RSS Basics and Beyond Tips and Tricks for

RSS Basics and Beyond Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content Ken Varnum Web Systems Manager University of Michigan Libraries varnum@umich. edu 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 1

Quick Questionnaire Who has heard of RSS? Who reads RSS feeds? Who creates RSS feeds? 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 2

RSS Working Definition RSS is a combination of: 1. Data Format • RSS (0. 93, 1. 0, 2. 0…) • RDF • Atom 2. Data Interchange • Syndication 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 3

Really Simple Syndication is key element It enables you -- your library -- to make your content available to anyone to use. • • • News Events Book lists Study guides Etc. It puts you on par with the AP or Reuters 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 4

RSS is Everywhere 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 5

Where Does RSS Come From? Automatically Generated • Weblog software (Movable Type, Type. Pad, Bloglines, Wordpress, etc. ) • Content management systems (i. e. , Wikis) Using Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc. Create feeds from database searches By Hand If you know HTML you can learn RSS 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 6

Finding Feeds Look for icons on page Look for icons in browser location bar If you can find the link, you can use the content. Some conditions apply. See copyright holder for details. 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 7

Consuming RSS All tools have common traits • • Access RSS Feeds Track what a user has already read Reproduce feed content Link to original source 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 8

Consuming RSS: Readers PC-Based -- tied to a particular computer Special Applications • Feed. Demon • Feed. Reader • Net. News. Wire Web Browsers • Safari • IE 7 • Firefox 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 9

Consuming RSS: Aggregators Web-based Access anywhere Examples • Yahoo! • Bloglines • Google Reader Even read off-line 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 10

Consuming RSS: Integration RSS is just a stream of information Easy to integrate into a web page Many tools have ‘hooks’ to hang RSS on: • Weblog software • Content magement • Wiki software, etc. But if you’re using good ol’ HTML • Feed 2 JS • RSS 2 HTML 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 11

It’s This Easy Go to http: //feed 2 js. org Click “Build” Paste in a feed URL (www. loc. gov/rss/pao/news. xml) Click “Generate Java. Script” Copy 4 lines of HTML onto the page you want it to appear 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 12

Demonstration 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 13

It’s Wednesday Afternoon. Do You Know Where Your Feeds Are? ? ? ? 13 June 2007 Photo: Chris Moore (http: //www. flickr. com/people/ckwmoore/) RSS Basics and Beyond 18

What Libraries are Doing Outward-facing Information for patrons Information for community Information for selves 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 19

Create “Live” Subject Guides del. icio. us lets you ‘tag’ web sites Create an account for your library Librarians (or patrons!) tag web pages that make sense • History • Events • People As librarians find web sites that are interesting and fit a subject guide, tag them 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 20

Subscribe to RSS Feed Every del. icio. us tag has an RSS Feed Example: http: //del. icio. us/rss/City. Public_History Put it in a ‘what’s new’ section on a subject guide -- with Feed 2 JS or other 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 21

del. icio. us result 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 22

New Book Lists Many OPACs can provide RSS feeds • New books • Items on hold • Catalog searches If your OPAC does not • Do it yourself • Talk to your vendor! 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 23

Cambridge (Ontario) 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 24

Books Checked Out Your OPAC might do this on its own But probably not Try Library. Elf • • 3 rd party service Works with some, but not all, vendors Patron sets up, not you Requires borrower info & potential privacy concerns -- but at patron discretion • No library intervention needed 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 25

Library. Elf 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 26

Ohio Patrons Are There Akron-Summit County Public Library Ashtabula County District Library Bristol Public Library Champaign County Library Clark County Public Library Clermont County Public Library Columbus Metropolitan Library Community Library Cuyahoga County Public Library Dayton Metro Library Delaware County District Library Franklin-Springboro Public Library Geauga County Public Library Girard Public Library Grand Valley Library Grandview Heights Public Library Greene County Public Library Harbor-Topky Memorial Library Henderson Memorial Library Hubbard Public Library Kingsville Public Library Kinsman Free Public Library 13 June 2007 Lane Public Library Lorain Public Library System Mansfield/Richland County Public Library Mary L Cook Public Library Mc. Kinley Memorial Library Mentor Public Library New Carlisle Public Library Newton Falls Public Library Portage County District Library Preble County District Library Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County Rock Creek Public Library Tipp City Public Library Twinsburg Public Library Upper Arlington Public Library Washington-Centerville Public Library Way Public Library Westerville Public Library Westlake Porter Public Library Worch Memorial Public Library Wright Memorial Public Library RSS Basics and Beyond 27

Monitoring the Web How do you know when a web page changes? • New journal issue? • New report from the county board? Monitoring tools check sites for you • Google Alerts watches topics • Page 2 RSS watches pages 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 28

Page 2 RSS Enter any web page URL RSS feed is updated as the page changes Page 2 RSS for the Library 2. 0 links page http: //page 2 rss. com/page/rss? url=library. osu. edu/sites/Seminar 2 -0/links. php Or simply http: //tinyurl. com/ysx 4 kd 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 29

Page 2 RSS 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 30

Roll Your Own RSS Several ways to get an RSS feed • Write one by hand • Set up a (free) blog • Write a script yourself (if you have a Perl/PHP/Ruby person) • Use a service like Feed. XS 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 31

Feed. Xs http: //www. feedxs. com/ Create a feed Add items to it Put them here, there, or everywhere http: //kenvarnum. feedxs. com/Library 20. rss 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 32

Feed. Xs Demo 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 33

Beyond the Basics Mostly talked about existing services that you can leverage Now turn to some more advanced topics • Search = Feed • Using RSS to get to your patrons where they “live” 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 34

Database Searching Academic example: Faculty Publications Homegrown database to collect info You may have similar things you track 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 35

13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 36

Feed = Live Data Every search has an RSS feed User’s reader tracks what’s new RSS puts content on other web pages via Feed 2 JS 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 37

Knox County (Tennessee) 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 38

Other Ways to Use RSS can put library materials in user’s lives In academic library, course reserve lists • Course pages • Anywhere else 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 39

In a Public Library Book lists for local organizations’ web sites Resource lists (from catalog or other) for predictable school projects Library news for local paper’s web site 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 40

Final Thoughts RSS means simplicity of sharing content Simple to create, simple to use Great tool for putting your library “out there” where your patrons are Flexible Very low barrier to creation or consumption 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 41

Thank You Contact Me varnum@umich. edu Power. Point Slides http: //varnum. org/papers/basics-and-beyond. ppt Weblog on RSS in Libraries http: //www. rss 4 lib. com/ 13 June 2007 RSS Basics and Beyond 42