Transcript RSS Basics and Beyond: Tips and Tricks for Getting the

RSS Basics and Beyond
Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most out of Syndicated Content
Ken Varnum
Web Systems Manager
University of Michigan Libraries
[email protected]
13 June 2007
RSS Basics and Beyond
Quick Questionnaire
Who has heard of RSS?
Who reads RSS feeds?
Who creates RSS feeds?
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RSS Basics and Beyond
RSS Working Definition
RSS is a combination of:
1. Data Format
• RSS (0.93, 1.0, 2.0…)
• RDF
• Atom
2. Data Interchange
• Syndication
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Really Simple Syndication
Syndication is key element
It enables you -- your library -- to make your
content available to anyone to use.
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News
Events
Book lists
Study guides
Etc.
It puts you on par with the AP or Reuters
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RSS Basics and Beyond
RSS is Everywhere
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Where Does RSS Come From?
Automatically Generated
• Weblog software (Movable Type, TypePad,
Bloglines, Wordpress, etc.)
• Content management systems (i.e., Wikis)
Using Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc.
Create feeds from database searches
By Hand
If you know HTML you can learn RSS
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Finding Feeds
Look for icons on page
Look for icons in browser location bar
If you can find the link, you can use the
content. Some conditions apply. See
copyright holder for details.
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Consuming RSS
All tools have common traits
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Access RSS Feeds
Track what a user has already read
Reproduce feed content
Link to original source
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Consuming RSS: Readers
PC-Based -- tied to a particular computer
Special Applications
• FeedDemon
• FeedReader
• NetNewsWire
Web Browsers
• Safari
• IE7
• Firefox
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Consuming RSS: Aggregators
Web-based
Access anywhere
Examples
• Yahoo!
• Bloglines
• Google Reader
Even read off-line
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Consuming RSS: Integration
RSS is just a stream of information
Easy to integrate into a web page
Many tools have ‘hooks’ to hang RSS on:
• Weblog software
• Content magement
• Wiki software, etc., etc., etc.
But if you’re using good ol’ HTML
• Feed2JS
• RSS2HTML
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RSS Basics and Beyond
It’s This Easy
Go to http://feed2js.org
Click “Build”
Paste in a feed URL
(www.loc.gov/rss/pao/news.xml)
Click “Generate JavaScript”
Copy 4 lines of HTML onto the page you
want it to appear
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Demonstration
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It’s Wednesday Afternoon.
Do You Know Where Your Feeds Are?
???
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Photo: Chris Moore (http://www.flickr.com/people/ckwmoore/)
RSS Basics and Beyond
What Libraries are Doing
Outward-facing
Information for patrons
Information for community
Information for selves
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Create “Live” Subject Guides
del.icio.us lets you ‘tag’ web sites
Create an account for your library
Librarians (or patrons!) tag web pages that
make sense
• History
• Events
• People
As librarians find web sites that are interesting
and fit a subject guide, tag them
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Subscribe to RSS Feed
Every del.icio.us tag has an RSS Feed
Example:
http://del.icio.us/rss/CityPublic_History
Put it in a ‘what’s new’ section on a
subject guide -- with Feed2JS or other
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del.icio.us result
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New Book Lists
Many OPACs can provide RSS feeds
• New books
• Items on hold
• Catalog searches
If your OPAC does not
• Do it yourself
• Talk to your vendor!
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Cambridge (Ontario)
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Books Checked Out
Your OPAC might do this on its own
But probably not
Try LibraryElf
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3rd party service
Works with some, but not all, vendors
Patron sets up, not you
Requires borrower info & potential privacy
concerns -- but at patron discretion
• No library intervention needed
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LibraryElf
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Ohio Patrons Are There
Akron-Summit County Public Library
Ashtabula County District Library
Bristol Public Library
Champaign County Library
Clark County Public Library
Clermont County Public Library
Columbus Metropolitan Library
Community Library
Cuyahoga County Public Library
Dayton Metro Library
Delaware County District Library
Franklin-Springboro Public Library
Geauga County Public Library
Girard Public Library
Grand Valley Library
Grandview Heights Public Library
Greene County Public Library
Harbor-Topky Memorial Library
Henderson Memorial Library
Hubbard Public Library
Kingsville Public Library
Kinsman Free Public Library
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Lane Public Library
Lorain Public Library System
Mansfield/Richland County Public Library
Mary L Cook Public Library
McKinley Memorial Library
Mentor Public Library
New Carlisle Public Library
Newton Falls Public Library
Portage County District Library
Preble County District Library
Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County
Rock Creek Public Library
Tipp City Public Library
Twinsburg Public Library
Upper Arlington Public Library
Washington-Centerville Public Library
Way Public Library
Westerville Public Library
Westlake Porter Public Library
Worch Memorial Public Library
Wright Memorial Public Library
RSS Basics and Beyond
Monitoring the Web
How do you know when a web page
changes?
• New journal issue?
• New report from the county board?
Monitoring tools check sites for you
• Google Alerts watches topics
• Page2RSS watches pages
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Page2RSS
Enter any web page URL
RSS feed is updated as the page changes
Page2RSS for the Library 2.0 links page
http://page2rss.com/page/rss?url=library.osu.edu/sites/Seminar2-0/links.php
Or simply http://tinyurl.com/ysx4kd
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Page2RSS
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Roll Your Own RSS
Several ways to get an RSS feed
• Write one by hand
• Set up a (free) blog
• Write a script yourself (if you have a
Perl/PHP/Ruby person)
• Use a service like FeedXS
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RSS Basics and Beyond
FeedXs
http://www.feedxs.com/
Create a feed
Add items to it
Put them here, there, or everywhere
http://kenvarnum.feedxs.com/Library20.rss
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FeedXs Demo
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Beyond the Basics
Mostly talked about existing services that
you can leverage
Now turn to some more advanced topics
• Search = Feed
• Using RSS to get to your patrons where
they “live”
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Database Searching
Academic example: Faculty Publications
Homegrown database to collect info
You may have similar things you track
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RSS Basics and Beyond
Feed = Live Data
Every search has
an RSS feed
User’s reader
tracks what’s new
RSS puts content
on other web pages
via Feed2JS
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Knox County (Tennessee)
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Other Ways to Use RSS
RSS can put library materials in user’s
lives
In academic library, course reserve lists
• Course pages
• Anywhere else
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In a Public Library
Book lists for local organizations’ web sites
Resource lists (from catalog or other) for
predictable school projects
Library news for local paper’s web site
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Final Thoughts
RSS means simplicity of sharing content
Simple to create, simple to use
Great tool for putting your library “out
there” where your patrons are
Flexible
Very low barrier to creation or
consumption
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Thank You
Contact Me
[email protected]
PowerPoint Slides
http://varnum.org/papers/basics-and-beyond.ppt
Weblog on RSS in Libraries
http://www.rss4lib.com/
13 June 2007
RSS Basics and Beyond