[Web4lib] The Problem with RSS and Journals

[Enrico Silterra]

David brought up some very good points about problems that do
diminish the value of vendor provided RSS feeds in a university context.

One of them is the appropriate copy problem: Get me the right copy of
an article/item.

This, after all, is the problem that OpenURL is meant to solve.

1) perhaps an individual library could gather up feeds, and re-write
the feed to offer access to material using the appropriate openURL for that
institution.
2) perhaps vendors could be persuaded to publish their feeds in an OpenURL
format.

Another problem is just plain keeping track of RSS feeds. One solution would be
a central database, perhaps with entries maintained by the vendors themselves,
with the ability to fetch changes, and various information about the feeds
as RSS feeds

Just my 2 yoctocents,
Rick Silterra




At 11:45 AM 8/10/2005 -0700, David Walker wrote:
> >> Cambridge Journals Online now has RSS feeds
> >> for all its journals . . . Springer has RSS feeds for
> >> its publishing alert service
>
>This example by Peter is actually an interesting one, in that I think it
>represents perhaps both the great potential and some of the drawbacks
>(let's call them challenges) of RSS.
>
>In my mind, journals and newspapers offer perhaps the best use of RSS in
>libraries. Their content is timely, periodic, and of great value to our
>users -- especially for faculty and other advanced researchers in
>academic libraries.  And, in fact, many academic libraries currently
>subscribe to e-mail based table of content systems that could be
>replaced by RSS.
>
>But there are several problems with publisher and database vendor
>supplied feeds like the ones listed above.  They include:
>
>(1) Few publishers or database providers offer them.
>
>Some libraries have started collecting lists of publicly available RSS
>feeds, the largest of which include no more than a few hundred titles.
>The coverage is uneven, but could get better.
>
>
>(2) Relevant publisher supplied feeds must be discovered, collected, and
>maintained by libraries.
>
>This is not strictly necessary, but without it, the feeds remain
>scattered across various providers, publishers, and other web sites,
>making them difficult for library users to find or use.   This is a task
>that requires significant ongoing work for the library, including all
>the problems of link maintenance.
>
>
>(3) Publisher and database vendor RSS feeds link directly back to the
>publisher or vendor web site, bypassing library proxy servers and
>OpenURL resolvers.
>
>This last point is particularly problematic.  The very purpose of RSS is
>to offer *centralized* dissemination of information. But a user's
>ability to access most published content is based on their *local*
>affiliation.
>
>Here, then, we have something of a conflict in technology.
>
>I may have access to some of the content provided by a publisher or
>database vendor by virtue of my affiliation with my university, but if I
>am outside of my campus IP range or the library does not have online
>full-text access for that particular journal -- or, worse, has full-text
>access from a different database) -- the vendor-supplied RSS feeds offer
>me no way to access the actual journal article itself.  We may have the
>article in print and certainly can get it through interlibrary loan --
>but those are not options available to me through an RSS feed, or from a
>vendor web site.
>
>All of these problems greatly diminishing the value of such RSS feeds.
>
>--Dave
>
>=================
>David Walker
>Web Development Librarian
>Library
>Cal State San Marcos
>760-750-4379
>=================
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Peter Scott
>Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 8:07 AM
>Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
>Subject: RE: [Web4lib] RSS
>
>Speaking of RSS.....
>
>Cambridge Journals Online now has RSS feeds for all its journals
>http://journals.cambridge.org/action/byFeeds
>
>Springer has RSS feeds for its publishing alert service
>http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-40691-12-14754
>0-0,00.html
>
>Google now has RSS and Atom feeds for its news service
>http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/news_feed_terms.html
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******************************
Enrico Silterra
Meta Data Engineer
107-E Olin Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853

Voice: 607-255-6851
Fax:     607-255-6110
E-mail: es287 at cornell.edu
http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/
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