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Blogs and RSS Feeds Course

Blogs and RSS Feeds Course. 21 June 2007 London Health Libraries. Objectives. Learnt how to set up a blog and create an RSS feed Be able to subscribe to RSS feeds and generate them from search resources Be aware of the different RSS readers and aggregators. Blogs/ Weblogs.

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Blogs and RSS Feeds Course

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  1. Blogs and RSS Feeds Course 21 June 2007 London Health Libraries

  2. Objectives • Learnt how to set up a blog and create an RSS feed • Be able to subscribe to RSS feeds and generate them from search resources • Be aware of the different RSS readers and aggregators

  3. Blogs/ Weblogs • An electronic journal/diaryorganised by date where you can add information easily • Blogs tends to be a single webpage containing text and images, and increasingly now audio and video content • Netscape What News is thought to be the first example of a weblog, and the word itself was coined by Jorn Barger, the owner of the Robot Wisdom weblog (http://www.robotwisdom.com/) • Blog is short for weblog. A Blogger is the person producing the blog. Blogging is when you create the blog by posting an entry • American librarian, Jenny Levine, began the first “library” blog in 1995. It was called Librarian’s Site Du Jour and she reviewed reference websites

  4. Examples of Blogs in Libraries • Royal Free Hospital Library Blog http://rfhlibrary.blogspot.com • Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust Library Services http://sathlibraries.blogspot.com • John Gale, Bethlem Library - Mental Health Update Blog http://mentalhealthupdate.blogspot.com/ • Fade the Blog – Health News from North West, including podcast http://www.fadetheblog2.blogspot.com/ • Chemistry Info @ Imperial College Library London http://libinfo.wordpress.com/ • Cambridge University Library Medical Library http://cambridgemedicallibrary.blogspot.com/ • DrugData Update http://drugscope.blogspot.com

  5. Blogging Software:Web-based Web-based Free Blogging Software • Blogger - www.blogger.com (text editor, customisation, rss feed available) • Bloglines - www.bloglines.com (rss feed available) • LiveJournal - www.livejournal.com (customisation, rss feed) • WordPress - http://wordpress.com/ (needs email activation, customisation, rss available) • Xanga - www.xanga.com (text editor, customisation, subscription service available) Also: MS Windows Live Spaces - www.spaces.live.com Yahoo 360 – www.360.yahoo.com

  6. National Library for HealthLibrary News Alert The Health and Libraries & Information Services Directory have launched a blog and RSS tool. Further information can be found in May’s NLH Newsletter. http://nlhcms.library.nhs.uk/nlhdocs/Newsletter_May_2007.pdf

  7. Blogger.comwww.blogger.com • Create a Google account on blogger.com • Create a blog on blogger.com for your library, applying a template design • Post some entries: • Latest journal issues • New book stock • Advertising a library closure • Promote a training event • Apply some advanced features, such as adding a blog archive

  8. RSS feeds – what are they? • Provides updates on new web content such as news headlines, blog entries, eTOCs. Also new audio content and images can be embedded in a RSS feed, eg podcasts • Need an RSS reader or aggregator to read them • Written in XML format and are open source • Several versions, including Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary and ATOM

  9. Why use RSS feeds? • Save time, as only need to access one RSS reader or aggregator • Unclutter your email inbox from email alerts • Disseminate information about your library • Create RSS feeds on specific topics

  10. Health Care Libraries NewsfeedOxford University Librarieshttp://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/hcl

  11. Subscribing to an RSS feed • The following icon means that a RSS feed is available on a website: For example, on the BBC Health News website

  12. To subscribe to a RSS feed • Click on the orange icon and following webpage appears There are several ways to subscribe to the RSS feed. For example cut and paste the RSS URL into your reader/aggregator

  13. RSS Readers/ Aggregators RSS Feeds can be read in: • Web-based aggregators – need a username and password, but can be read on any PC • Desk-top readers – software installed on PC and feeds download when connected to the internet • Web browser – feeds can be read in a web browser • Personalised start pages

  14. Web-based Aggregators • Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) • NewsGator (www.newsgator.com)

  15. Google Reader(www.google.com/reader)

  16. Desktop Readers • FeedReader (www.feedreader.com)

  17. Web Browsers • Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 will store and display RSS feeds

  18. Personalised Page Starters www.pageflakes.com www.netvibes.com

  19. Also National Library for HealthMyLibrary(http://www.library.nhs.uk/mylibrary/) NLH My Library displays RSS feeds and can be accessed using Athens username and password • Can also send My Update to email address

  20. RSS Feeds • BBC News, including podcasts. Can subscribe to topics, eg Health News, Technology News • Online newspapers, including podcasts. Eg The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph • BMJ – Current issue, recent issues, online first • eTOCs from journals suppliers – Blackwells, Emerald • Podcasts – The Lancet, NEJM, New Scientist, Nature • National Library for Health, including Document of the Week, Hitting the Headlines, What’s New • NICE Guidelines

  21. Generating RSS Feeds It is possible to generate RSS feeds on specific topics, using: • News • Google News (http://news.google.com/) • Yahoo News (http://uk.yahoo.com/) • Blogs • Ask (http://www.ask.com) • Sphere (http://www.sphere.com/) • Feedster (http://www.feedster.com/) • Technorati (http://technorati.com/) • Medical • PubMed • MedWorm (http://www.medworm.com) • Dialog Datastar Searches

  22. Mixing and Filtering RSS feeds • Mixing RSS feeds from a several sources. Services from Yahoo Pipes, My Syndicaat and Feedblendr can do this • Filtering RSS feeds means you can remove duplicate entries and block such fields as keywords. Feedrinse provides this service

  23. Use RSS Feed from Blog Example Blogger.com • Set up blog & post entries • Subscribe to blog through RSS Reader

  24. RSS Feeds • Use Google username and password to open Google Reader • Subscribe to some BBC feeds from their website • Set up a PubMed RSS feed on a specific topic • Create a Dialog Datastar search feed • Try a Google News/Yahoo News RSS feed

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