This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a NetVibes or Google Reader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.
First up, watch this video:
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 revolutionalizing 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 every day. 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. RSS allows us to monitor web content easily through an aggregator or RSS portal site. For this thing, we will create our own aggregator and populate it with some feeds from other bloggers in the program as well as other library-related blogs.
This may be the trickiest of the things - but do not fret, once you see how easy it is, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!
Set up an account with Netvibes or Google Reader. Both of these sites do a similar thing (aggregate RSS) but the look of each is different. I use NetVibes. I like it because it allows tabbed pages so I can group different sets of feeds together: a tab for librarian's blogs, one for news, etc. The others have useful features as well -- explore each and choose the one you like the best. Try the NetVibes Getting Started page or Google Reader Getting Started page to jumpstart this activity.
Subscribe to this blog. Here's the feed URL: Oops! We are still waiting for our feed! I'll post it ASAP.
Subscribe to several of the blogs in this program. See below.
Subscribe to a few SLJ and librarian's blogs. See below.
Explore some of the search tools noted below that can help you locate some news feeds. Add one or two news feeds to your aggregator.
Create a blog post about your experience. Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:
What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life? How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
Resources for Finding Feeds:
These 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 outlet 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.
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Ruth Lorbert commented:
NetVibes is great-I'm hooked! I'll be using it as my default homepage so that I can see everything at a glance.
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Michael Stephens commented:
Good stuff Ruth - I use it for my home page too!
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Alice Yucht commented:
Another blogroll of possible subscriptions to explore: www.aliceyucht.pbwiki.com/EduBiblioBlogList
NetVibes might make an interesting portal as a Pathfinder for student research projects!
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Bill Drew commented:
I can't find anything comparable to marking read items or for marking favorites in NetVibe. I can do both in Google Reader. I wrote my post on my blog at babyboomerlibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/07/all-together-now-thing-2-rss.html
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS suzi w. commented:
ack! netvibes is overwhelming!! But good to know what is out there.
hee, my vw is cuz (why? cuz it is.)
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Ruthie commented:
When adding a feed, what do the different options such as atom, rss, rss2.0 mean?
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Michael Stephens commented:
Ruthie - Those are different types of RSS.
this software doesn't allow links or I'd paste one here but it is covered at the Wikipedia entry for RSS under incompatabilities.
NetVibes or Google will andle any of the "flavors"
July 24, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Gail F commented:
I keep getting an error message when I try to add our feed to my Google Reader. Anyone else having trouble?
July 25, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Carol A commented:
Sure is lots of cool stuff out there! Now I just need a clone to read it all ;-)
July 25, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS annot8 commented:
Does bloglines count as a feed reader?
July 25, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS annot8 commented:
I meant to add: Bloglines allows customizable feed groupings, too.
July 26, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Brenda commented:
More of a shared blog - but since we're on RSS feeds, check out this, The Ultimate RSS ToolKit: 100+ Online Apps and Resources. oedb.org/library/features/the_ultimate_rss_toolset.
July 26, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS DEBRA HANSON commented:
I'm getting it...and thinking about how to use these tools with my kids in our libraries - but now I'm wondering if I'll be able to do anything with these great tools at my school with students - because most things like this are blocked by our District filters for security reasons - can anyone comment on your situation? Any suggestions?
July 27, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Anne commented:
I'm having trouble with netvibes. I think I'm adding RSS feeds, but later when I return to netvibes the sites I added have disappeared. Help, what have I missed?
July 27, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Marie B in NY commented:
Anne,
I, too, had some trouble adding feeds then not finding them on Netvibes. I think it had to do with public vs. private versions of my page. The private version of my page shows all my feeds.Click the blue target link on the top left of your Netvibes page to toggle between public and private. I'm wondering how to categorize feeds after placing them all in the general tab. I created different tabs after all my feeds were imported and now I can't move them. i hope I don't have to import them all over again.
July 27, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Molly commented:
Hi Marie,
I wondered the same thing and I discovered that you can click and drag them to the tabs you want. Too easy!
July 29, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS comment4u commented:
I really like Wizz RSS which integrates really nicely into Firefox.
August 3, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Leo commented:
Love the RSS idea I have added it to my iGoogle you learn something new every day.
August 7, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Stefan RO commented:
RSS is super. And its time saving
August 7, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Stefan RO commented:
RSS is super. And its time saving
August 18, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Barbara Braxton commented:
If you are interested in advocacy, you might like to add this link to your RSS feed hubinfo.wordpress.com.
We are a group of Australian teacher librarians fighting to maintain and improve the employment opportunities of our colleagues but there is much onsite that could be used world wide.
Barbara Braxton
Australia
August 29, 2008 In response to:Thing #2: RSS Barbara Braxton commented:
Doug Johnson has just posted a item called 'Don't Underestimate the Aggregator' on his Blue Skunk blog doug-johnson.squarespace.com/which is really interestng
I've also just installed Outlook 2007 which allows me to have all my RSS Feeds come into my mailbox rather than having to open Google Reader (which I never remember) Use Tools > Account Settings> RSS Feeds > New
