Thing 2 - RSS Feeds

Added by Kendra K. Levine, last edited by Kendra K. Levine on Jun 12, 2009  (view change)

The 7 Things!

Thing 1 - Blogging
Thing 2 - RSS Feeds
Thing 3 - Photo Sharing
Thing 4 - Social Bookmarking
Thing 5 - Social Networking
Thing 6 - Wikis
Thing 7 - Working in the Cloud

SLA TRAN 7 Things
Web 2.0 Tools to Use

SLA TRAN 7 Things was inspired by Learning 2.0 from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County by Helene Blowers, which is licensed under Creative Commons. The Skokie Ten from the Skokie Public Library, and the SLA 23 Things.

Thing 2 - RSS Feeds


Photo courtesy of violinha

What does RSS mean and what is an RSS feed? Really Simple Syndication is an easy method to publish and broadcast information, such as news, pictures, and videos. Have you ever seen this icon on a website or in the address bar of your browser? That means there's an RSS feed on that site. For more information about what an RSS feed actually is, check out Wikipedia. Common Craft also has a nice explanation in plain English.

So why should you use RSS feeds? To save time and stay current. How many websites do you regularly check for news and information? How often are they updated? You know that blog you created for Thing 1? It has an RSS feed. If you have 10 different sites or blogs you need to regularly keep track of, it can be hard to keep up. This is where RSS and an RSS feed reader can help. An RSS feed reader can help organize different RSS feeds you subscribe to, so that you only have to visit one location to get information from many different sources. Some common RSS readers include Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes, and Page Flakes.

Thing 2 uses your Google account to sign up for Google Reader and subscribe to some RSS feeds.

  1. Check out this video tutorial on getting started with Google Reader.
  2. Go to http://reader.google.com and sign in with your Google account.
  3. It's time to add subscriptions! Click on "Add a Subscription" and enter the URL or address for the RSS feed you want to subscribe to.

    If you see the in your address bar, you can click on that to take you to a page where it will give you the option to subscribe to the feed with an aggregator, choose Google Reader.
  4. If you need some ideas for feeds to subscribe to, here are some that might be of interest to you:
    Welcome to the Fast Lane official blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
    RITA RSS Feeds from the Research and Innovative Technology Administration
    StreetsBlog
    LIS News for library news.
    Closed Stacks a fun library blog
  5. Once you've subscribed to some feeds, play around with Google reader and see how you can organize and share feeds.
  6. Blog about your experience on your blog! (Or comment here.)

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