Liminality Rules

I spent some time tonight reading blogs. I'm nearing the point where I read as much on screen as I do in print. I imagine that is true for some of you too. I had several feeds to various blogs aggregated using Bloglines so tonight I added feeds to Mairead Martin's blog and to Kevin Morooney's blog. I find both of them interesting and worthwhile reading. The other blog that I read frequently is Lorcan Dempsey's. Lorcan works for OCLC and his entries are always thoughtful. I find myself agreeing with him much of the time, or reading what I've thought but don't have the skill set to articulate so clearly.

We talk a lot in various arenas about breaking down silos. What do we mean by that? Lorcan was talking about information silos. I sometimes think about the silos in which people work. In any event, setting up RSS feeds to the blogs that I read helps me to break down my own information silos...at least a little bit.

Today was one of the most fun times that I've had during my 11-12 shift on the Welcome Desk. I usually use the time to examine various pages on the Libraries website. Today I did that, spent some time reading Cole Camplese's blog, and answered the question for three users, "how many toes are on the Nittany Lion's paw and why?" In case anyone is wondering, there are both four and five. The reason why can be found in the student paper, The Daily Collegian's Sept. 15th, 2005 issue (http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2005/09/09-15-05tdc/09-15-05darts-01.asp)

Helping users find and assess information is always gratifying.