1. Defining Blogs & RSS Feeds

2. What is a blog?  A web log  Definition by Darlene Fichter….a blog is a “web page containing brief entries arranged chronologically.”  Frequency, brevity, personality

3. Why would you create a blog? Blogging technology is easy to use and inexpensive. It is a great way to distribute information that changes on a regular basis.

4. Why would you create a blog for your library? You could create a library blog to:  Share information (think new books, new electronic resources, password changes)  Recommend Internet sites  Market library services  Share tips and tricks

5. Why would you create a blog for your library?  Get beyond the stereotype of blogs as being personal, online journals.  Blogs reduced to their bare bones are simply web pages with short entries in reverse chronological order that can be categorized by subject.  Great way to distribute information that changes on a regular basis

6. What is RSS?  RSS is an XML format for syndication of current web content  Rich site summary or really simple syndication. Really simple syndication is probably the most agreed upon choice for this acronym.  Think of it as a distributable “What’s New” for a website, think headlines, updates, new postings

7. What is RSS?  RSS allows users to receive notification of current content without having to visit the web sites of interest to determine if they have been updated  Allows you to keep track of a large number of websites in a short period of time

8. What is RSS?  RSS originally became popular with the increased use of blogs  Blogs generate RSS feeds. Automatic feed creation is a feature of most blogging software

9. How do I read RSS feeds?  Two primary categories of feed reading applications: installable desktop programs and online services  These services are called aggregators  Popular desktop programs are FeedDemon and NetNewswire  The most popular online service is Bloglines

10. RSS aggregators List of RSS feeds that you subscribe to Content of selected feed Bloglines notifier

11. RSS aggregators  MyFeedster, DailyRotation, Newsgator, Newscrawler and MyYahoo! are other popular services  You need an email address to register and login

12. Adding RSS feeds  Add subscriptions by adding URLs  Click on the orange box and copy URL from top of XML file

13. What is the difference between blogs and RSS?  Delivery difference  Content difference  Reader-tool difference Blogs offer RSS feeds RSS and email are content delivery channels. Blogs are an internet media content format

14. Bloglines for email discussion lists  Bloglines email subscriptions  You can create an unlimited number of special Bloglines email addresses that are tied to your Bloglines account. The email addresses show up as subscriptions in your My Blogs page, and email sent to those email addresses appears as new items.My Blogs

15. Using RSS feeds and Bloglines email subscriptions instead of email alerts  Reduction of spam  Easy viewing  No need for Out of Office  Reduce Inbox clutter  No rejection by servers

16. Getting started with RSS & blogs  Cindy Chick’s RSS Tutorial

17. Some blogs that I subscribe to the RSS feeds for  Canadian Privacy Law Blog  Michael Geist’s Privacy Law  Tara Calishain’s Research Buzz  Cindy Chick’s LawLib Tech Blog  Steve Matthews’ Vancouver Law Librarian Blog  Connie Crosby’s Law Library Blog  SLAW  Google Weblog  Gary Price’s Resource Shelf  Search Engine Watch Blog

18. RSS feeds that I subscribe to that aren’t blogs  Genie Tyburski’s The Virtual Chase  Sabrina Pacifici’s beSpacific  CBC News  Law.com newswire  Globe & Mail business headlines

19. Getting started with blogs & RSS Cindy Chick’s RSS Tutorial available at her blog at http://www.lawlibtech.com/http://www.lawlibtech.com/  Part One: What is RSS? http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000314.htmlhttp://lawlibtech.com/archives/000314.html  Part Two: Getting started with RSS aggregators http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000319.html http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000319.html  Part Three: Using Bloglines http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000324.htmlhttp://lawlibtech.com/archives/000324.html  Part Four: News, news and more news http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000338.html http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000338.html Definition of blog from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog Some Blogs and RSS Feeds that you might like to subscribe to:  beSpacific http://www.bespacific.comhttp://www.bespacific.com  Connie Crosby http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/  Law Lib Techhttp://www.lawlibtech.com/http://www.lawlibtech.com/  TVC Alerthttp://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/index.htmlhttp://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/index.html  Vancouver Law Librarian Blog http://vancouverlawlib.blogspot.com/http://vancouverlawlib.blogspot.com/  Resource Shelfhttp://www.resourceshelf.com/http://www.resourceshelf.com/  Canadian Privacy Law Bloghttp://www.privacylawyer.ca/blog/http://www.privacylawyer.ca/blog/  Search Engine Watch Bloghttp://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/  SLAWhttp://www.slaw.ca/http://www.slaw.ca/  Research Buzzhttp://www.researchbuzz.org/http://www.researchbuzz.org/  Google Webloghttp://google.blogspace.com/http://google.blogspace.com/

20. Articles  Chris Sherman, “What is RSS and Why Should You Care” http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/35309 26 http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/35309 26  Chris Sherman, “Choosing a RSS Reader” http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/35314 86 http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/35314 86  Darlene Fichter, Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services http://www.infotoday.com/mls/nov03/fichter.shtml http://www.infotoday.com/mls/nov03/fichter.shtml  Darlene Fichter, Blogging Explosion: Libraries and Weblogs http://library.usask.ca/~fichter/talks03/il/2003.10.28.bl ogging.pps) http://library.usask.ca/~fichter/talks03/il/2003.10.28.bl ogging.pps