Thing 2: RSS Feeds (Week of 11/24)

This week's topic is RSS Feeds.

Last week, we looked at blogs. Maybe you found some blogs that you'd like to read on a regular basis. But the problem is, how do you know when that blog has been updated? Do you have to go to all your favorite blogs every day to see if there is a new post?

Enter RSS. It technically stands for Really Simple Syndication, but some people find it easier to think of it as Really Simple Subscription. Sometimes known as an RSS Feed, RSS is a way for you to subscribe to your favorite blogs, and be notified when they are updated. Rather than notifying you by e-mail, instead you log in to something called an RSS Reader or Feed Reader. An RSS Reader will check all your blogs and let you know how many new posts are available since you last checked. You can then read them right there in the RSS Reader, or go to the blogs. Examples of RSS Readers include Bloglines, My Yahoo, and Google Reader.

To view a simple explanation of RSS, view the video RSS in Plain English:



The great thing is, RSS doesn't just apply to blogs. Many websites allow you to subscribe to their RSS feed, to be notified when the webpage is updated. Online calendars will also let you subscribe, to be notified when a new event is added to the calendar.

Wondering if a site has an RSS feed? You can usually tell by looking toward the bottom of the page (or along a sidebar) for an icon like this or like this .

Sample RSS Feeds Lots of online newspapers offer RSS Feeds. The New York Times has a wide range of RSS feeds; you can see them all at http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/.
Locally, you can get RSS feeds for The Doings (http://www.pioneerlocal.com/hinsdale/rss/) or Suburban Life (http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/lagrange/feeds). Two local bloggers blog about La Grange events. Thom Rae has a blog called LaGrange Today (http://everythinglagrange.typepad.com/). OnLaGrange.com is a new "online newspaper" with a number of blogs on news, sports, and more. (http://onlagrange.com/index.php?mod=blogs).

Libraries Using RSS
Lansing Public Library has an RSS Feed of upcoming events: http://engagedpatrons.org/Events.cfm?SiteID=9548. Brookfield Public Library has an RSS Feed of news: http://www.brookfieldpubliclibrary.info/news.

And here at LGPL, Noel Zethmayr's blog, Teenscape LaGrange, has an RSS feed: http://www.lagrangeblogs.com/teenscape/. With our recent upgrade of our eVanced Calendar software, patrons can even subscribe to an RSS feed of our events and programs (http://events.lagrangelibrary.org/evanced/lib/eventcalendar.asp).

This Week's TechPlay Exercise:
Today we'll create a Google Reader account (using the Google Account you set up last week). We'll add some RSS feeds for some blogs to your account.

1. Open another window or tab and go to Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/).
2. Login using the e-mail address and password you set up last week.
3. Using the "Add subscription" link about halfway down on the lefthand side, we will add the RSS Feed for this TechPlay blog. Click on "Add subscription."
   
4. Go back to this window and click on the Posts link on the top left (you may have to scroll up). Choose "Add to Google." On the next screen, choose "Add to Google Reader."
   
5. Great! You did it! Now we'll add some additional blogs to your account. There are two ways to do this:
• Using the "Add subscription" link, type in some keywords to find some blogs. Choices will appear on the right. Choose one and click on "subscribe." OR
  
• If you know of a specific blog you want to subscribe to, open the blog in another window. Find the RSS link to subscribe. When you click on the RSS link, it will open a new page. Copy the URL from the top of your browser, then go back to Google Reader and paste it in the "Add subscription" box.
  


6. As a final step, post a message to your own blog (that you created last week) talking about your experiences. Was this easy, or hard?

If you're having trouble, you might want to watch the video above again. And don't forget to ask for help from your TechPlay Team: Brooke, Nancy K, Debbie, Noel, Bridget, and Jeannie.