How to Use RSS to Know More and Do Less

http://www.mls.lib.il.us/

SS
R

Jenny Levine
Metropolitan Library System
The Shifted Librarian
levinej@mls.lib.il.us
AIM: cybrarygal
June 13, 2006
 What Is RSS?

RSS is :
really hard to describe
a form of XML
stands for
Rich Site Summary
RDF Site Summary
Really Simple Syndication
is best understood when you actually use it!

June 13, 2006

 What Is RSS?

RSS is :
really hard to describe
a form of XML
stands for
Rich Site Summary
RDF Site Summary
Really Simple Syndication
is best understood when you actually use it!

June 13, 2006

RSS File Sits on Server Next to Web Page
 TITLE

CONTENT

AUTHOR TIME PERMALINK

 TITLE
PERMALINK

CONTENT
AUTHOR
TIME
 Some Facts about RSS

RSS is really for machines to read, not humans.

The RSS file updates itself automatically.
RSS tastes great! No, RSS is less filling! (Seven different
ways, plus Atom -- http://www.atomenabled.org/).
You can tell there is an RSS “feed” if you see:

“Syndicate this site”

June 13, 2006
 Humans
Website

RSS
feed Machines
 Humans
Website

RSS
feed Machines
Websites
That’s Great, but Now What?
You need an aggregator!
http://allrss.com/rssreaders.html

June 13, 2006

 Great! What’s an Aggregator?
A piece of software
Desktop (on your computer) or
Web-based (on a server somewhere)

1. Subscribe to sites by adding their RSS “feeds” to your

aggregator
2. The aggregator scans your subscriptions for new content
at specified intervals (usually every hour)
3. Content from those sites is then syndicated into one place
Saves time and clicks
It’s like creating your own newspaper!
June 13, 2006
 Keeping Current without an Aggregator

Local
Local National Fav
NYT Gov’t LISNews
Paper Paper News
Blog

Second Local
School BBC Travel Fav
Fav Library
News News Deals Mag
Blog News

June 13, 2006

 Keeping Current with an Aggregator

Local
Local National Fav
NYT Gov’t LISNews
Paper Paper News
Blog

Aggregator – 1 Click

Second Local
School BBC Travel Fav
Fav Library
News News Deals Mag
Blog News

June 13, 2006

 So, Where Do I Start?

1. Let someone else be your aggregator

• Blawg – http://blawg.org/
• Museum Blogs – http://museumblogs.org/

June 13, 2006

 So, Where Do I Start?

2. Bloglines – http://www.bloglines.com/
Free!
Server-based, so can access it from anywhere

June 13, 2006

 5-Step Program to Addiction

1. Go to Bloglines – http://www.bloglines.com/
2. Create an account
3. Find a site you want to read regularly and look for an RSS
feed for it (can also search for it within BL)
4. Copy the URL of the feed and paste it into your
Bloglines account or click on “Subscribe”
5. Visit Bloglines regularly to see what new content has
arrived!

Subscribe to email lists in Bloglines! –

http://www.blogdriverswaltz.com/archive/000668.html
June 13, 2006
 Bloglines Tutorials

Bloglines for Librarians in Three (and a half) Easy Steps --

http://joy.mollprojects.com/myprojects/rss/quickrss.html
LawLibTech: RSS Tutorial Using Bloglines -
http://www.lawlibtech.com/archives/000129.html
WisBlawg --
http://wisblawg.blogspot.com/2004/09/tutorial-on-reading-
blogs-with.html

