rss for librarians

Getting a handle on RSS

Deborah WinarskiPark Ridge Public Library

What is RSS?Really Simple Syndication

A time-saving way to receive news and information updates (often called "RSS feeds", "news feeds" or "feeds") from your favorite Web sites and blogs.

Using RSS enables you to see the most recently added contents of a web page in a concise, easy-to-read format

Feeds typically consist of headlines and short summaries of new articles, blog entries or search results

There are probably a number of web sites or blogs you read on a regular basis.

One way to read them is to visit each web page separately and scroll through its content

RSS feeds make it possible to see the content of them all together in a simpler format

Keeping up via RSS is…

Convenient : everything is in one place Faster than loading full web pages Free of ads (mostly) Anonymous (does not require e-mail address) Available for smaller devices (cell phones,

PDAs) Highly customizable (more about that later)

Basic terminology

FEEDA web feed is a data format used for

providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it.

Any web site or content provider could potentially syndicate an RSS feed

News Blog entries Photo-sharing web sites Calendars/ event announcements Advertisements/ sales Job postings

RSS feeds are particularly useful for sites on which content is updated frequently and is time sensitive

How do you know if a web site you visit regularly has an RSS feed?

This symbol is one common indicator

Sometimes you need to look carefully for an indicator of a feed.

…and when this link is clicked, a user sees feed choices on a separate page

On this site, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page…

Here are the feeds offered by CNN

Blogs will often omit the orange icon but include links that say “Subscribe”“Subscribe”

On Picasa.web’s photo sharing site, the feed is very hard to

see…but it’s available!

Subscribe RSS

Other ways RSSRSS feeds may appear

XML icon

With logos of feed readers

Feeds are customizable

Visit topix.net and create a feed with news from 50,000 sites containing keywords you select

Traffic.com has real time feeds for Chicago traffic hot spots

User-specific feeds on Flickr show you newly added photos from your friends, new comments on your photos

Many sites offer feeds which match your location, your search terms, the specific content you want to see.

Opportunities for libraries

Blogs your staff creates

Upcoming events

Newly added titles

Personal account notices (holds, overdue books)

Specialized catalog searches

Keep your patrons notified of

The Seattle Public Library offers RSS feeds for individual search results.

Clicking this link gives a user updates any time a book on Jewish mythology is added to the catalog

Convinced?

Then… what’s next?

An aggregator is needed

Also known as a feed reader or news reader, an aggregator is software or a web application which gathers syndicated content in a single location for easy viewing.

Where do I find an aggregator?

It used to be necessary to download and install specialized software

Where do I find an aggregator?

One web directory, The Open Directory Project, lists 79 feed readers still available for Windows

But separate software is not necessary now

You probably already have the capacity to read RSS feeds.

The newest browsers integrate the capacity to display RSS feeds properly

RSS feeds are created with XML, a markup language older browsers do not display properly.

This was not always the case!

The “XML” at the beginning of this page indicates that you have clicked an RSS feed which your browser is not interpreting properly

This is a properly displayed feed in Apple’s Safari browser

Here is an RSS feed displayed in Internet Explorer 7

Managing feeds in your browser is similar to using bookmarksbookmarks or favoritesfavorites.

In IE7, feed titles are displayed on a tab on the left, next to Favorites

When a title is clicked, the content of the feed is displayed on the right

Managing feeds in your browser is similar to using bookmarksbookmarks or favoritesfavorites.

In Firefox, feed titles appear on your Bookmarks Bar.

Clicking the title reveals a dropdown list where you choose a headline to view

RSS in E-mail Clients

Microsoft Outlook 2007, Apple Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird all have sections for viewing RSS feeds.


In Outlook 2007, The names of your feeds appear beneath your regular e-mail Inbox


Apple Mail is similar, with a section for RSS feeds underneath your mailboxes

Clicking the feed name on the left displays the headlines from the feed in the top viewing pane


Clicking a headline from the top pane displays its contents in the bottom pane

Run from software on your computer Only allow access to your feeds

while at your own computer!

Stand-alone feed readers,browser-based readers,and readers within e-mail applications…

If you want to be able to read your feeds from any computer, you have web-based aggregators as an option.

Web-based aggregators are web pages which you can customize to contain your feeds.

You may already be using a web-based aggregator without being aware of it.

If you have customized your start page for web-based e-mail, then you are probably already using RSS feeds

Feeds added to Yahoo’s start page

Many of the gadgets Google allows users to add to customized home pages take advantage of RSS. These are all RSS feeds.

When the + sign is clicked, the feed’s content is displayed without leaving the iGoogle home page.

PageflakesHere is a Pageflakes.com customized home page including tools like a calculator, to-do list, and Google search box

Pageflakes

RSS feeds appear along with the customized tools on this page.

RSS feeds embedded in personalized web pages

Can be accessed from any computer, using any browser

Are options on “start pages” of major e-mail services and web portals (yahoo.com, google.com, pageflakes.com)

Display your RSS feeds with other content, like weather, photos, stock quotes, games, etc.

For the more serious RSS user…

There are web-based applications dedicated only to reading RSS feeds

Bloglines

Google Reader

Bloglines is one popular web-based feed reader

Feed titles appear on the left side of the page

Here are the headlines for each feed

Clicking an individual headline displays the content of the article

Here are Google Reader’s feed

titles

Headlines of the selected feed appear here

Users select whether to view feeds in the compact

“list view” format…

…or view more of the article in “expanded view”

So…you can view RSS feeds

In a stand-alone application you download and install on your computer


Within a browser or e-mail program which tracks your feeds and shows them to you as bookmarks/ with your e-mail



On a “start page” or web portal you’ve customized with your own content







Within a browser-based application designed specifically for RSS feeds



With these you can access feeds only With these you can access feeds only while at your computerwhile at your computer



With these, you can access feeds from With these, you can access feeds from any browser on any computerany browser on any computer



With these, you can view feeds With these, you can view feeds along with other contentalong with other content



With these, you view only RSS With these, you view only RSS feeds , but with a wider variety of feeds , but with a wider variety of display, searching, and tagging display, searching, and tagging

optionsoptions

Do you regularly use more than one computer?

How many web sites with RSS feeds will you subscribe to?

Will you set aside time just to read blogs and check web sites…

…Or would you prefer to see feeds while doing other online activities?

Which aggregator should you use?

Keeping up via RSS is…

Convenient FastAd-feeCustomizable

Happy reading!For permission to use, contact Deborah Winarski ([email protected])

rss for librarians

Technology

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