RSS feeds
#5. Discover RSS feeds
You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionising the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.
Atom is another syndication format which works the same way. You cna subscribe to this Blog thru the Atom link.
Additionally, many of ECU’s journal databases, such as those from Ebsco, offer RSS feeds as a way to delivery a current awareness and alert service to you. ECU library ejournals, such as the Emerald ejournals, offer feeds so you can be alerted when a new issue is published.
This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together
Resources:
CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.
Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to Keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)
Exercise:
1. Follow the resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
2. Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to some newsfeeds to your reader. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions
Then try adding a few other types of feeds from other sites. Go to the pages below, locate the feed and subscribe. (Select at least 3)
#6. Locate some library RSS feeds
Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:
When visiting your favourite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it.
Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).
Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:
Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts
Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlets RSS feeds for information, not weblogs
Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.
Additional Resource:
Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog
#5. Discover RSS feeds
You’ve heard of RSS? You’ve seen those small funny tags on websites? You’ve heard co-workers and acquaintances swear by it, but still have no idea what RSS is? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionising the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.
Atom is another syndication format which works the same way. You cna subscribe to this Blog thru the Atom link.
Additionally, many of ECU’s journal databases, such as those from Ebsco, offer RSS feeds as a way to delivery a current awareness and alert service to you. ECU library ejournals, such as the Emerald ejournals, offer feeds so you can be alerted when a new issue is published.
This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together
Resources:
CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.
Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to Keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)
Exercise:
1. Follow the resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
2. Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to some newsfeeds to your reader. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions
Then try adding a few other types of feeds from other sites. Go to the pages below, locate the feed and subscribe. (Select at least 3)
#6. Locate some library RSS feeds
Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:
When visiting your favourite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it.
Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).
Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.
Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:
Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts
Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlets RSS feeds for information, not weblogs
Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.
Additional Resource:
Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog
3 comments:
RS & I have been working this afternoon on trying to get the EBSCO Host to save our search onto Bloglines...Not a lot of luck so far, we get to the point of copy/pasting the syndicated feed line onto bloglines, but Bloglines comes back with "No feeds were found". Is anyone else having the same problem? Klickety
Did you get an email from EBSCO with the RSS feed line? for example my one for the subject search of ERIC I did looks like this:
http://rss.epnet.com/AlertSyndicationService/Syndication.asmx/GetFeed?guid=1021038
Have a read thru my blog for this week and I'll chat tomorrow when I get in. ciao. JG
typo cna = can
You cna subscribe to this Blog thru the Atom link.
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