Being Tech Savvy Before and After Retirement

I was asked to do a piece for a panel at MLA: Happily Retired, Well-Adjusted and Tech Savvy: For Those Librarians Planning (or wishing) for Retirement.

I've created a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation for the conference but I realized there were a lot of links to tech resources that could best be listed in a blog.

General News Periodicals with Good Tech Coverage

The New York Times - Check out their Technology section online for tech news, reviews, tech business.  I subscribe to the iPad app.

Wall Street Journal - Good tech section behind a pay wall.

Digital Tech Magazines

Engadget Distro - this is a new category but one that might bear watching.  The tech site Engadget has come up with their own magazine app for iPad to distribute their content.  If you like getting your tech news in a magazine type format, it might be worth checking out and it's free.

Library Focus

American Libraries - AL Direct - this comes out as a weekly electronic newsletter for ALA members and other subscribers.  They include some interesting content in their Tech Talk section and E-Content sections.  I'd consider keeping up with this to be a good start at becoming and remaining tech savvy.

LITA Top Technology Trends - LITA is the Library Information and Technology Association, the techie division of ALA.  They host the Top Technology Trends panel at Mid-Winter and Annual Conferences.  It's worth at least taking a look at the blog posting to see what library technology enthusiasts are talking about.

Stephen's Lighthouse - Stephen Abram's blog

iLibrarian - a blog I just discovered recently.  I like her inclusion of tips on how to use social networking resources in libraries.

David Lee King - a librarian at Topeka & Shawnee Public Library. Covers trends and social media.

Feel free to add some of your favorite blogs in the comments section

General Tech Blogs and Websites

CNET - news, reviews, podcasts

GigaOM

Boing Boing

Read Write Web

The Verge

How do you even begin to keep up with tech news from multiple sites you might ask?  Well, it probably isn't that important to try to keep up with all of them.  Anything that's big news will show up on all of these and more eventually.  So, just checking in on one that you like on a regular basis is probably sufficient.  But the secret to being able to follow multiple bloggers and websites is feeds.  You can subscribe to RSS feeds and have them show up in an RSS reader (rather old school at present I'm afraid).  Or you can follow a number of these sites and individuals via social media.  Or you can use an app to keep track of your social media and news sites.

Google Reader - RSS Reader that also works with a number of other platforms

Facebook - the preeminent social networking site at the moment

Twitter - communication in 140 characters

Google + - Google's foray into the world of social networking.

Flipboard - a magazine-like app for iPhone and iPad for news and social networking feeds.

Google Currents - Google's magazine-like app

Podcasts

TWiT This Week in Tech.  Features podcasts on a wide range of topics - Android, Google, Apple, computer hardware, law.  Generally good quality with interesting guests but can run long and ramble.

Revision 3 - they both produce their own podcasts and promote others from the Internet.  I particularly like Tekzilla and Lab Rats.

Tutorials

Butterscotch.com.  Quick tutorials covering a wide range of gadgets, websites and software.


CNET How To.  CNET also offers tutorials on how to use products, apps and gadgets.