Tuesday, July 15, 2008

RSS Feeds

You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites?
You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no
idea what RSS is?

Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly.

In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day.

It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it?

Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually.

Would that be valuable to you?
Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.

Many database companies have also added RSS feeds to their list of full text databases. This allows you to be automatically alterted when the next issue of a specific journal is added to the database.

Resources

CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good overview of what RSS is and the benefits to users.


Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative.


Activity

This activity focuses on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Google Reader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.
Create a free “RSS aggregator” account at Google Reader and subscribe to at least 3 newsfeeds.
To set up a Google Reader you can use your own email instead of the gmail account that is suggested you set up.

RSS Feeds you could add
Some interesting library blogs you may like to keep up to date with

LibraryBytes - Library blog by Helene Blowers
Librarian in Black - blog administered by Sarah Houghton-Jan
You may also like to look at the databases you subscribe to and investigate if you are able to add an RSS feed to a journal subscription.
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