An RSS feed can be a valuable tool for a library as it allows users to subscribe to a selected feed. Feeds can be blog post, podcasts, vidcasts etc and can be on innumerable topics. For example
iLibrarian is a blog which can be subscribed to by RSS feed which provides “news and resources on Library 2.0 and the information revolution”.
Information wants to be free is another blog which is a librarian reflecting on the profession and on the tools used to service library patrons. Usually RSS feeds are subscribed to through a feed aggregator, for example
Bloglines (unfortunately this will not longer exist soon) or
Google Reader, which allows users to access all posts to the blogs they have subscribed to in one place rather than having to go to each individual website. An aggregator is also a good way to handle RSS feeds as it means new posts have held until the user is ready to view them instead of the user’s email inbox being ‘bombarded’ with new feed posts.
Libraries can utilise the ability to push information to users via RSS to communicate information such as:
- Information literacy programs
These feeds can be in the form of text, videos or audio thus catering for multiple access needs or wants and also allows information to be spread to remote users in a timely manner.
An example of a library using RSS feed can be found on the
National Library of Australia's website. There you can find 3 blogs:
Behind the scenes,
Events, and
Library labs. Events is self explanatory, Library labs showcases the NLAs experiements with new technology, whilst Behind the scenes provides readers with a glimpse into what happens in the background at the library. The Behind the scenes is the most frequently updated blog but all 3 can be subscribed to using RSS.
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