Librarian currently listening to: William Orbit- Pieces in a Modern Style.
Royksopp- Junior and Senior
Good to see you again friends and patrons.
You have now officially entered into the world of blogging. As it turns out it can be a lot of fun. You started following our blog, your friend’s blogs, cooking blogs, and art blogs. You have even started following the blogs of big organizations such as CNN, The New York Times, The Huffington Post and the Onion. But now that you have all these blogs to follow how will you keep track of them all? There is the old fashion way. Every day you could log on to each individual blog to see what; if anything they have updated that day. Don’t forget to write them down on a piece of paper so you don’t forget any of them. Maybe you could add them to your favorites on the browser you happen to use. That would make it a little easier to keep track. I don’t know about you, but I do not have that kind of time on my hands. I do not want to go to a bunch of blogs only to find out they have nothing new. This is where the RSS feeds come in handy.
What is an RSS feed?
Admittedly if you asked me this question yesterday I would not have been able to answer it. Up till yesterday I didn’t know what an RSS feed was or how it was used. But today I know the answer and I am glad you asked.
Originally called RDF (Resource Description Framework), RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Unfortunately the explanation is anything but simple. RSS takes all these blog entries, news headlines, music and videos that you subscribe to; and in a standardized format they publish the frequent updates.This is all done through one standardized format. It is all clear now right? It wasn’t for me either. Basically an RSS feed is a way of getting updates from all the sites you subscribe to. Instead of you going to each website individually all the news you want comes to you. And with this method it is only the news you want that comes to you. Your favorite writer is coming to town at some point this year, but you don’t know when. You could go to the website every day and see if there may be an update. Or you can simply subscribe to the RSS feed and when the information is updated; bling it will come to you.
Now that you know what an RSS feed is how do you use it? Let me explain.
The first thing you will need to do in order to use the RSS feeds is get yourself an RSS reader. Readers are free websites that you can use to house all your feeds and information. The lucky thing is to access one all you need is email account. When it comes to the readers you have many options to choose from. Some of the most popular include Google Reader (GoogleReader), Bloglines (www.bloglines.com), Newsgator (www.newsgator.com) and MyYahoo (ca.my.yahoo.com). For a full list and reviews of RSS readers you can check out Choosing an RSS reader or lib guides to choosing RSS readers
The handy thing I found out is that I already subscribed to a reader and didn’t even know it! I happen to be a Gmail girl. (Google’s email service) When I got this assignment about RSS feeds the first thing I was asked to do was subscribe to another libraries RSS feed. So like you, I had to figure out how to use a reader. I decided on the Google reader since I am most comfortable with all things Google. I went over to the Google Reader site and found out all I had to do was type in the email I already used and voila! I was all set up! Once I put in my password it brought me to my reader. Here is a handy screen shot of my Google Reader page to help you:
This is what you will see when you first open your reader. On the left you will see all the subscriptions that you have. Google Reader happens to even organize your subscriptions for you by type. So all the BlogSpot blogs (Google’s blog pages), that I follow are in one category and all others are in another. In this screen shot we happen to be looking at the news feed of MoMA. (The Museum of Modern Art) So what you see on the right is the recent updates from MoMa, including the date and time, category, title and a brief description. Now if any of these things interest me all I have to do is click on the link and it will bring me to the appropriate place on the website. It is as easy as that! Since I have recently began following many of my classmates new blogs they are all listed there as well. So to catch up with all my classmates writings all I have to do is click on the left on the title of their blog. If they have written anything new, it will be there for me to see on the right.
Now that you have chosen your reader and set it up you can begin adding all the subscriptions you want! I’ll tell you how.
For this explanation I will use part of my class assignment to help us out. Part of the assignment was to find another library of our choice and subscribe to their page or blog, and then link it to our blog. This was a tough decision for me. There are just too many libraries that I love. The one that is closest to my heart is the Bibliothèque Nationale De France (National Library of France).
I have been a Parisaholic for years and when I saw this library and couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful. So I headed on over to the site and sure enough they had an RSS feed. To subscribe to any page is simple. Head on over to any page you would like to subscribe to and look for this logo:
This pretty orange symbol is the RSS feeds logo. If a page subscribes to an RSS feed it will have this symbol somewhere on the page. (sometimes they can be a little hidden under media links or the like, so look hard!) Once you click this button you will get a big jumble of html wording. (Hypertext Markup Language) What you will want to do is go to the address bar at the top of your page and copy that address. Now go back to your RSS reader and find the button or section that says “add a subscription”. In that bar paste the address you just copied. Now click add. You are now subscribed to that pages RSS feeds! It is really that simple.
You could also see links like this:
These are quick links to subscribe directly to your specific reader. All you have to do with these is click the appropriate box for you and follow the easy steps!
Now that I understand the world of RSS feeds I think they are a great resource. RSS feeds can be used by absolutely everybody. I find them very useful. I used to go to my favorite food blog once a week to see if it had been updated; and if I found any of the recipes useful. Now I can just add it to my RSS feed and know instantly whether I should visit the page. Business types can keep up with The Wall Street Journal, people like me can keep up with friends blogs, and the news of the day from the Onion at the same time, and fans can find out what is happening with bands and upcoming books. I think it is a great tool to filter out what I don’t need to know while keeping me up to date on what I do want to know. I honestly do not think that if I wasn’t assigned the topic of RSS feeds I would have ever given them a thought. Now that I know what they are I will use them with certainty. I love knowing what is going on in my favorite libraries, and with my favorite people around the world.
I think RSS feeds can be a fantastic benefit to libraries. There is so much news that the library would like to share with its patrons. With the excess amount of information that is being feed to the public many things can be overlooked. This way the people who are looking for the information will actually receive it. I am not sure that most libraries are using RSS to their full advantage. Libraries could use RSS feeds to give their patrons such information as upcoming book releases, events, library closings, exhibits and book groups. Libraries could also use RSS feeds internally to announce such things as job postings, and general information. Public libraries could benefit most from this technology; but smaller libraries and more specialized libraries could benefit also.
Sincerely head librarian Amanda
For a really fun simple explanation of RSS feeds check out the video below.
RSS in Plain English
Librarian Currently Reading:
Larry Clark- Tulsa
Note to the reader: This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Otherwise know as Pinktober!) In honor of this I decided to make this entire blog PINK! If you would like more information about Breast Cancer Awareness Month or to pick up your own Pinktober merchandise checkout these sites:
http://www.hardrock.com/philanthropy/pinktober/pinktober-2011.aspx
To find out more about Pink Ribbons in your country click here;
Australia
www.pinkribbonday.com.au
America and Canada
www.thebreastcancersite.com
www.pinkribbonstore.com
United Kingdom
www.pinkribbonfoundation.org.uk
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