Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

 

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? 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.

 

This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

 

Discovery Resources:

 

Check out this video from Common Craft on RSS in Plain English:

 

 

• Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative

• Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)

• Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video that shows how to add feeds.

• Additional Bloglines news feed subscription information (screenshot image)

 

 

Discovery Exercise:

 

1. Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.

2. Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and subscribe to at least 10 newsfeeds to your reader. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.

 

Newsfeeds:

  • MSL Library 2.0 blog - Subscribe to several of your fellow students' feeds. This is as easy as typing the blog URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!

 

Then try adding a few other types of news feeds from news sources. Here are just a few of the blogs that you might want to consider subscribing to:

 

3. Create a post in your blog about this exercise. 

 

Don't know what to blog about?  Here are some suggestions.

 

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?

 

 

Lesson 4a Flickr


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