- What does the "RSS feed" link on many webpages mean?
- What do you need?
- Ok, now you're ready to subscribe to some RSS feeds!
- How can I find other RSS feeds?
- Can I get RSS updates via email instead?
What does the "RSS feed" link on many webpages mean?
On many news websites (e.g., CNN, New York Times, the BBC) and blogs (web diaries or weblogs), you may have noticed links or buttons that say Syndicate this site, RSS, or XML; they all refer to the same thing: a quick way to have the headlines or new additions to these sites delivered to you, as they occur.
There is some discussion as to what RSS stands for, but the majority agree it stands for "Really Simple Syndication" (XML is the language in which the file has been created). When you "subscribe" to a RSS feed, the latest news and additions to the website will be delivered directly to you. You don't need to subscribe to email alerts or click from one site to the next, trying to see the new content that has been added since your last visit. Put plainly, it allows you to identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you, taking the hassle out of staying up-to-date by showing you the very latest information that you are interested in.
Not all websites currently provide RSS, but it is growing rapidly in popularity and many news sites provide it. The U of Illinois Library recently set up several types of RSS feeds:
- New books feeds: notifies you when new books arrive in subjects of interest to you. More info.
- New electronic resources: notifies you when local electronic access becomes available for journals, journal indexes, or reference resources. More info.
- Issues in Scholarly Communication: news about open access publishing, digital libraries, copyright and other scholarly communication issues. More info.
- News from various U of Illinois Library sources. More info.
What do you need?
First, you need a newsfeed reader program.
These compile all the headlines, excerpts and links to the sites that you have subscribed to, allowing you to scan the headlines quickly, and then go to the full article, if desired.
Several free newsfeed readers are available including:
- NetNewsWire Lite (free trial) - Program for Macs
- Feed Demon (free trial) and Awasu- Programs for the PC
- Bloglines.com - a web-based free newsfeed reader.
The Library is recommending and supporting Bloglines, since it is free, web-based, and allows you to read new posts wherever you are. The other programs must be loaded onto your personal computer, but may offer additional features not available from Bloglines.
To get a free account with Bloglines, go to http://www.bloglines.com/ and register, providing your email address and a password. Your email address will be your Bloglines login.
Ok, now you're ready to subscribe to some RSS feeds!
Here's how it works with Bloglines:
Say you want to subscribe to the RSS feed for the Scholarly Communication Newsletter.
- Go to the web page where the "RSS" or "XML" button is displayed, e.g., http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
- "Copy" the underlying link for the XML button or the "RSS Feed" button to your clipboard. (Usually you can do this by right-clicking on the button.) In this case, that link is http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/index.rdf. (If you take a peek at the page that comes up when you click on the link, you'll see some pretty strange looking text; this is the feed in XML. Don't worry, the newsreader will render this in intelligible format!)
- In your Bloglines account, Click on the "My Feeds" tab, and then click on the "Add" link.
- Drop the RSS feed's link into the space labeled "Blog or Feed URL:", and press subscribe.
That's really all there is to it!
Go ahead, add some more RSS feeds to your "MyBloglines"!
E.g., I am monitoring the science headlines from Time, the New York Times, the BBC, and Scientific American; I am also monitoring today's headlines from the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and CNN; and many more! Each morning I just click on my bookmark (http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs/) for "MyBloglines" to see what's happened since I last checked.
Tip:
To create folders in Bloglines, just after you've subscribed to a new feed, click on "New Folder" and give it a name. I've parsed my feeds into various categories (folders) (scholarly communication news, local news, library news, science news, fun stuff, etc.) so I can scan through all the topically related feeds with one click, if I like.
How can I find other RSS feeds?
There are many places that you can search to find RSS feeds or blogs to subscribe to.
- Start with Bloglines, itself. Over 100,000 blogs and newsfeeds
Click on the "Directory" tab, and search or browse. When you find a listing that looks interesting (e.g., Champaign, Illinois Weather), preview it to see what it's about, and then click on "subscribe". - DayPop: "Search 59000 News Sites, Weblogs and RSS feeds for Current Events and Breaking News " <5.10.05>
- NewsIsFree: "Search the news from 20721 sources updated every 15 minutes " <5.10.05>
- Technorati: search millions of blogs and news feeds for information that even Google can't find!
- U of Illinois Library RSS feeds: in one place, links to the new books notification service, the online electronic resources notification service, and news items from several library entities.
Can I get RSS updates via email instead?
Yes, certainly! There are several services that let you drop in the URL for an RSS feed and subscribe to receive the feeds via email rather than having to read the news via an RSS feed reader such as Bloglines. Here are several:
