[WEB4LIB] Software to Access RSS feeds in e-journal database

[K.G. Schneider]

> What software do you use for your RSS feeds?
> Is that software pre-installed on all library machines so that people
> can get to the RSS feeds?

Gloryoski, just this morning I rewrote the Librarians' Index RSS tutorial,
which is based on Bloglines, a free, Web-based RSS reader. See:

http://lii.org/search/file/liirss/

There are any number of good aggregators around, including other Web-based
readers. The advantage of promoting Web-based aggregators to your public
users is obvious. Or maybe it's not obvious and I should point out that you
don't have to install or update anything, and they can go home or go to
another library and get their feeds there as well. 

I shortened the tutorial significantly, because Bloglines has become far
more intuitive (a word to use selectively, but in this case I believe is
warranted). 

n.b. I eat what I cook--I use Bloglines as my RSS reader. I swivel between
two computers quite a bit, and I like not having to maintain and update two
clients. Plus I believe if I'm going to teach something or use it with
(human) clients, I should know it. 

(I am still looking for a good RSS reader for my PDA, and if you're going to
say "Hand," then please talk to me off-list because I tried it and was
unhappy--it wouldn't import my OPML file, I had to scroll left and right, it
just was not up to its hype. This is somewhat of a digression, but I am
dying to have RSS on my PDA.)

If you are wondering if anyone will read your feeds, they will. We now have
over 2400 subscribers through Bloglines alone, and our main RSS feed (we
have two) was banged on over 250,000 times in the last reporting quarter.
Not only that, the major RSS finding services are wonderful marketing tools
for your stuff. We get a lot of referrals from Radio Userland. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at lii.org
Librarians' Index to the Internet, http://lii.org
Reliable librarian-selected Internet resources you can trust