RSS Feeds

This blog post is about the process involved in using RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The purpose of using RSS is to enable a person to have updated content from their favourite websites available in their browser through a reader. Or to put it more simply the content comes to you instead of you having to look for it. This is a great way for a user to keep track of updated content on multiple sites without it consuming a lot of time.

The two steps involved are 1. Signing up for a RSS Reader.
                                        2. Subscribing to feeds from websites.

As I already have a Feedly account I signed in using Gmail. I found searching for feeds, adding and sorting them into a category to be a simple matter of clicking a few links. The only problem I had was that with some settings the icon or box to type into was a bit hard to see. I had already created a group for Library Information. Today  I  added more feeds to it by searching the site using the terms libraries, user generated content, library technicians and variations thereof.

 I think there are two main ways a library tech (or one in training!) could use RSS. The first is to keep track of sites relating to their professional development (such as ALIA) or more general library knowledge and trends (such as IFLA or the Library of Congress). The second is to keep track of information specifically related to the type of  library they work in (such as the APLA site for those working in parliamentary libraries). An RSS feed could also be provided on a library's website as a service to it's clients.