A Little Good News: Using RSS Feeds in Library Outreach and Instruction: Home

by Tiffany Hebb (thebb@depauw.edu), Kathryn Courtland Millis (millisk@depauw.edu), and Krista Knapp (kknapp@depauw.edu)

Most librarians have heard of RSS feeds, and a number of us now use news readers and aggregators to get our favorite news sources delivered to us for one-stop viewing. At DePauw University, librarians are exploring ways to deliver information to our patrons via RSS feeds. We have changed our “Library News” headlines on our home page to be created from a blog that generates RSS feeds. Patrons with news readers can now add the library news to their aggregators, where they’re more likely to see it. Additionally, we are finding useful feeds already created by others, and delivering them to our patrons via subject guides, Blackboard, and pathfinders created for library instruction sessions. For example, a class guide created for a “Media, Culture & Society” library instruction session contains New York Times Media & Advertising feeds as well as up-to-date headlines from organizations such as FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). This poster will provide a basic introduction to RSS feeds and news aggregators, but will primarily focus on how to use them to get the most current information to your patrons.

The information (including content and links) in this guide will not likely be updated after the time of the presentation. Please contact the presenter(s) with any questions.

Helpful RSS-related links:

• Wikipedia overview of RSS feeds
   
• Feed 2 JavaScript
   - converts the RSS feed URL to javascript code to paste into your web site, so that it dynamically updates with new stories
   
• Feed Digest
   - filters multiple feeds to display only those items containing specific words, then converts that to javascript code for you to paste into your own site
   
• List of feed readers

Finding Feeds:

Feeds based on keyword searches of multiple sites:

• http://www.feedster.com

General feed directories:

• http://www.blogstreet.com
• http://www.search4rss.com
• http://technorati.com
• http://www.everyfeed.com/ 
• http://www.feeds4all.com/ 
• http://www.feedpark.com/ 

Library and higher education feed directories:

• http://lisfeeds.com
• http://www.thefeeddirectory.com/p/Libraries___191.html 
• http://directory.edufeeds.com/ 

DePauw Libraries class guides that use RSS feeds:

• COMM233: Media, Society & Culture - http://www.depauw.edu/library/resources/guides/comm233-howley.asp (linked from the bottom of the "Background information" section)
• ANTH290: Latin American and Caribbean Culture - http://www.depauw.edu/library/resources/guides/anth290a-castaneda.asp (under "Latest News" section)