Mara BordignonRosalie Waller

Information Services LibrariansLibrary Staff Tech Day: April 27, 2009

What will we cover today?Part 1: All about Alerts and RSS Feeds

○ What are Alerts & RSS feeds?○ How can Alerts & RSS feeds be useful in my library work?

Part 2: Using Alerts and RSS Feeds○ How do I set up Alerts?○ How do I set up RSS Feeds?○ Hands-on exercises and questions

PART 1: All about Alerts and RSS Feeds

What is the problem?

I have subscribed to too many listservs…

I have subscribed to so many blogs… even with an aggregator/reader, I forget to read new postings…

I don’t have time to read my favourite daily newspapers…

I need to know the most current research in my field but what if I miss something…

Who has time to keep on top of everything…

Image source: Microsoft Office Clipart

What is an alert?

Alerts are email notifications containing “new” information, to which one subscribes…

Alerts Google Scout Report

What are RSS Feeds ? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication

Application of the Extended Markup Language(XML)

Way to distribute content as it becomes available

Content can includearticles from library databases, new web sites, event

listings, news headlines or news stories, excerpts from discussion forums, corporate information, etc

Automatically receive content via a reader

What are RSS Readers? RSS readers help you view the latest information

from multiple sites at once

Many readers are freely available.

Two popular free readers1. Bloglines

○ http://www.bloglines.com2. Google Reader

○ http://www.igoogle.com

Watch this youtube clip called

RSS in plain English

“RSS in plain English" Online video clip. YouTube. Seneca Lib. 23 Mar. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU >.

What’s the difference?

ALERTS RSS FEEDS

Need an email address to subscribe Do not need an email addressCut and paste RSS feed link into your reader or directly into your website, or click on

Sent automatically to your emaile.g. TOC: when a new issue of Search magazine is published

Sent automatically to your reader e.g. TOC: when a new issue of Search magazine is published

Email arrives and you check email frequently

Must check your reader frequently to not miss any feeds

Not organized unless you apply filtersMessage via email

Organized by subject/topic tagsReaders = specific gathering of information that you have predetermined and can organize

How can faculty and students use Alerts and

RSS Feeds?

Image source: Microsoft Office Clipart

PART 2:Using Alerts

and RSS Feeds

Some examples from Seneca Libraries Staff…

GBIP: alerts set up for lesser known publishers for collection development

Bloomberg.com: TV alerts for a company or subject mentioned on bloomberg TV

Google Alert: keeping current with your campus… “Seneca” and “Markham”

iGoogle: news from another country, music, weather alerts

Facebook: alerts

EBSCOhost: Mara’s account

TOC Alert: Searcher Magazine

Can copy & paste this link into

your reader, or Subject

Guide page

TOC Alert: RSS feed link

Google … everywhere

www.google.ca/alerts?hl=en

Test yourself… 1What is the difference between an EBSCO

TOC RSS feed vs. a persistent link to an EBSCO publication?

Test yourself… 1What is the difference between an EBSCO

TOC RSS feed vs. a persistent link to an EBSCO publication?

EBSCO TOC RSS feed EBSCO publication persistent link

Coding xml html

Content List of articles In EBSCO, publication’s holdings which lists all issues

Coverage As specified: most recently published issue first, followed by older issues

Full electronic holdings as purchased by Seneca Libraries

Widgets Yes No

Test yourself… 2Scenario: you find a website, e.g.

researchbuzz.org

Cannot tell if it is a blog

Has no RSS button or link

Has no subscription to receive emails of updates

…is it possible to include this site into your reader?

Test yourself… 2Scenario: you find a website, e.g.

researchbuzz.org

Cannot tell if it is a blog

Has no RSS button or link

Has no subscription to receive emails of updates

…is it possible to include this site into your reader?

Unsure if it is a blog?... easiest way to check is to cut and paste the web address into your ‘subscribe’ box of your reader. If it is a blog/RSS, your reader will automatically be able to read the postings.

Test yourself… 3Which statement is false?

You can set up e-mail filters so alerts go automatically into different folders to avoid cluttering your inbox

You don’t need to give an e-mail address when subscribing to an RSS feed

It is easy to unsubscribe to RSS feeds

You can often choose how often to receive e-mail alerts

To subscribe to an RSS feed, you need a program

From: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/taylor/grad/keeping_current_4.shtml

Test yourself… 3Which statement is false?

You can set up e-mail filters so alerts go automatically into different folders to avoid cluttering your inbox

You don’t need to give an e-mail address when subscribing to an RSS feed

It is easy to unsubscribe to RSS feeds

You can often choose how often to receive e-mail alerts

To subscribe to an RSS feed, you need a program

Correct! To subscribe to an RSS feed you only need a feed reader which can be web-based

From: http://www.lib.uwo.ca/taylor/grad/keeping_current_4.shtml

Test yourself… 4

Your turn…

Set up an alert on:

Your car

-OR-

Your favourite leisure reading magazine

We know we can find Alerts and RSS feeds in

most of our databases… where else can we find

them?

Seneca: news RSS feeds

EDUCAUSE

http://www.educause.edu/

How Do I Find Web Sites? Internet Resources Newsletter

http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html

Pandia Postwww.pandia.com

ResearchBuzzwww.researchbuzz.com

Scout Reportwww.scout.wisc.edu

Image source: Microsoft Office Clipart

Thank you!If you have any questions or concerns, we would happy

to assist you. Please feel free to contact us:

mara.bordignon@senecac.on.carosalie.waller@senecac.on.ca