Practical RSS for Collecting and Disseminating New Content

Practical RSS for Collecting and Disseminating New Content

Nick Tomaiuolo, CCSU LibraryConnecticut Library Association114th Annual Conference April 12, 2005

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“oddly enough”

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The whole idea of RSS is to go from this

To this …..

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NYTG. Price:Resource

Shelf

LibraryGrants

LocalNews

Open AccessNews

ResearchBuzz

FavoriteBlog

Chron. HigherEd

WiredHubMed

“oddlyenough”

YahooEnter-

tainment

TheatreNews

RSS Reader

What is RSS ?

• A method by which content is delivered to you, the end-user, without constantly needing to search for it.

• Obviates continual manual site visits to monitor new content.

What is RSS ?

• Corollary:It is a method you can use to deliver content to others.

How does RSS work ?

And what is needed so I canuse it ?

How does RSS work ?

RSS files, which could alsobe written as XML files orRDF files, are writtenso they can be read byan Aggregator.

RSS is SIMPLE• Really Simple

Syndication• Rich Site Summary• RDF Site Summary

• It really doesn’t matter to us anyway; RSS is a list of items

• Each item contains a title, summary, and a link to a URL (e.g. a web page).

What is required?ItemTitle

SummaryLink to a page

What is needed so I canuse it ?1)You need to locate

content that is syndicated.

2)You need to use an RSS Aggregator (aka RSS Reader) to view the syndicated content.

The RSS Aggregator

• Newspaper analogy

Selected “feed”

Today’s new “items”

Selected “item”preview

Next “feed”

Next “feeds” “items”Selected “item”

preview

Another aggregator (Newsgator)

An alternative interface

Subscription RSS Aggregator

FeedDemon ($$$) “Watch Channel”

Choosing an Aggregator? Consider:

• Display• Options• “Portability”• Find Aggregators at: The News Aggregator’s Directoryhttp://www.hebig.org/blogs/archives/main/000877.phpOr Blogspacehttp://blogspace.com/rss/readers

Finding Content• Sources built in by

the aggregator• “Well known sites”• “Drive by” content• Searching for content

– Syndic8– Daypop– NewsIsFree– Yahoo!

“Built in” content from the aggregator

Lists of feeds at known sitesw.moreover.com/categories/

category_list_rss.html (Moreover)

Feeds at the NYTimes

Yahoo! Feed list (partial)

Choosefeeds

Search for feedsby keywords

What am I supposed to do with this?

“Drive By”

You’re on a page with one of those RSS buttons …..

I forgot, what am I supposed to do when I see this?

I forgot, what am I supposed to do when I see this?

a) Click the button

b) Copy the resulting file

location from yourbrowser’s address bar

c) Paste the locationinto your

RSS Aggregator’s“Add” or

“Subscribe to”form.

Searching for feeds (and searching in feeds)• www.syndic8.com

(Syndic8)• www.newsisfree.com

(NewsIsFree)• www.feedster.com

(Feedster)• www.daypop.com

(Daypop)• Some RSS Aggregators

offer feed searches

ww

w.fa

ganf

inde

r.com

/blo

gs

NEWSGATOR

FEED

SEARCH

Syndic8

Library news LISnews.com

Uses of RSS Feeds in Libraries• Journal TOCs• New Books• Library Events• Workshop schedules• “Friends” news• Statistics

Gerry McKiernan: examples of RSS in libraries

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/RSS.htm

Writing an XML file

• Not overly difficult ….• Refer to “Making an RSS Feed” by Danny Sullivan

(SearchEngineWatch) athttp://searchenginewatch.com/

sereport/article.php/2175271

What is required?ItemTitle

SummaryLink to a page

Try your XML file in your favorite aggregators• Copy someone else’s file and

edit it to your criteria (in Notepad; save as filename.xml). (filetype *.txt)

• Make sure it links to your content.

• Save it on your web server.• Perform maintenance as

needed.

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To view this presentation again on the Web, go to:

http://www.ccsu.edu/library/tomaiuolon/nickcla5.htm