NER’eastah Blog and RSS Feeds
Submitted by Penny Glassman
Welcome to the latest issue of the The NER’eastah, the Newsletter of the New England Regional Library.
The new blog format allows us to continue providing you with interesting articles about issues important to health sciences librarians in New England, and deliver announcements and late-breaking news items.
There is a link to the Newsletter blog on the NN/LM NER Website (http://nnlm.gov/ner). However, if you have not done so already, I strongly recommend that you use a feed-reader to subscribe to the NER’eastah Blog and other news feeds. Below is a reprint of a portion of a previous newsletter article on RSS Feeds and news feed readers.
Not ready to jump into the “blogosphere”? There is also a PDF version of the Spring 2008 issue at: http://nnlm.gov/ner/newsletter/spring-2008-newsletter.pdf
Please feel free to send me comments about the blog. My email address is penny.glassman@umassmed.edu.
RSS Feed Review
RSS Feed Readers Explained
RSS is a format used to disseminate regularly changing content on a Web site.
It allows users to stay informed by being notified when new content is available.
This is more efficient than visiting multiple Web sites on a regular basis
to determine if new information is available.
In order to take full advantage of this time-saving technology, two components
are required:
- An RSS feed to which you can subscribe;
- A feed reader (sometimes referred to as an aggregator).
The RSS feeds are supplied by Web sites. They pull information from the site
in XML format—it’s not easy to read and it is not pretty. That is why
you need an aggregator or reader. The reader takes that XML info and displays
it as a nice, readable Web page.
A news aggregator or feed reader is used to read postings about the new content.
Aggregator/feed reader software periodically checks RSS-enabled Web pages identified
by a user and gathers the postings in one location.
There are basically three categories of feed readers: Desktop, Integrated,
and Web-Based. Desktop is software downloaded onto a computer. Integrated is
a feed reader that is part of another program, such as the Firefox Web Browser
or Microsoft Outlook. Web-based is available on a Web site. Below are examples
some commong Web-based feed readers.
Web based RSS feed reader (No Software Installation)
- Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
- NewsGator: http://newsgator.com/ngs/default.aspx
- MyYahoo!: http://my.yahoo.com/s/about/rss/
- Google: http://www.google.com/reader/
In case you are wondering, I primarily use Bloglines and downloaded the Windows
notifier on my computer (http://www.bloglines.com/about/notifier).
Notifier informs me when there is new information available on the RSS feeds
I monitor. So I don’t even have to open Bloglines until I am notified there
are new items!
Subscribing to News Feeds
Now that you have selected a feed reader, it is time to subscribe to some
feeds. The easiest ways to identify a feed is by an orange RSS or XML icon
on a Web page. Below are a few icon examples:
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To subscribe to a news feed, click on the XML/RSS icon, then copy the URL
address (at the top of the page) into your feed reader. Many feeds simplify
the process by allowing you to select the feed reader you are using.
Below is the workflow for subscribing to The Krafty
Librarian using Bloglines which is available at: http://www.kraftylibrarian.blogspot.com/.
1. To subscribe to the Blog, select XML/RSS Feed link.
2. The KrafyLibrarian Blog simplifies the subscription process
by allowing you to select a Feed Reader. I will select Bloglines.
3. Selecting Bloglines opens this page. Now I need to log
into my Bloglines account.
4. This is the Bloglines subscription page which will display
automatically after I ‘ve logged into my account. Click the “Subscribe” button.
5. On the left is a list of my subscriptions, including The
Krafty Librarian. Done!
