#8 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? Well don’t worry, according to a recent survey you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionizing 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

• Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds – a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
• RSS Feeds: Getting Started – This online tutorial (created by the Nashville Public Library) walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add RSS feeds.
• 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).

For another explanation of how RSS works, check out RSS in Plain English, from the fine folks over at Common Craft.

Click To Play

Discovery Exercise

• Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
• 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.
• LPLS Learning participant blog feeds - Subscribe to several of your co-workers' feeds. Pick the blog you’re interested in, copy the blog’s URL, and paste it into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!
  
• Then try adding a few other types of feeds from news sites and other sources. Here’s a few to help you get started:
• The Learning 2.0 blog feed
  
• LPLS Bookletters feeds
  
• Reader’s Club new review feeds (offered by PLCMC)
• Unshelved - Library cartoon feed
• The Daily News Journal news & sports feeds
  
• Create a post in your blog about this exercise. Optional: If you're up to the challenge, you can provide the URL address to your public Bloglines account (more information about this below).
  Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:
  
  • 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?

How to create and find your public Bloglines URL:

1. In Bloglines, first you need to click on the Account link in the upper right and then click on Blog Settings (see screenshot). You will need to select a username, then select “Yes, publish my Blogroll.”
2. Under Additional Features in the menu on the left (way down at the bottom of the list), click on Share (see screenshot).
3. Scroll down the right screen pane and locate the public URL (see screenshot).
4. Be sure to include this link as part of your post to demonstrate your completion of this activity.
   
   
5. You’ll need to be sure to validate your email address, or your blogroll may not show as public.

For example, here is the link to my public Bloglines account: http://www.bloglines.com/public/jeriannet.

Discover More
Why have a public bloglines account? To share blogrolls with others, of course. That's how the LPLS Learning participants list is updated; it's powered through a public blogroll.

There are instructions on the Share page (see instructions above on where to find it on the Bloglines site) for how to create a blogroll. Once you create a blogroll, you can incorporate it into your blog, either within a post or as a page element (in the space along the left or right side of your blog). The blogroll will automatically update your feed list whenever you add or remove entries at Bloglines.

Here are some additional resources about RSS Feeds:

• CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.
• Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video that Helene Blowers (of PLCMC) created showing how to add feeds.
• Additional Bloglines news feed subcription information (screenshot image).

One last note: There are other ways to read RSS feeds besides Bloglines. Another popular choice is GoogleReader. If you use Firefox or Internet Explorer 7, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds within your Internet browser.