Company

LOGOBlogs & RSS: Saving Time Through Aggregation

Michael Sauers, Librarian, Trainer & Writer

NV DAWG :: 06 May 2005

What is a blog?

• A blog, short for weblog (pronounced “we blog”) is an online journal in which the postings are presented in reverse-chronological order.

• Typically blogs contain links to other online resources with additional commentary from the blog’s author.

Why should your department have a blog?

• They’re an easy way to provide information about what’s happening in your department/division.

• Little to no (X)HTML experience necessary.

• Combined with RSS feeds it’s another way for users to receive timely information about what you’re doing.

How do I create a blog?

• There are several services and software packages out there that make creating a blog easy. The two most popular are:

– MoveableType (client)http://www.movabletype.org/

– Blogger (Web service)http://www.blogger.com/

Blogger

What is RSS?

• Depending on who you ask it stands for either “Really Simple Syndication”, “Rich Site Summary”, or “RDF Site Summary”.

• RSS is an XML language for syndicating news items on the Internet.

How does RSS work?

• The author creates an RSS file.

• Users subscribe to the file via an aggregator.

• When the author updates the RSS file, the user is automatically notified of the new items and may read them on their schedule.

Are there different versions of RSS?

• Yes. In fact, there are currently nine different versions:RSS 0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 & Atom Feeds

• Each has different features from the author’s point of view.

• Today’s aggregators support all of the versions transparently.

What does RSS look like?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title>BCR: The Third Indicator</title> <link>http://www.bcr.org/publications/thirdind/</link> <description>The Third Indicator, published monthly, is a technical memo focusing on

OCLC products and services. It includes general OCLC news as well as detailed technical information on cataloging, reference and resource sharing. Announcements of new OCLC developments are also included.</description>

<lastBuildDate>Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21:37:39 GMT</lastBuildDate> <generator>ListGarden Program 1.01</generator> <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs> <item> <title>WorldCat Resource Sharing Training</title><link>http://www.bcr.org/publications/thirdind/2004/august/augsharetrain04.html</link> <description>If you'd like to see what WorldCat Resource Sharing looks like and learn

more about it, visit the OCLC Web site at www.oclc.org/ill/migration/ or view the WorldCat Resource Sharing tutorial at www5.oclc.org/downloads/tutorials/firstsearch/sv/rsbasics/intro/index.html/.</description>

<pubDate>Tue, 21 Sep 2004 19:29:47 GMT</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">thirdind-2004-08-21-19-29-47</guid> </item> </channel></rss>

What is an aggregator?

• “A news aggregator is a software or a remotely hosted service that periodically reads a set of news sources, in one of several XML-based formats, finds the new bits, and displays them in reverse-chronological order on a single page.”— Wikipedia

• It’s what you need to read RSS feeds.

What are the different types of aggregators?

• Standalone Clients– FeedReader, Radio UserLand

• PIM add-ins– Pluck, NewsGator, intraVnews

• Browser add-ins– Firefox 1.0PR, Sage

• Web-based– Bloglines, NewsIsFree

• A list is available @http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rss.html

FeedReader

Pluck

Firefox 1.0

Bloglines

How can I find feeds?

• Feedster

• Bloglines

• BlogrollsA list of blogs/feeds read by another blogger

How do I subscribe to a feed?

• Look for an orange icon:

• Depending on your aggregator, the subscription procedure may range from copying and pasting the link to right-clicking and selecting “subscribe”.

How do I create a feed?

• Hand-rolledYou type the markup and the content

• Semi-automatedYou type the content, software generates the markup. (ListGarden)

• Fully-automatedYou put the content in your blog and software generates a feed based on that content. (RSSify @ LISFeeds.com)

ListGarden

Blogger

The Blog/RSS Cycle

BlogPost

FeedItem

AggregatorFetch

UserSubscribes

UserReads

The Blog/RSS

Cycle

Notable government blogs, feeds & resources

• RSS in Government :: www.rssgov.com

• GovTrack.us :: www.govtrack.us

• Missouri Agency News :: www.missouri.gov/mo/morenews.htm

• Santa Clara Valley Water District :: www.valleywater.org/Water/Water_Quality/Protecting_your_water/_Perchlorate_Information/_Perchlorate%20pages/Perchlorate_in_the_News.cfm

• National Institutes of Health: News & Events :: www.nih.gov/news/

RSS Services

• (X)HTML Validatorwww.benhammersley.com/tools/xhtml_validator_to_rss.html

• Package Trackingwww.bloglines.com

• The Annotated NY Timeshttp://nytimes.blogrunner.com/annotated/nytimes.com/dir/TOPICS-RSS.html

• del.icio.usdel.icio.us

• LibraryElfwww.libraryelf.com