By popular demand, this is a short introduction to RSS, a tool for tracking headlines and new content on Web sites. This tutorial uses Bloglines, a free, Web-based RSS aggregator (reader).
RSS is a bit baffling at first. Once you step in, though, you’ll have an immediate “ah hah.” These directions were written to get you from baffled to “ah hah” in less than fifteen minutes.
RSS Tutorial
In this brief tutorial, following a brief explanation of RSS, you’ll get signed up to the feed (the headlines for new entries) for Resource Shelf, Gary Price’s invaluable site for staying up to date on a wide variety of Internet resources. (You can always unsubscribe to it later, in seconds, if it’s not your cup of tea.) Then learn about several related tools for using RSS, including several good finding aids for locating other feeds.
What the Heck is RSS?
I love RSS (the acronym means various things, but my favorite definition is “Really Simple Syndication”). Using this new Internet headline service, I can track all kinds of news provided by new and familiar sources, from Dilbert to the New York Times, without filling up my e-mail box or tying a string around my finger to check various Web sites. The news comes to me as headlines and brief abstracts (with one-click access to the entire article) through my RSS reader (aggregator).
I. Using an Aggregator for the First Time
1. Go to www.bloglines.com and set up a (free) account
2. Now you need an RSS feed to add to Bloglines. Bloglines will suggest a few. I unsubscribed to most of those and looked for my own. There are various RSS finding aids, but let’s just focus on Resource Shelf for now, unless you have a few more that interest you.
If you look at Gary’s site, http://www.resourceshelf.com/, you will see an orange button on the lower left-hand side that says “XML.” That’s a link to a funny-looking file:
http://www.resourceshelf.com/resourceshelf.xml
That’s the address to the RSS feed. This is the address you will use in step 3 to add to Bloglines.
3. Now let’s add this feed to Bloglines.
Inside Bloglines, go to:
Manage Subscriptions
Follow this link, and where it says:
URL:
Paste
http://www.resourceshelf.com/resourceshelf.xml
(the entire URL, including the “resource.xml” part)
Then click the “Subscribe” button.
(For right now, don’t worry about OPL or Folder. You can learn about those later.)
4. Read the Feed
Now you can read headlines and summaries from the blogs you are subscribed to. (Some blogs supply you with the full text of their entries, and some blogs, such as Dilbert, provide images, as well.)
You should now be at the main reading window for Bloglines. Resource Shelf will be on the left, in the subscription pane. Click on the title (it is probably bolded). The summaries of the feeds display on the right.
II. Tools for Finding Blogs and Feeds
Want to try other aggregators? To start with, try Newzcrawler and Amphetadesk. Most aggregators are clients (software you install on your computer); some, like Bloglines, are Web-based tools.
To Find More Feeds…
Random good luck: sites will often advertise their RSS feed with a link labeled “Syndicate” or a small rectangular orange icon that says “XML.”
Use LISFeeds.com to find library-related feeds.
Med librarians, take note: pmbrowser.info provdes RSS feeds for PubMed.
Places to find more feeds include:
Newzcrawler
Newsisfree
Syndic8
Blogstreet
Feedster
Feedroll.com
www.2rss.com
Moreover
You can use Bloglines, Daypop, and Moreover to create custom search feeds (and this capability is showing up all over).
Bon appetit!
Posted on this day, other years:
- Jet lag? Me? And an event not to miss - 2008
- Speaking of Speaking - 2006
- Arrrr, Me Beauty! - 2005
- Google Scholar - 2004
11 Comments
Unfortunately my ISP is not set up to send a trackback, but here is an entry at commons-blog referencing this post:
http://www.info-commons.org/blog/archives/000289.html
And another more generally on Free Range Librarian:
http://www.info-commons.org/blog/archives/000288.html
Interesting!
I’m still partially baffled. But now at least I have an RSS reader to be baffled by (in fact, three of them).
Thanks for the step-by-step instructions.
Your easy step-by-step guide is clear and concise — we are pointing to it from our library’s web site to explain our RSS feed. Great job!
Great spot! thanks! I think I’m set up at bloglines.
Why would I want to use more than one aggregator?
Are there benefits to using client based aggregators versus web based?
Seems to be, that google changed their algo. bad serps for a few of seos.
greetings from germany
for anyone using an OSX machine, the little freeware app NetNewsWire Lite can get you up and running fairly quickly using only a small deviation from how Karen outlined it. The software is available here
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/
[scroll down for the free version or experiment with the shareware version for 30 days]. I’ve been using it and I like it a lot in terms of being a barebones reader that is very easy to use.
Karen:
I added a link to your 15-minute RSS to my own RSS/Aggregators tutorial page – similar to your own but I make more use of screenshots. My is also written more for faculty – my focus is getting them to use RSS and aggregators. It will also be added to the TLT Group’s Low-Threshold Applications Site in a few weeks – so it needs to be geared to a broader audience than librarians. It is available at http://staff.philau.edu/bells/rss.htm
Thanks.
No matter how hard I tried,
I could find no reason for people to create software and then give it out for free.
It costs hell of time to develop something, why not sell it?
There must be some reason.
Brian
Brian,
Altruism? Anti-monopolism? Fun?
-Ruth
RSS is very interesting, but can someone advice me how to go about adding a weblog on my own asp page? What technology I use to read an RSS feed (can I?), and how to display the content of the XML RSS feed?
Thanks
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