Blogs and RSS Feeds Course

1
Blogs and RSS Feeds Course

• 21 June 2007
• London Health Libraries

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Objectives

• Learnt how to set up a blog and create an RSS
  feed
• Be able to subscribe to RSS feeds and generate
  them from search resources
• Be aware of the different RSS readers and
  aggregators

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Blogs/ Weblogs

• An electronic journal/diary organised by date
  where you can add information easily
• Blogs tends to be a single webpage containing
  text and images, and increasingly now audio and
  video content
• Netscape What News is thought to be the first
  example of a weblog, and the word itself was
  coined by Jorn Barger, the owner of the Robot
  Wisdom weblog (http//www.robotwisdom.com/)
• Blog is short for weblog. A Blogger is the person
  producing the blog. Blogging is when you create
  the blog by posting an entry
• American librarian, Jenny Levine, began the first
  library blog in 1995. It was called
  Librarians Site Du Jour and she reviewed
  reference websites

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Examples of Blogs in Libraries

• Royal Free Hospital Library Blog
• http//rfhlibrary.blogspot.com
• Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Library
  Services
• http//sathlibraries.blogspot.com
• John Gale, Bethlem Library - Mental Health Update
  Blog
• http//mentalhealthupdate.blogspot.com/
• Fade the Blog Health News from North West,
  including podcast
• http//www.fadetheblog2.blogspot.com/
• Chemistry Info _at_ Imperial College Library London
• http//libinfo.wordpress.com/
• Cambridge University Library Medical Library
• http//cambridgemedicallibrary.blogspot.com/
• DrugData Update

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Blogging SoftwareWeb-based

• Web-based Free Blogging Software
• Blogger - www.blogger.com (text editor,
  customisation, rss feed available)
• Bloglines - www.bloglines.com (rss feed
  available)
• LiveJournal - www.livejournal.com (customisation,
  rss feed)
• WordPress - http//wordpress.com/ (needs email
  activation, customisation, rss available)
• Xanga - www.xanga.com (text editor,
  customisation, subscription service available)
• Also
• MS Windows Live Spaces - www.spaces.live.com
• Yahoo 360 www.360.yahoo.com

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National Library for HealthLibrary News Alert
The Health and Libraries Information Services
Directory have launched a blog and RSS tool.
Further information can be found in Mays NLH
Newsletter. http//nlhcms.library.nhs.uk/nlhdocs/N
ewsletter_May_2007.pdf
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Blogger.comwww.blogger.com

• Create a Google account on blogger.com
• Create a blog on blogger.com for your library,
  applying a template design
• Post some entries
• Latest journal issues
• New book stock
• Advertising a library closure
• Promote a training event
• Apply some advanced features, such as adding a
  blog archive

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RSS feeds what are they?

• Provides updates on new web content such as news
  headlines, blog entries, eTOCs. Also new audio
  content and images can be embedded in a RSS feed,
  eg podcasts
• Need an RSS reader or aggregator to read them
• Written in XML format and are open source
• Several versions, including Really Simple
  Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary
  and ATOM

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Why use RSS feeds?

• Save time, as only need to access one RSS reader
  or aggregator
• Unclutter your email inbox from email alerts
• Disseminate information about your library
• Create RSS feeds on specific topics

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Health Care Libraries NewsfeedOxford University
Librarieshttp//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/hcl
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Subscribing to an RSS feed

• The following icon means that a RSS feed is
  available on a website

For example, on the BBC Health News website
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To subscribe to a RSS feed

• Click on the orange icon and following webpage
  appears

There are several ways to subscribe to the RSS
feed. For example cut and paste the RSS URL into
your reader/aggregator
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RSS Readers/ Aggregators

• RSS Feeds can be read in
• Web-based aggregators need a username and
  password, but can be read on any PC
• Desk-top readers software installed on PC and
  feeds download when connected to the internet
• Web browser feeds can be read in a web browser
• Personalised start pages

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Web-based Aggregators

• Bloglines
• (www.bloglines.com)
• NewsGator
• (www.newsgator.com)

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Google Reader(www.google.com/reader)
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Desktop Readers

• FeedReader
• (www.feedreader.com)

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Web Browsers

• Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 will store and
  display RSS feeds

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Personalised Page Starters
www.pageflakes.com
www.netvibes.com
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Also National Library for HealthMyLibrary(http/
/www.library.nhs.uk/mylibrary/)

• NLH My Library displays RSS feeds and can
• be accessed using Athens username and password

• Can also send My Update to email address

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RSS Feeds

• BBC News, including podcasts. Can subscribe to
  topics, eg Health News, Technology News
• Online newspapers, including podcasts. Eg The
  Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph
• BMJ Current issue, recent issues, online first
• eTOCs from journals suppliers Blackwells,
  Emerald
• Podcasts The Lancet, NEJM, New Scientist,
  Nature
• National Library for Health, including Document
  of the Week, Hitting the Headlines, Whats New
• NICE Guidelines

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Generating RSS Feeds

• It is possible to generate RSS feeds on specific
  topics, using
• News
• Google News (http//news.google.com/)
• Yahoo News (http//uk.yahoo.com/)
• Blogs
• Ask (http//www.ask.com)
• Sphere (http//www.sphere.com/)
• Feedster (http//www.feedster.com/)
• Technorati (http//technorati.com/)
• Medical
• PubMed
• MedWorm (http//www.medworm.com)
• Dialog Datastar Searches

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Mixing and Filtering RSS feeds

• Mixing RSS feeds from a several sources.
  Services from Yahoo Pipes, My Syndicaat and
  Feedblendr can do this
• Filtering RSS feeds means you can remove
  duplicate entries and block such fields as
  keywords. Feedrinse provides this service

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Use RSS Feed from Blog Example Blogger.com

• Set up blog post entries
• Subscribe to blog through RSS Reader

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RSS Feeds

• Use Google username and password to open Google
  Reader
• Subscribe to some BBC feeds from their website
• Set up a PubMed RSS feed on a specific topic
• Create a Dialog Datastar search feed
• Try a Google News/Yahoo News RSS feed