So what do you do with RSS?

I've been using Google Reader for a little over a week now. It's not the first time I've used an aggregator, but it's the first portable, online one I've used, and I love it. The only trouble I've had is occasionally David Rothman's blog freezes up Internet Explorer. I'm not quite sure why, but the glitch seems to have resolved. What I've done is subscribe to the class blog and comments, several library-related and library news-related sites, a PubMed search for medical library-related research, table of contents for the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, plus a few fun ones--word-of-the-day, weird news, and a newsletter from the publisher of Call of Cthulhu, a game I play. I did subscribe to our local paper but I was getting over a thousand stories a day, mostly sports, which I didn't feel like reading. Oh, and I included my blogs to see how they come out on a feed. Fortunately it's easy to browse to find the ones to subscribe AND unsubscribe when you want. Because I'm using both Google Reader and Blogger, I can marked some stories as 'Shared' and have them display on my blogs using the widget you see on this page.

So, now to my assignment. What would I use RSS for in my library? For me professionally, it gives me instant access to a great deal of discussion on trends and tools that help me keep current in the field. I'd like to set up a library one for my patrons that would do the same in terms of orthopaedics, physical therapy, paediatrics, nursing, and other fields. By putting them in folders, the user can choose what she or he would like to read. I'd included those journals I could find that offer table-of-contents service through RSS, much like JAMA and the NEJM do. I'd like to put a link to it on the hospital intranet, once I can get a library page put there. Most of the professionals have internet access, so I think it could be a useful addition. Our intranet pages are actually set up a lot like a wiki, although only certain people can edit them. It's not in the final stages yet, but it looks promising.

Anyway, those are my thoughts of using RSS in my library. I'm thinking about running a class to promote various Web 2.0 technologies to my users and get their feedback. But I still have a lot to learn first. :)