Note: If I were a librarian stuck on a desert island with access to only two Web sites (hey, you never know), DocuTicker and ResourceShelf would most likely be the ones. These two sites - which are actually prolific blogs - aggregate hundreds and thousands of online research reports and online tools, respectively. We asked Senior Editor Shirl Kennedy how she keeps up with the best and newest on the Internet – and here is her enlightening response.
Maybe I am just wired differently from other people, but I do not suffer from information overload.
I revel in it.
As editor of DocuTicker and ResourceShelf, I have to keep up with new resources and reports not just on a daily basis, but throughout the day. Every day. A weblog is a voracious beast that must be fed continually. Two weblogs...well, you get the idea.
From time to time, someone asks me where I find all the stuff I post on ResourceShelf and, especially, DocuTicker. And I always answer, "Finding stuff isn't a problem. Finding time to deal with it all...that is a challenge."
The first step is coming to terms with the fact that you can't keep up with it...and stop losing sleep over the possibility that you will miss something important. Yep, you will...from time to time.
The world will not end.
I've worked with Gary Price for years on both of these weblogs. And we take pride in the fact that people often see something first on DocuTicker and ResourceShelf. So we try not to miss what we regard as "the important stuff." We both employ different methods of keeping up with what's "out there." Over the years, we've gotten quite proficient at maximizing our time and reach by NOT covering the same resources. In other words, I pretty much know where he is looking and so I direct my attention elsewhere. And vice versa.
Occasionally, you will see the same report or resource posted on both DocuTicker and ResourceShelf. Sometimes, it's by accident; more often, it's because we think something is important enough that it should be seen by as many people as possible. But as far as our regular workflow goes, there is very little duplication of effort. Which is critical for us because we both have day jobs, and we also like to sleep from time to time or actually talk to a friend or family member.
This, by the way, is an excellent current awareness strategy for anyone. Find reliable colleagues who are interested in the same things you are, and count on them to direct your attention to things you would otherwise miss. If you know what mailing lists, feeds, publications, etc., these folks are looking at, then you can monitor other resources...and return the favor. Gary and I are fortunate to have a small, crack team of contributing editors; Stuart Basefsky and Pete Weiss in particular cover a lot of info-turf for us.
I still get tons of e-mail. Good filtering helps, and so does using different e-mail accounts for different activities. But I am a huge advocate of employing RSS to keep up with the info-flow, and have cut way down on my subscriptions to e-mail newsletters, mailing lists, press release services, etc.
Right now, I am subscribed to something like 350 RSS feeds. (I use Google Reader.) Do I read every single item on every one of these feeds every day? Uh, no. Not hardly. I have most of my feeds organized into folders by subject category. And I have a Home folder that contains the dozen or so feeds that I feel are the most important to me. (The folder is literally labeled "Home," and Google Reader opens to it automatically when started up.) This is the folder I watch all day long...peeking into it regularly to see what's new. The feeds are a mix of offerings from local news sites and from a few key sources I regard as excellent "fishing holes."
One of these is a (highly recommended) resource you may not know about: Al's Morning Meeting -- Al being Al Tompkins, Broadcast/Online Group Leader at the Poynter Institute, a journalism education center and think thank right here in my hometown of St. Petersburg, FL. Ostensibly, this is a source of story ideas for journalists, but as a long-time follower, I've found it to be an excellent way of keeping up with trends, new reports, new technologies... If something big hits the news, the odds are high that Al has already compiled and posted a host of relevant resources to the Morning Meeting blog. You can get the daily e-mail newsletter update, but the RSS feed is more valuable (to me, anyhow) because the blog is updated continually throughout the day. I know that Al's teaching responsibilities keep him on the road constantly, so I am even more in awe of the effort he puts into Morning Meeting.
I have a folder labeled "Government Information," which contains feeds from government agencies and various watchdog groups. I try to read my way through this almost every single day, since this is where I find many of the reports that end up on DocuTicker. A large library of federal government agency RSS feeds is available via USA.gov. Stateline.org, from the Pew Research Center, is an excellent source of state-level news and information; feeds are available by state or by issue.
Because I am an information professional, I follow a good number of library-oriented RSS feeds, which live in a folder labeled "Library" (duh). I try to get through these on a daily basis as well. If you are working in a particular profession or industry, I highly recommend that you aggregate your own key information resources like this.
I have other folders set up for feeds specific to a variety of topics -- i.e., business, health, science, technology, think tanks, etc. I dip into these as I get the time; it's no tragedy if they go unread for awhile. But I know I can always pull useful stuff out when I need to; I like to maintain a good topic mix on DocuTicker so everyone can find something useful.
Actually, we're quite flattered that so many people rely on us for their own current awareness.
Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
DocuTicker.com and ResourceShelf.com
Note: We here at the Hill Library are surely in that camp – and highly recommend these two great sites to keep up-to-date with online information. Thanks for the insight into your inner workings, SDK!
This has been the first in a series of guest posts, which Allen recently introduced as the third strategy in our blog building mission. Stay tuned for more knowledgeable posts from knowledgeable guests in the weeks to come.
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