1	Five Weeks to a Social Library: Getting Up to Speed with RSS Feeds Michele Mizejewski Electronic Services Librarian Redwood City Public Library February 20, 2007
2	Objectives: Understand the basics of what web feeds are and how they work. Learn how to locate and subscribe to feeds for keeping up with news and professional topics. Look at some ways libraries are using feeds to enhance service and improve user experience
3	What is RSS? Really Simple Syndication “A web feed is a data format used for serving users frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it.” --Wikipedia
4	What is RSS?
5	Icons
6	New York Times
7	National Public Radio
8	Library Crunch
9	Library of Congress
10	The BBC
11	How Do I Read Feeds? 3 types of feed readers or aggregators: Desktop Clients - Download application to your computer. Can only read your content there, but you can read what you've previously downloaded, even when offline. Some examples: RSS Owl, Shrook, Feed Demon, and Snarfer. Web-based - Must be online to log in to account, but can read your content from any computer. Some examples: Bloglines, Newsgator Online, and Google Reader. Integrated - Browsers, web portals, and some email clients are beginning to make it easy to read feeds without a separate application. Some examples: My Yahoo, Google Homepage, Sage, and current versions of Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
12	Bloglines
13	Bloglines: subscriptions
14	Feed links to full content
15	Finding Feeds Sites you monitor regularly Blogrolls Embedded tools Specialized search engines Subscription databases
16	Adding a New Feed Some sites have options for subscribing with one click to popular readers.
17	RSS feed from the PLA Blog
18	The Feed URL Paste the feed URL Click subscribe to add to your feeds in bloglines
19	Bloglines Subscription Options
20	Specialized Search
21	Bloglines for Search
22	Bloglines for Search
23	Advantages of Feeds Efficiency: monitor many sites in much shorter time Privacy: no e-mail address required No spam: only content to which you’ve subscribed Easy to cancel: simply delete the feed
24	Uses in Libraries News and events promotion New materials Integrate resources into courseware Subject-based materials updates The information goes where the user is, not the other way around
25	Libraries Using RSS: Denver
26	Libraries Using RSS: Hennepin County
27	Libraries Using RSS: Hennepin County
28	Libraries Using RSS: McMaster Univ.
29	Libraries Using RSS: U of Oklahoma
30	Libraries Using RSS: U of Saskatchewan
31	Adding Feeds to Your Site Many ways to add feeds Use blogging software Use various tools to generate and mix feeds Code your own See screencast: Using RSS to Add Currency to the Library Web Site
32	First steps Get comfortable using an aggregator for your personal news and professional reading Observe what other libraries are doing with feeds Think about the best way to use feeds in your particular setting Finally, take steps to make it happen
33	Contact Information Michele Mizejewski Redwood City Library mmizejewski@redwoodcity.org AIM: michele94107 For presentation links, go to: http://infotrawler.com/rssintro