RSS

From IPL Wiki

RSS is often said to be an acronym for 'Really Simple Syndication.' It is used for syndicating news and other content. People can subscribe to RSS feeds and they will be notified each time content is updated on a particular site.

Contents 1 About 2 How does it work? 3 Best Practices 4 ipl2 examples 5 Hands on Activity 6 Articles about 7 Feedback and Prize Drawing

About

RSS began as a protocol for summarizing website content developed by Netscape for use with the now defunct Netscape Navigator browser. This first version was termed RDF site summary (Resource Description Framework.).

The idea that would become RSS as we currently know it went through several iterations, before arriving at its present form. While it remains the most common protocol for website summarizing, atom is another popular format, developed to address some of the inherent problems with RSS.

A RSS feed is simply a way in which a reader may subscribe to website content, such as a blog or news site.

A news site, for example, may list their latest headlines or entire articles in their feed every time a new article is published. A blog would publish this feed as a series of recent posts. Feeds are published by millions of publishers, from small individuals to large organizations like The New York Times. In libraries, RSS feeds might feature news items about upcoming events, or updates on newly added collection items.

The following Common Craft video includes an introduction to RSS as a way to save time reading web sites.

How does it work?

RSS at its simplest is nothing more than a widely accepted standard for web content. RSS uses an information structuring language called XML to make dynamic web content interpretable through numerous programs and platforms, and easily filtered via user specifications.

What makes a feed great is that it brings the most current site content to you in a format that ensures your privacy and saves you the time of visiting a myriad of websites. This is typically done through the use of what is called an Aggregator or Newsreader.

For example, you could set an RSS Feed program (typically referred to as aggregators) to pull in all content tagged as "news" from a website, or use multiple tabs to further narrow your results. The program will update every time the targeted website updates with new information that matches the criteria

All major web browsing programs support some form of RSS subscription, such as Mozilla Firefox's "Live Bookmarks", or Microsoft Internet Explorer's Feed Tool.

The following are links to various news aggregator/readers used to receive RSS feeds.

Web-Based-

• GOOGLE READER : Google Reader helps you find and keep track of interesting stuff on the web. You can subscribe to your favorite websites, see what your friends are sharing, and keep up with what's popular. New content comes to your Google Reader when it's posted, so you don't need to visit individual sites.

• BLOGLINES : Bloglines is "a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content." Basically, it's a way to compile any site you visit on a regular basis into one rich, user-friendly interface.

News & Information RSS Feeds- The following websites offer the ability to subscribe to news feeds on a large variety of topics.

• My Yahoo!

• MyMSN

• My AOL

Stand-Alone - These programs allow you to view your selected news feeds on your desktop.

• FeedDemon : FeedDemon The top-rated stand-alone RSS feed program

• FeedReader 3 : FeedReader3 A Free downloadable desktop RSS program

• NetNewsWire : NetNewsWire Desktop RSS Program for MAC Users

Useful RSS Tools

• Feed2JS : Feed2JS Feed 2 JavaScript helps you to embed an RSS feed in your webpage that will be automatically updated when the source updates.

• Leigh RSS : LEIGH RSS has a directory of RSS feeds based on categories. The site also offers RSS Tools to create and edit RSS feeds.

There are many more RSS readers and aggregators that can be found in directories such as DMOZ Feed Readers.

Best Practices

Academic Libraries:

• Northwestern University Archives

• The College of New Jersey

Public Libraries:

• Kenton County Public Library RSS Feeds

• Hennepin County Library

Others:

• Library of Congress

• Library Journal

Information from the Library Success Best Practices Wiki

RSS

ipl2 examples

The IPL2 currently supports RSS feeds for new content posted to the ipl2 blog.

We also have RSS feeds for the IPL Learning Community forum areas.

Hands on Activity

Activity 1. Bloglines

Create an account. It's free, and it takes about 15 seconds. You'll need to confirm your registration, so watch your email. Once you confirm your email, you'll be brought to a Subscribe page. This is a selection of Bloglines Quick Picks (arranged by subject), and the top fifty or so most popular Bloglines subscription feeds. Take some time here to see what you might be interested in.

That's it! Once you've clicked the Subscribe button, you'll be whisked away to your own personal Bloglines reader.

Activity 2. Google Reader

Create a Google account. Your Google Account gives you access to Google Reader. Once you have created your account, you can get started with Google Reader.

Google Reader can take a Web site URL and find the RSS feed on its own. If you don't remember the name of the site, or the exact URL, Google Reader has a built in directory you can search by keyword.

Once you get going with Google Reader, you'll likely have a bunch of sites that need organizing into groups. The easiest tool to handle this is folders. To begin this process, just click on manage subscriptions in the lower left-hand corner of Google Reader's main page. This will take you to an options menu where you can create and delete folders and feeds, as well as quickly categorize the feeds you have into folders.

Additional information on getting started with and using Google Reader can be found at the following CNet site Newbie's Guide to Google Reader

You can also watch this Common Craft video on Google Reader in Plain English

Activity 3. Creating an RSS feed

Search Engine Watch provides an article on making an RSS feed. As an RSS feed creator, you can edit your RSS file periodically to add new items that are then picked up by the subscribers to your RSS feed.

Articles about

Blansit, B. Douglas (2006). Using RSS to Publish Library News and Information. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 3(1): 97-104.

Cohen, L.B. (2009). RSS Basics - Internet Tutorials. Retrieved from RSS Basics

Corrado, Edward M. and Moulaison, Heather L. (2006). Integrating RSS Feeds of New Books into the Campus Course Management System. Computers in Libraries, 26 (9): 6-64.

Davison-Turley, Whitney. (2005). Blogs and RSS: Powerful Information Management Tools. Library Hi Tech News, 22(10): 28-29

Harrsh, K. (2003). RSS: The Next Killer App For Education. The Technology Source Archives at the University of North Carolina. Retrieved from http://technologysource.org/article/269/

Holvoet, Katherine. (2006). What Is RSS and How Can Libraries Use It to Improve Patron Service? Library Hi Tech News, 23 (8): 32-33.

Lee, Mark J.W., Miller, Charlynn and Leon Newnham.(2008) RSS and content syndication in higher education: subscribing to a new model of teaching and learning. Educational Media International, 45(4): 311–322.

Pollette, Chris. "How RSS Works." 13 July 2004. HowStuffWorks.com. How RSS Works

Rowse, D. (2009). What is RSS?. Retrieved from ProBlogger:What Is RSS?

Wu, Wendy G. and Jie Li (2007). RSS Made Easy: A Basic Guide for Librarians. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 26(1): 37-50. http://www.icioffshore.com/news/fulltext/293.pdf

Wusteman, Judith . (2004) RSS: the Latest Feed. Library Hi Tech, 22(4): 404-413.

Feedback and Prize Drawing

To give feedback to the IPL about the 15 Things and to register for the prize drawing, please visit: http://vll.ipl.org/15things/index.html

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