13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond RSS Basics and Beyond Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content Ken Varnum Web Systems Manager University of Michigan Libraries

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Quick Questionnaire Who has heard of RSS? Who reads RSS feeds? Who creates RSS feeds?

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond RSS Working Definition RSS is a combination of: 1.Data Format RSS (0.93, 1.0, 2.0…) RDF Atom 2.Data Interchange Syndication

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Really Simple Syndication Syndication is key element It enables you -- your library -- to make your content available to anyone to use. News Events Book lists Study guides Etc. It puts you on par with the AP or Reuters

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond RSS is Everywhere

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Where Does RSS Come From? Automatically Generated Weblog software (Movable Type, TypePad, Bloglines, Wordpress, etc.) Content management systems (i.e., Wikis) Using Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc. Create feeds from database searches By Hand If you know HTML you can learn RSS

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Finding Feeds Look for icons on page Look for icons in browser location bar If you can find the link, you can use the content. Some conditions apply. See copyright holder for details.

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Consuming RSS All tools have common traits Access RSS Feeds Track what a user has already read Reproduce feed content Link to original source

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Consuming RSS: Readers PC-Based -- tied to a particular computer Special Applications FeedDemon FeedReader NetNewsWire Web Browsers Safari IE7 Firefox

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Consuming RSS: Aggregators Web-based Access anywhere Examples Yahoo! Bloglines Google Reader Even read off-line

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Consuming RSS: Integration RSS is just a stream of information Easy to integrate into a web page Many tools have ‘hooks’ to hang RSS on: Weblog software Content magement Wiki software, etc., etc., etc. But if you’re using good ol’ HTML Feed2JS RSS2HTML

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond It’s This Easy Go to Click “Build” Paste in a feed URL ( Click “Generate JavaScript” Copy 4 lines of HTML onto the page you want it to appear

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Demonstration

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond It’s Wednesday Afternoon. Do You Know Where Your Feeds Are? ??? Photo: Chris Moore (

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond What Libraries are Doing Outward-facing Information for patrons Information for community Information for selves

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Create “Live” Subject Guides del.icio.us lets you ‘tag’ web sites Create an account for your library Librarians (or patrons!) tag web pages that make sense History Events People As librarians find web sites that are interesting and fit a subject guide, tag them

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Subscribe to RSS Feed Every del.icio.us tag has an RSS Feed Example: Put it in a ‘what’s new’ section on a subject guide -- with Feed2JS or other

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond del.icio.us result

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond New Book Lists Many OPACs can provide RSS feeds New books Items on hold Catalog searches If your OPAC does not Do it yourself Talk to your vendor!

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Cambridge (Ontario)

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Books Checked Out Your OPAC might do this on its own But probably not Try LibraryElf 3rd party service Works with some, but not all, vendors Patron sets up, not you Requires borrower info & potential privacy concerns -- but at patron discretion No library intervention needed

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond LibraryElf

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Ohio Patrons Are There Akron-Summit County Public Library Ashtabula County District Library Bristol Public Library Champaign County Library Clark County Public Library Clermont County Public Library Columbus Metropolitan Library Community Library Cuyahoga County Public Library Dayton Metro Library Delaware County District Library Franklin-Springboro Public Library Geauga County Public Library Girard Public Library Grand Valley Library Grandview Heights Public Library Greene County Public Library Harbor-Topky Memorial Library Henderson Memorial Library Hubbard Public Library Kingsville Public Library Kinsman Free Public Library Lane Public Library Lorain Public Library System Mansfield/Richland County Public Library Mary L Cook Public Library McKinley Memorial Library Mentor Public Library New Carlisle Public Library Newton Falls Public Library Portage County District Library Preble County District Library Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County Rock Creek Public Library Tipp City Public Library Twinsburg Public Library Upper Arlington Public Library Washington-Centerville Public Library Way Public Library Westerville Public Library Westlake Porter Public Library Worch Memorial Public Library Wright Memorial Public Library

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Monitoring the Web How do you know when a web page changes? New journal issue? New report from the county board? Monitoring tools check sites for you Google Alerts watches topics Page2RSS watches pages

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Page2RSS Enter any web page URL RSS feed is updated as the page changes Page2RSS for the Library 2.0 links page Or simply

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Page2RSS

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Roll Your Own RSS Several ways to get an RSS feed Write one by hand Set up a (free) blog Write a script yourself (if you have a Perl/PHP/Ruby person) Use a service like FeedXS

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond FeedXs Create a feed Add items to it Put them here, there, or everywhere

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond FeedXs Demo

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Beyond the Basics Mostly talked about existing services that you can leverage Now turn to some more advanced topics Search = Feed Using RSS to get to your patrons where they “live”

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Database Searching Academic example: Faculty Publications Homegrown database to collect info You may have similar things you track

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Feed = Live Data Every search has an RSS feed User’s reader tracks what’s new RSS puts content on other web pages via Feed2JS

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Knox County (Tennessee)

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Other Ways to Use RSS RSS can put library materials in user’s lives In academic library, course reserve lists Course pages Anywhere else

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond In a Public Library Book lists for local organizations’ web sites Resource lists (from catalog or other) for predictable school projects Library news for local paper’s web site

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Final Thoughts RSS means simplicity of sharing content Simple to create, simple to use Great tool for putting your library “out there” where your patrons are Flexible Very low barrier to creation or consumption

13 June 2007RSS Basics and Beyond Thank You Contact Me PowerPoint Slides Weblog on RSS in Libraries