RSS, Blogs & Resource Discovery HALL Meeting, 11 Jan 2006 Steven C. Perkins, J.D., M.L.L. Coordinator of Reference Services University of Houston Libraries

The Evolution of Web Pages  Before there was a World Wide Web there was Dr Ted Nelson and XANADU®,  The first browser, WorldWideWeb, created editable web pages,  Later web browsers did not allow you to interactively edit the web pages on the server.  Static web pages ruled the WWW until...

The Introduction of the Wiki  In 1995, Ward Cunningham established the first Wiki, at the Portland Pattern Repository, and interactive web page editing was back in the WWW,  29 Dec 1997 saw the first use of WebLog on the RobotWisdom website,  Originally hand-coded, blogs were quickly automated, and are now mostly maintained through a browser-based application

What is a Blog?  A Blog is a Web Log, an interactive web page that allows readers to post comments on the items posted to the blog.  See, for a detailed explanation.  Blogs can be used with RSS feeds to keep your readers notified of important information.  Many organizations use blogs to ensure that everyone receives information in a timely manner.

Questions to ask before starting a Blog  What are you using it for? Alerts Updates Discussion Who will manage How many editors Public or Private

Types of Blogs  Audio blogs, includes PodCasting,   Videoblogs,  Moblogs for mobile phones,  PhotoBlogs like Flickr,  Klogs, Dashlogs, and Linklogs can be used to point users to information sources

Blog Directories  Bloglines is a blog aggregator where you can search for blogs on the subject of your choice,  Law Professor Blogs links to legal blogs, “blawgs” by law professors,  Library weblogs can be found at

Some Law Blogs:  LLRX,  Legal Periodicals from W&L,  Law Library Technology,  BeSpacific,  Lawrence Lessig,  The Becker – Posner Blog, blog.com/archives/2005/08/the_ten_command.htmlhttp:// blog.com/archives/2005/08/the_ten_command.html

Problems with Blogs  Most blogs are abandoned after being started. LiveJournal has nearly 8 million blogs but only 3 million are actively maintained.  Open blogs can be subjected to comment spam.  Hosting a blog on your own server may be very troublesome.  Using an off-site host can also cause problems.  You could get sued. See, the EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers,

Problems (cont.):  Legal problems include Intellectual Property, Defamation, Privacy, Employment,  Legal protection is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, 47/usc_sec_47_ html 47/usc_sec_47_ html  Bloggers reporting the news and those reporting on public records have some protections beyond Sec. 230,

Who is Using Blogs in AALL?  The AALL Annual Meeting,  The CS-SIS,  Law Libraries, s&folderId= s&folderId=93662

BLOG Resources:  Blogging and RSSing the Librarian Way, SSingtheLibrarianWayTrends.ppt SSingtheLibrarianWayTrends.ppt  All About Blawgs, by Robert Ambrogi,  Blog Software Breakdown,  Blogger Tour,  Blogging: Reading and Creating Blogs, g_notes.pdf g_notes.pdf

Blog Software  Three of the main software tools used for blogging are: Blogger, TypePad, and Movable Type  Blogger is owned by Google,  Six Apart, owns TypePad, MovableType, and LiveJournal,  Radio UserLand is another widely used blogging tool,

RSS:  RSS has several meanings  There are different versions of RSS  Most Blogs have the capability of automatically generating RSS feeds

Who is Using RSS for Law?  The Federal and State Governments  Law Firms  AALL  Law Schools and Law Libraries  Individual Lawyers and Librarians  Everyone else you know h t t p : / / w w w. a a l l n e t. o r g / s i s / t s s i s / i n d e x. h t m

Federal and State governments:  FirstGov: braries/Podcast_RSS.shtml braries/Podcast_RSS.shtml  GPO: ex.htmlhttp:// ex.html  Utah State Courts, Appellatte Court Opinions,  Louisiana Supreme Court Opinions,

RSS and Law Firms  Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr  Clark Wilson LLP Clark Wilson LLP  Stark & Stark Stark & Stark

AALL:  AALL TS-SIS,

Law Schools and Law Libraries:  Washington & Lee Law Journals Feeds for tocs:  RSS at Harvard Law,

What an RSS feed looks like:  The Channel Title Goes Here The explanation of how the items are related goes here  The Title Goes Here The description goes here  Another Title Goes Here Another description goes here 

Creating RSS Feeds:  Code it by hand: write, save, validate, announce  Add it to a Blog page, supported by Blogger, Typepad, etc.

Serving an RSS feed:  Use your own RSS server, Slashcode and Slashalikes, /slashalikes.html /slashalikes.html  Use your Blog, most Blog software supports RSS feeds  Register your feed with a service, Feedburner, Technorati,

Validating an RSS Feed:  Userland validator,  Feed Validator for Atom and RSS Feeds,

Finding RSS Feeds:  RSS News Feeds for Law, ml ml  Bloglines,  Technorati,  My Yahoo and Google Homepage or Google Reader

Reading RSS Feeds:  Some web browsers can read RSS feeds: FireFox, Safari, Opera sage.moxdev.org/sage.moxdev.org/  Live Bookmarks,  Use Mozilla Thunderbird client,  Many people use separate RSS readers to manage their RSS feeds: FeedReader, and BlogLines  Google Reader reads RSS

More RSS Readers:  Jeremy Wagstaff's list, ory_of_.html ory_of_.html  Lockergnome list, cles/quickstart.phtml cles/quickstart.phtml

RSS Resources:  RSS for Content Publishers and Webmasters,  RSS Resources from MALL,  RSS Specifications, everything you need to know about RSS, specifications.htmhttp:// specifications.htm

Thanks for your attention and time  Steven C. Perkins, JD, MLL  Coordinator of Reference Services  University of Houston M.D. Anderson Library 