar of this page.)
Why the heck do you want to do this? To save time, of course! Instead of having to visit 10 different blogs to see what’s new, you can visit one site, your aggregator of choice, and see at a glance which ones have new posts. Wikipedia says “aggregators reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check websites for updates, creating a unique information space or ‘personal newspaper.’” (While you’re at the Wikipedia site, check out their list of aggregators at the bottom of this article.)
How can you get started? Choose an aggregator, set up an account, and start adding feeds to your account. I use and recommend Bloglines. It’s free and it’s easy.
The Ontario Library and Information Technology Association has published their RSS Toolkit, which goes into greater detail about this technology and how to get started.
