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Appendix 9

RSS

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, saves you time when consuming news and information. Instead of visiting hundreds of news sites and blogs, simply subscribe to the page or site and receive all your updates in a single news reader.

If a page or website has an RSS feed, you will be pointed to a page which lists site updates, usually via an icon similar to these:

You may be referred to a ‘feed’, a ‘site feed’, a ‘page feed’, an ‘RSS feed’, an ‘Atom feed’ etc. They all do the same job, and the ‘feed’ is what you subscribe to if you want information from the site.

Newsreaders

A newsreader is a piece of software that organises and shows the content of feeds, in other words it stores and displays the information as sites/pages are updated.

There are three main types: desktop, web based, and RSS mixers which give you the option to blend feeds for your convenience.

Desktop Software

You can install a newsreader on your own PC. One such example is SharprReader (available here: ). There are hundreds of other similar programs on the web. It is installed like any other program, and looks something like this:

As you can see, there’s not a lot to the programme. It’s very similar to an email client, for the very reason that it does a similar job. Email clients read email, and a news reader reads news feeds.

The first step after installing your software is to subscribe to a feed.

This is the procedure to subscribe to

From the home page, click on the RSS link (above).

Follow the ‘Select this link to go the CILIP RSS news feed’ link.

In this particular case you have two options:

1. Copy the address in the address bar and paste it into the address bar in SharpReader. Press enter. When the feed appears, click on the ‘subscribe’ button. That’s it! You are now subscribed to that feed, and all new information will be updated every time you start SmartReader.

2. Use the drop down box to choose ‘SharpReader’ from the subscription options, and the information is automatically transferred to SharpReader. Click on ‘subscribe’ in SharpReader and you’re done.

To read an item, click on it and the content will appear in the lower viewing pane.

Repeat the process to add feeds that interest you. Start the program when you want to check for updates.

Web Based Readers

Using a web based reader makes life even easier. It’s also more convenient in that you can check your feeds from any computer.

There are many web based tools that you can use to read your feeds (list here ), or you can use your Yahoo or Google account.

Google reader is as easy and functional as most.

To subscribe to :

Follow the same route as above to get to the RSS feed page.

From the drop-down list, choose ‘Google Reader’.

That’s it!

.uk will now appear in your subscriptions list and the posts from the site appear in the viewing pane. Click on an item for a link to the information.

If a site does not have a specific button for your online reader, you can still copy and paste the feed URL manually as described with SharpReader.

Mixers

Mixers are a type of muti-reader, in that you input several feeds and it blends them into one big feed.

One such mixer is FeedBlendr ( ).

To create a ‘mixed’ feed, you need to name it, list the addresses of the feeds you want to mix and create it. In this case we are blending the CILIP RSS feed with the School Library Association RSS feed.

If you see a red button next to a feed address, it means there is a problem with it; possibly not complete, or not actually a feed address.

The resulting page will tell you which feeds you have blended, and also give you a link to the feed address for your ‘super feed’. This one feed will give you updates from all the original feeds you fed in.

So, for example, I could add it to Google Reader to give me updates on these two feeds in one place.

You can blend as many feeds as you like, but the more you blend, the busier it will be and it could soon get beyond reasonable management.

The tips page on FeedBlendr ( ) is useful.

RSS and Librarians

Potential Use

Below is a list of possible uses for RSS for librarians. It’s by no means comprehensive, and the more you play with feeds and settings, the more potential it has.

• Reading news feeds

• Reading specialist educational news feeds.

• Keeping an eye on school library blogs.

• Keeping an eye on the library blogosphere generally.

• Tracking updates in specialist areas e.g. information literacy, cataloguing, fiction, curriculum areas.

• Tracking news from your library management system supplier.

• Making a specialised feed ( for example at Yahoo News) of a particular search; any updates or new hits will appear in your feed.

• Get updates on new fiction

• Get updates on new academic titles as they are published

• Incorporate a news feed in your blog for interest and to keep it fresh

• Track CPD sites

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RSS: A Guide

Feed name, and number of unread items.

New items will appear here as they are created on the original site.

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