Week 5: RSS

Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, students will:

• understand the theory behind using RSS to syndicate content on a web page
• be familiar with some of the ways in which RSS can be used in
  information work, including current awareness, feeds for searches, etc.

Readings

• Rich Site Services: Web Feeds for Extended Information and Library Services, Gerry McKiernan
• Weblogs and RSS in information work, Ian Winship
• Success Story: RSS Moves into the Mainstream at the University of Alberta Libraries, Randy Reichardt
• Bloglines, Flickr, and del.icio.us make RSS delectable, Philip J Hollenback

Case studies

Things to do this week:

• Read the articles and explore the case studies for this week and post your thoughts & comments to your blog. There aren't a whole lot of case studies this week, just some links to vendor supplied RSS feeds (to give you a sense of what's happening in the area of RSS & databases). Don't forget our weekly deadline for blogging is 9 am, Friday. Remember to check out your classmates' posts too and respond (where appropriate) in the comments.
• Last week, we spent most of our time looking at RSS as a tool to "send" information and updates from a website to an individual user. However, one of the things that makes RSS so powerful is the ability to syndicate the content of a feed on a Web site. One tool that helps you do this is Feed2JS. Feed2JS takes RSS feeds and makes them publishable on a website. Spend some time playing with Feed2JS and think about the possible implications of being able to syndicate RSS feeds on a library website. Post your thoughts to your blog.
• Continue tagging pertinent content in del.icio.us using the "lis9763" tag.