Blogs and RSS for Libraries

RSS and Blogs For Libraries John J Meier Science Librarian Pennsylvania State University

Not another new technology!
There are many new technology solutions available with different functions
Don’t let technology drive your workflow – Find a solution that fits your library

What does a blog look like?

Professional Communication
Library News
Portfolio / Resume
New Book Announcements
Frequently Asked Reference Questions
Staff News and Announcements

What are Blogs?
Blogs (short form of web-logs) are a method for easily publishing information to the web
Usually composed of entries that go in reverse chronological order
Can allow multiple authors for entries
Can allow anyone to comment on the entries, creating a conversation

What are Blogs?
Blogs (short form of web-logs) are a method for easily publishing information to the web
Usually composed of entries that go in reverse chronological order
Can allow multiple authors for entries
Can allow anyone to comment on the entries, creating a conversation
Can publish as RSS

What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication
Rich Site Summary
Uses XML formating

What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication
Rich Site Summary
Uses XML Formatting
Re-use Same Stuff

Combine the benefits of RSS and blogs
Use blogs to easily and quickly write news and information for users and co-workers
Use RSS to publish blog entries and other news on multiple web pages and in email
More information that is updated frequently for less effort and staff time

Strategies for using blogs and RSS
Bring it together (Aggregating)
Put it on your website
Ease the transition to RSS
Examples
Dust off the Frequent Reference Question blog
What they want – new book announcements
Eye popping – using RSS in live displays

Combine multiple feeds into one
Strategies
Publish information you create in blogs
Publish information from news sources
Select from multiple sources
Advantages
Reduce work by reusing what exists
Selecting information rather than creating
Be a filter to the information overload

Useful Feed Aggregators for Combining Multiple Feeds
Google Reader
Tag RSS feeds and Share as an Atom feed
Bloglines
Create a feed of selected entries using “Clip Blog”
Feedjumbler
Merge/splice several RSS or Atom-based feeds into one combined RSS and/or Atom feed

Penn State Aggregated Blogs

RSS on your website
XML is just HTML without the formatting, so you can add it to your website
Use CSS to add “style” to the appearance
For those without XML/CSS expertise
Feed2js.org creates java script code to embed any RSS feed in your website
Other websites can be used to create “tickers” or other formatting for your RSS feeds

Transition from email to blogs
Email may be the traditional form of communication to staff or users
For blogs
Send out an email with the headline of each new entry and a link to blog for reading it (some blog platforms can do this for you)
When the RSS feed from the blog is used on the web it will lead readers back to the blog

Transition from email to RSS
RMail and RSSFwd are two examples of many services that can put feeds in the inbox
Methods for moving to RSS
Introduce a RSS reader for everyone to use
Find a reader that is built into a browser, your email program, or an online account

Examples
Firefox – you can bookmark RSS feeds
You can also install an RSS ticker in the browser
Thunderbird – you can set up an inbox for all your RSS and news feeds
Google Reader – if your staff or users have a Google account, it is very easy to add RSS feeds to Reader and place in the iGoogle homepage

More examples (to avoid lawsuits)
Other browsers
Internet Explorer
Other email clients
Eudora
Other websites
My Yahoo
Feedburner

Professional Communication
Library News
Portfolio / Resume
New Book Announcements
Frequently Asked Reference Questions
Staff News and Announcements

Reference Desk Blog
Early staff use of a blog platform
Transition from paper notebook
Hard to get staff to use consistently

Reference Desk Blog
Early staff use of a blog platform
Transition from paper notebook
Hard to get staff to use consistently
Tips to make it work
Integrate into a system that is already in use, like iGoogle
Make it a public page as well, this could serve as a Frequently Asked Questions page

New Books Blog
Use the Catalog
Many library catalogs that supported email alerts offer the same as RSS
May or may not support images
Do it yourself
Only blog highlights or the most popular titles
You have more control over how much content there is, but it’s a lot more work

New Books Feeds
There are also many library services on the web that offer RSS and javascript updates including images
LibraryThing
GoodReads
Shelfari
Some are only free to small libraries or personal collections

Small organizations and libraries can use LibraryThing to as a catalog for their collection.

You can be a goodreads “Librarian” if you have over 50 books in your profile (cheaper than a MLS)

Actively feed to a Powerpoint presentation
Requires purchase of software
Presentation Point add-on for Microsoft Powerpoint
Allows the updating of a file during real time
You can display streaming database information
Has additional Datapoint and Newspoint functions to show SQL data and RSS feeds

Example: Plasma Screen Displays including RSS Content
Static content
Information about the library
Pictures of library staff
Database driven
Library instruction class times of the day
RSS Feed driven
News feeds via third party software

Blogs and RSS for Libraries

by John Meier on May 20, 2008

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Blogs and RSS for Libraries — Presentation Transcript