RSS Tutorial for Librarians and Information Professionals

RSS• Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary

• RSS is an xml-based format which allows web publishers to create and disseminate feeds of data, based on the content of their website.

• RSS enables you to subscribe to a website using a tool called a news reader or aggregator

• RSS feeds contain article headlines, links and descriptions. The feeds are updated as the website is updated.

Administrative Headquarters, Dublin City Public Libraries & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 , Irelandwww.dublincitypubliclibraries.ie

RSS - Benefits

• An easy way to receive automatic updates from your chosen websites and blogs. Instead of going to a website, the website will send you a message every time there is something new.

• Notification of new content 'on your desktop' as it happens –automatic updates.

• Lets you create content in one place and display it in other places.


Why bother with feeds?

• Labour-saving, Time-saving, Convenience.

• You want to stay current.• You want to be notified of updates from the many web sites that

you read without visiting them one by one• You prefer to read your favourite websites from one convenient

location without any interface clutter• No need to trawl (favourite) websites for new content / news

items.

• Librarians who strive to keep current with the latest news and trends in the field have started using feeds and readers to savetime and organize materials.

Ariadne

Collection Building

D-Lib Magazine

Library H-Tech

Library Journal

Library Management

Library Review

New Library World

ProgramInternet Research

Reference Services Review

…Library Journals Online

www.xxxxxxx.com

Checking your favourite websites…

Emerald Insight

Ariadne

Collection Building

D-Lib Magazine

Library H-Tech

Library Journal

Library Management

Library Review

New Library World



…Online Book Reviews

www.xxxxxxx.com

PLUS…

NYT Book Review

Guardian Unlimited Books

Telegraph Arts | Books

Emerald Insight

Ariadne

Collection Building

D-Lib Magazine

Library H-Tech

Library Journal

Library Management

Library Review

New Library World



…Online Newspapers

www.xxxxxxx.com

PLUS…

NYT Book Review



Belfast TelegraphIrish Examiner

RTE News

Ireland.com

Washington Post

Emerald Insight

Ariadne

Collection Building

D-Lib Magazine

Library H-Tech

Library Journal

Library Management

Library Review

New Library World



…Entertainment

www.xxxxxxx.com

PLUS…

NYT Book Review




RTE News

Ireland.com

Washington Post BBC Music – Latest Releases

Rolling Stone Album Reviews

RTE Entertainment

Emerald Insight

Ariadne

Collection Building

D-Lib Magazine

Library H-Tech

Library Journal

Library Management

Library Review

New Library World



…Library Weblogs

www.xxxxxxx.com

PLUS…

NYT Book Review




RTE News

Ireland.com

Washington PostBBC Music – Latest Releases

Rolling Stone Album Reviews

RTE Entertainment

The Dewey Blog

RFID in LibrariesThe Shifted Librarian

Tame the Web

Library Stuff

The Laughing Librarian

Thoughts from a Library Administrator

Emerald Insight

This is where RSS comes in!


Step-By-Step

• Step 1: Use a News Aggregator

A newsreader" or "aggregator" will fetch and organize recent content and provide simple ways to read it.

• Step 2: Grab the feeds

• Step 3: View the content


Readers• RSS reader = news reader = RSS aggregator = a program

that can read RSS files

• Standalone applications that run in the background on your desktop, automatically updating headlines regularly:-e.g FeedReader – FREE

• Web-based RSS aggregation system:- e.g Bloglines.com -a web-based service means your favorite feeds will remain available when you change computers

• Browsers with RSS capability:- Firefox 1.5, Opera, IE 7.0


The icons to watch for…


BloglinesWeb-based Reader

http://www.bloglines.com/

Login

FeedReaderDesktop Reader

Right-click…Subscribing to a feed

…and paste!

Browsers with RSS capability Firefox Browser

Firefox Browser

Firefox Browser

IE 7.0

IE 7

IE 7

IE 7

http://www.bloglines.com/public/dubcilib

Useful Resources• RSS For Non-Techie Librarians -

http://www.llrx.com/features/rssforlibrarians.htm• Rich Site Services: Web Feeds for Extended Information and Library Services -

http://www.llrx.com/features/richsite.htm• All about RSS - http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml• LISFeeds.com - a web-based aggregator that scrapes feeds from librarian-

oriented sites from around the world. A good place to find library-oriented feeds and a way to read a lot of sites in one place.

• Bloglines.com is a free online service that helps you subscribe to and managelots of web information, such as news feeds, weblogs and audio. Bloglines tracks the information you're interested in, retrieves new stuff as it happens, and organizes everything for you on your own personal web news page.

• NewsIsFree - an online news reader, RSS Directory and news search engine. -http://www.newsisfree.com

• Technorati – Blog search engine - http://www.technorati.com/


DCPL Library Mattershttp://www.bloglines.com/public/dubcilib

Don’t forget to bookmark and put shorcut on your menubar!

RSS is colourful!


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RSS Tutorial for Librarians and Information Professionals