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Far from the stereotypical image of a stodgy old librarian shushing those who rustle book pages too loudly, librarians in Ontario's Public Service are embracing new media to keep clients up to date.

Whether it's Twitter, RSS feeds, a podcast or social bookmarking services, librarians are recognizing that so much vital information comes from an entirely different range of sources these days.

From politicians to firefighters, government workers are turning to new media for the news that matters to them and librarians are keeping pace with Web portals that deliver social media mash-ups.

Martha Murphy is the librarian for the Office of the Fire Marshall. She uses the office's Web site “Fire News” to push out news information about the ministry, and a subscription-based e-mail newsletter. She is able to automate much of that news gathering with the help of RSS.

“If I had to browse through all those Web pages myself, it would take hours,” Murphy says. “But with RSS feeds, I can cover a wide variety of sources very easily.”

For the uninitiated, RSS – or Really Simple Syndication – allows users to receive updated content as it appears at the source. Using Google Reader or a similar program, readers can quickly browse through a long list of headlines and read the ones that are of interest.

“The advantage of an Internet reader such as Google is that you can take it with you,” says Jacquie Fex, librarian with the Ontario Securities Commission. “You can access it from home, from school, from work.”

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