Web Feeds for E-Journal Issue Notification and Local OPAC/ILS Holdings?

[Gerry Mckiernan]

____Web Feeds for E-Journal Issue Notification and Local OPAC/ILS
Holdings?___

It has occurred to me that Web feeds (RSS, [
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA296443 ], 
Atom [ http://www.atomenabled.org/ ], Other(s)?) hold the potential of
providing not only publication notification to institutional (or
individual) subscribers for current electronic journal issues, but also
could serve as the mechanism by which local holdings for the e-journal
could be seamlessly updated within the local  OPAC/ILS.

Thanks to Owen Stephens I have learned that the Library of Royal
Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, provides not only RSS
feeds for all new issues of subscribed [e-]journals, but to individual
e-journal titles as well. My new RSS(sm) registry includes entries each
of these types of public e-journal issue feeds:

 [ http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/RSS2.htm#NewJournalIssues
] 

In my New World View, institutional subscribers to an e-journal could
also be  'subscribed' to the associated Web feed for _each_ e-title
by the publisher/vendor.  Such eFeed subscriptions could be a Package
Deal:  a selected Feed Reader of a library's choice (e.g., Pluck [
http://www.pluck.com/ ]  provided by a journal vendor (e.g., EBSCO,
Swets, etc.) fully populated with the Web feeds addresses for each
e-title.  [There are of course, other possible scenarios; for example, a
Third Party Service could serve as an Aggregator for many e-journal
publishers, vendors, etc.][Do I Smell a Business Opportunity or What?
[:-)].

Upon publication/release of a new e-journal issue, the local reader
would be updated in its next cycle. Such entries would not only be made
available through a local New Journal Issue feed similar to what is 
offered by Royal Holloway
[http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/RSS2.htm#NewJournalIssues
], but through the Magic of an XML-based Black Box, update the holdings
for an e-journal in the local staff and public OPAC. [Of course, The
Devil Is In The Details Here, But Hey, RSS is XML, and So the
Possibilities are Possible [:->].

I would most appreciate receiving Any and All Comments about
MyNewWorldView (or Other Views that this Musings might inspire).

Regards,

/Gerry 

Gerry McKiernan
Black-Box Librarian
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu