Thing4: Twitter , Storify and RSS feeds

I'm going to ignore Twitter and Storify for the moment and concentrate on RSS feeds as they are something I've been interested in using for a while. I may revisit Twitter at a later date (But don't hold your breath...I don't think myself and Twitter would get on)

So to RSS feeds - They seem like a great way of bringing together updates from frequently visited sites onto one platform . There are a number of library sites I visit frequently so I'll have a check now to see which , if any, offer RSS feeds.


Update: Well that was easy! I signed up for the RSS feed at www.library.ie using Outlook Express,so I'll get updates right to a subfolder within Outlook...now I'm off to find some more feeds..

Update 2: Dissapointingly, neither the National library nor Dublin City Public Libraries have an RSS feed option on their websites, but I have subscribed to the feed on librarybuildings.ie, a website about Irish public libraries and particularly their arcitecture and design.

Thing 3: Branding

I thought I had got away from things like marketing and personal branding when I became a librarian but it seems not..

So this thing is to consider how I am portayed online and what kind of impression this gives to others. Looking at the recommended reading, much of the advice given on personal branding is really common sense.

1. Assume that current and future employers will be reading what you post online. If you have a personal profile on something like Facebook (which I don't) then either make it private or use a pseudonym. I have a LinkedIn profile, but I use it as basically an online CV.

2. Use a relatively professional picture.I use the same picture both for this blog and my Linkedin profile - Not that I thought very hard about  which photo to use but I suppose I wanted to avoid  using a picture that was either unprofessional or very obviously staged, both can have bad points.

3. An attractive theme or image can give a good impression , and as mentioned in the thing description can help you stand out from the crowd.


As for googling myself, my name is fairly common in Ireland so searching for Colm O'Connor just brought me to a list of LinkedIn profiles in which I am included. Searching for Colm O'Connor Library was more successful, bringing up a my LinkedIn profile, a link to an article I've written, my staff profile here at Mercer Library and some references to work I did at the National Print Museum library in Dublin. A fairly consistent online brand then and nothing I wouldn't want present or future employers to see. I'm fairly pleased with the results though I guess the amount of people actually googling "Colm O'Connor Library" aren't exactly legion!

Thing 2: Exploring other blogs

So this second Thing is to explore other users blogs. As there are hundreds of blogs already I used Delicous to narrow my selection to just Irish based librarians - I've never used Delicous before so I'm learning already. I found some interesting looking blogs, two that caught my eye were this and that, particularly due to their designs and titles, both of which appealed to me.

Thing 1: Setting up a blog

hmmm..

Well first of all that's me!

 I'm a Library Assistant at the RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons Ireland).  I graduated 

from UCD with an MLIS in 2010 and have been at RCSI since 2008 (full time since December 2011). I'm interested in many aspects of librarianship, especially Information Literacy and working with antiquarian books.

I have a strong interest in CPD and this course seems like a great way to develop skills and learn from others. Of the 23 things I have used or have some expereince of most of them, though i haven't used Prezi before and have heard good things about it. Zotero is something else that interests me and It will be good to refresh myself on podcasting and RSS feeds, after having used them last during my MLIS.