June 13, 2006

 A Few Good Aggregators
BlogBridge (free) – http://www.blogbridge.com/
Bloglet (free, RSS via email) – http://www.bloglet.com/
FeedDemon ($29.95) – http://www.feeddemon.com/
iPod Agent ($15) --
http://www.ipodsoft.com/index.php?/software/ipodagent
NetNewsWire ($39.95, Mac) – http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
NewsGator ($29 for Outlook plugin, $5.95/month-$19.95/month for online
services) – http://www.newsgator.com/
Pluck (free, integrates in Internet Explorer) - http://www.pluck.com/
QuickNews ($14.95, for Palm) -
http://www.standalone.com/palmos/quick_news/
Rojo (free, web-based) – http://www.rojo.com/
Sage (free FireFox extension) -- http://sage.mozdev.org/
June 13, 2006
 A Few Good Aggregators

Find more at http://allrss.com/rssreaders.html

Aggregator reviews at
http://www.stepno.com/pcworld/5rssreviews042804.
html
The State of Online Feed Readers --
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/30/the-state-of-online-
feed-readers/

June 13, 2006

 Feedster Tricks

Feedster – http://www.feedster.com/
RSS search engine, so great for finding current results or
links from the blogosphere
Lets you subscribe to keyword searches
FeedFinder
Gives you code to add a Feedster search box to your site if
it is indexed
myFeedster online aggregator
Lets you create an RSS feed for your site
Creates “ego” feeds for you

June 13, 2006

COPY URL
 PubSub Tricks
PubSub – http://www.pubsub.com/
Lets you subscribe to keyword searches (can’t directly
search the database)
Edgar Filings -- http://www.pubsub.com/edgar.php (filings
by company, subject, or form type)
PubSub Government --
http://www.pubsub.com/features/government/
Community Lists -- http://www.pubsub.com/lists/
Create an “ego” feed for you or your organization
Get feeds for some sites that don’t offer them!
HT Use PubSub -- http://www.bryght.com/node/146
June 13, 2006
 Customizing Feeds by Keyword
Read Mr. Customization, Steven Cohen (LibraryStuff.net):
Amazon
http://www.onfocus.com/bookwatch/AmazonRSS.asp
http://www.unto.net/aws/
FindArticles.com -- http://www.findarticles.com/
Google News --
http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/news_feed_terms.html
Indeed (jobs) – http://www.indeed.com/
Moreover --
http://p.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?k=librarian&o=rss
Yahoo Finance Company News -- http://biz.yahoo.com/rss.html
Yahoo News Search – http://news.yahoo.com/

June 13, 2006

Your Library Needs to Provide an RSS Feed!

So you can slice and dice your content in multiple places!

So your audience can subscribe to your feeds!
So your staff can subscribe to your feeds!

Fastest
Fastest way
way isis to
to start
start aa blog
blog !!

June 13, 2006

 Blogs + RSS Gets You:

Better Google
Bloglines
Feedster
PubSub
BlogPulse
Technorati

August 9, 2005
 What Else Can Libraries Do with RSS?

¾ Display other feeds on your own site

May 15, 2006

 How to Display Feeds on Your Site
Rely on someone else for Javascript code
Feed2JS -- http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/ (can also put on your
server)
Feedroll (Javascript) -- http://www.feedroll.com/
RSS Digest (Javascript or HTML) -- http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/
Parse RSS on your own server
Blogfeed -- http://www.kalsey.com/tools/blogfeed/default.htm
LastRSS.php -- http://lastrss.webdot.cz/
Magpie -- http://magpierss.sf.net/
RSS Feed Magic -- http://dev.izibox.isa-geek.org/RSSFeedMagic/
Feed on Feeds -- http://feedonfeeds.com/
RSSMix – http://www.rssmix.com/ (combines multiple feeds into one)

June 13, 2006

 What Else Can Libraries Do with RSS?

¾ Display other feeds on your own site

¾ Provide feeds out of your existing resources

May 15, 2006

 Before You Syndicate, Consider…

Does the site have a syndication policy?

Does your site have a syndication policy?
Examples at http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/?p=95

June 13, 2006

Coming Soon!
Library Page Example – ProQuest article citations integrated with
your website
Course Page Example – ProQuest article citations integrated with
your website
Faculty Page Example – ProQuest article citations integrated with
your website
 What Else Can Libraries Do with RSS?

