A couple of weeks ago, I embarked again on another round of 23 Things as part of a program at Appalachian State University. The first "thing" was to create a blog, so I began writing in this blog again. "Thing 2" was to explore RSS feeds. I have been subscribed to a number of blogs relating to archives and also to Appalachian history and culture. The last time that I did this, I chose Google Reader mainly because it worked so well with my Google e-mail account. I have been following ArchivesNext, Confessions of a Curator, Derangement and Description, and Curiosities and Wonders all relating to archivists and special collections in some way. The last one mentioned, Curiosities and Wonders, is an interesting blog that highlights university archives collections at the University Archives.
My biggest problem with all of this is that I fail to check Google Reader to see the latest posts of the blogs that I am "following" which makes me wonder whether I have really been following them at all. This exercise did prompt me to check my Google Reader account and I learned all sorts of interesting things going on in the profession and at other archives. This is a useful tool if you treated it like reading the morning or evening paper. It makes it much easier than searching out the individual blogs each time. I just haven't been that disciplined.
In all of these exercises, I am reminded a something a friend related to me summarizing a quote from Wendell Berry about screens. Basically, he was warning about being so lost in screens (television and computer) as escapes that you lose touch with the local world that surrounds you. This is something that I worry about, and I yearn for the day when I won't have to carry a cell phone and be so connected. More and more my interest is turning local where I believe are the answers to many of our modern day problems--local food, local businesses, local products. I think that I still prefer a local community to a virtual community.
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Thanks Norma.
ReplyDeleteHow To Be a Poet (to remind myself)
(a poem) by Wendell Berry
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=30299
contains the lines
"Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in."
However, via a screen, so I guess we'll have to keep working at this. JohnW