KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH RSS
We have never had such easy access to so much information as we have today via the Internet. Though technology has provided easy access to information, it also has developed tools for keeping up to date with the information influx and organising it to a manageable level.Revisiting RSS
We looked at RSS in week 3 (#7) of the 23Things programme. As part of the exercise you created a Bloglines account (the feed reader or aggregator) and subscribed to a few feeds. This was to demonstrate how convenient it is to read the latest news or updates of your favourite websites all in one place, saving you time and helping to keep you up to date.
You may have notice that some websites have a variety of feeds for subscription. Our North Shore Libraries website is an example. There are two feeds for this blog - the posts and the comments on the posts. It is especially noticeable with news websites, such as BBC where you can choose to follow only those sections which you are interested in.
Email newsletters are another way to keep up to date. Websites often have both email newsletters and RSS subscriptions to alert readers of the latest information and updates.
RSS and the library databases
Our eResources offer the latest information through journal articles and other information sources on a huge variety of topics. Many of the databases make alert services available to our patrons. These alerts are invaluable in helping you keep track of the latest information on your topic(s) of interest. These alerts may include:
- A search alert. Your saved searches are rerun to get the latest results and the results emailed to you. The saved search could also be rerun via a RSS feed.
- A table of contents (TOC) alert. (Look for these in the publications section in the database.) When a new issue of the journal you selected is published an alert will be sent to your feed reader with the TOC.
- It reruns the saved search automatically so you don't have to visit the databases as often.
- It delivers the information to your email or feed reader, so you can check all the latest information in one place - very convenient!
Look out for the alert services links in the databases such as these:
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When selecting the 'Set up alert' link for the above search this screen will open up:
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The 'Create a RSS feed' link opens up in this window:
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Some databases may require you to set up a profile page - look for the phrase 'My ...'. (Remember to record your profile detail.) You may need to log in through our library website to get access to the results sent via your feed or email alert.
See links under Further Reading for the various databases' step-by-step instructions to alert services they offer.
If the Comments section below is not open .... click on the link to find participants' comments which could be helpful for this topic.
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*** EXERCISES ***
*** FURTHER READING - optional ***
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This website "Seven Tips for Making the Most of Your RSS Reader" may be of interest to some of you.....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tips_for_making_the_most_of_rss.php#
Did anyone else have trouble with their feed from ProQuest not correctly adding to their Bloglines account? I copied + pasted the link, took out the text I needed to in the feed URL, and clicked 'subscribe'. It came up with the correct link, I scrolled down to subscribe and the page refreshed but no confirmation either way as it whether my feed was added or not. It took me three tries before it added. Anyone else have this problem? Because it has been awhile since I added a feed on Bloglines I thought all was ok this morning when I did the exercise, until I checked this afternoon and the feed wasn't there..
ReplyDeleteBloglines sometimes does that. Most of the time Bloglines works perfectly well, but sometimes it doesn't react as quickly as it usually does. I have found that when I go back a day or two later the feed is listed. Perhaps, just as a security measure, you could save the link in a document to use again in the few cases where subscription in Bloglines weren't successful. I have subscribed to a few searches and it is really convenient to have a look at the latest result without redoing the search every time.
ReplyDelete