¾ Display other feeds on your own site

¾ Provide feeds out of your existing resources
¾ Aggregate information sources for your patrons

May 15, 2006

 What Else Can Libraries Do with RSS?

¾ Display other feeds on your own site

¾ Provide feeds out of your existing resources
¾ Aggregate information sources for your patrons
¾ Teach information literacy!

May 15, 2006

 It Works!

“In terms of WebCT, the presentation I did was in the

Spring term. It was an experiment and was largely
successful. In the fall term, I will be working with our
Systems and IRT department to figure out how to proceed
further. Students in the WebCT course like it very much.
The key thing now is to convince our faculty and students
of its benefits (RSS, blogs, linking through WebCT), etc.
My consultations with students most of the times result in
students creating Bloglines account and adding feeds.”

- Jay Bhatt, Drexel University

 What Else Can Libraries Do with RSS?

¾ Display other feeds on your own site

¾ Provide feeds out of your existing resources
¾ Aggregate information sources for your patrons
¾ Teach information literacy!
¾ Let patrons slice and dice our content!

May 15, 2006

 What Else Can Libraries Do with RSS?

¾ Display other feeds on your own site

¾ Provide feeds out of your existing resources
¾ Aggregate information sources for your patrons
¾ Teach information literacy!
¾ Let patrons slice and dice our content!
¾ AND….

May 15, 2006

Libraries “Getting Out There” via RSS

June 13, 2006

 Additional Resources

All About RSS -- http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml

Lockergnome’s RSS Resource Site -- http://rss.lockergnome.com/
News that Comes to You -- http://www.ojr.org/ojr/lasica/1043362624.php
Rich Site Services: Web Feeds for Extended Information and Library
Services -- http://www.llrx.com/features/richsite.htm
RSS for Non-Techie Librarians --
http://www.llrx.com/features/rssforlibrarians.htm
RSS Toolkit --
http://www.accessola.com/olita/site/showPage.cgi?page=toolkit/rss/
RSS4LIB – http://blogs.fletcher.tufts.edu/rss4lib/
Utah’s RSS Workshop -- http://rssgov.com/rssworkshop.html

June 13, 2006

Library Community & Vendors Start to “Get” It
Factiva -- http://fce.factiva.com/rss/marketing.htm
ScienceDirect Connect --
http://www.info.sciencedirect.com/sd_updates/sd_connect/index.shtml#rss
OCLC Feeds -- http://www.oclc.org/rss/
Westlaw Intraclips via RSS -- http://www.lawlibtech.com/archives/000140.html
American Libraries -- http://www.ala.org/cfapps/xml/alonline.xml
ALA Press Releases --
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/cfapps/xml/pr_inst.html
Gerry McKiernan’s collections
B-Feeds: Web Feeds for Books & Monographs --
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/B-Feeds1.htm
eFeeds: Web Feeds from Electronic Journals --
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/eFeeds.htm
RSS: Library services delivered via Rich Site Services --
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/RSS.htm

June 13, 2006

 The Future of RSS
RSS could replace email newsletters
Your news, your way, on the go
Smartphones, PDAs, Tablet PCs, laptops with always-
on Wi-Fi or 3G
Group aggregation (your company, your school, your
industry)
More Keyword Filtering / Customization
More Secure Authentication
Private, password-protected feeds (intranet!)
Aggregators will be built into operating systems and
browsers (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1543)
June 13, 2006
 Go Forth and RSSify!
Use Bloglines or a different aggregator to stay current!
Start a blog so you have an RSS feed of new
items/announcements!
Start asking your vendors for RSS!
Get others to display your RSS!
Market your RSS!

June 13, 2006

 Questions ?

http://www.mls.lib.il.us/

Jenny Levine
Metropolitan Library System
The Shifted Librarian
levinej@mls.lib.il.us
AIM: cybrarygal
June 13, 2006