Using aggregated RSS feeds in The King’s Fund Information and Library Service Creating our pick of information technology and health news.

The need for an innovative way to share links to resources Range of IT-related resources scanned by Library staff, as part of role and personal development. Diverse subjects: search, web2, databases, open source, mobile technologies, etc. Willingness to share interesting links and news snippets amongst the team. Problems with some previously-tried methods: – information overload; untargetted; not an engaging format. blog – time-consuming; too involved. staff meetings - need for immediate link, access.

A new solution: design considerations Characteristics required, drawing on issues with other ineffective methods: web-based, so available from anywhere in a familiar interface; available in different formats to suit individual viewing preferences; using up-to-date content with immediate access; to be quick, easy and engaging to use; to incorporate selection element to reflect diverse interests, and to show only the most relevant items.

A new design: more technical issues RSS an ideal source format – news snippets; almost all relevant content available. Feed aggregator to pull all feeds into a single place (eg. standalone - Google Reader, Feedreader; browser – Firefox; – Outlook.) No money available for developing solution. Existing open source web structure and inhouse expertise available to devise and host solution. Found an aggregator which matched our platform and requirements: Gregarius, and added sources. (

Gregarius admin – adding feeds

Data flow using RSS aggregator RSS feeds »The Gregarius aggregator pulls in updates from a range of external sources, splits them into single items. Gregarius »A selection page lists all the new items in Gregarius and adds a rating box to them. Selection »Library staff go through the list and rate the items. These scores are sent to Gregarius. Gregarius »The highest-scoring current items are reformatted on the fly, as a web page and a RSS feed. Top 10 page

New items for rating by Library staff

Web page of highest-rated latest items (

Top rating items as an RSS feed (

Measuring success Feedback good, though difficult to measure increased awareness. Use within Information and Library Service > use within other departments > advertised to external audience. Aggregated feed model reapplied, e.g.: selection of health news from newspaper sources, ( current awareness using RSS journal tables of content.

Broader conclusions RSS fit for purpose, simple structure, easy to manipulate and reformat, resyndication. Availability of RSS feeds for relevant topical resources very high. (Where not can use something like tumblr - to share or syndicate an item.) Aggregator useful to handle and characterise, filter items rather than entire feeds. Integration of web2 concepts – rating, improves engagement, relevance. Use of “top 10” to highlight, give more appeal. Technical solutions but non-technical interface.