RSS and its use in Libraries

Sukhdev Singh

First of all let us see what RSS can do?

Even before that let us see how we can keep

ourselves up-to-date in the Era of Internet

Blogs

News

Journals

Databases

Keeping yourself Up-to-date

Go Get It

Blogs

News

Journals

Databases

Keeping yourself Up-to-date

Guests are Welcomed

RSS is the new way of keeping yourself up-to-date

• RSS (which, in its most recent format, stands for "Really Simple Syndication")

• Some expand it as - Rich Site Summary

By RSS Feeds

Easily stay informed by subscribing the latest content from the sites you are interested in.

You save time by not visiting each site individually.

Your privacy is maintained unlike subscribing to each site's email newsletter

What all is Required for this?

A PLACE to mix the new content of your interest

•RSS READER

and Content in Special Format

•RSS Feeds

RSS READERs

• Desktop Softwareshttp://www.download.com/RSS-Tools/3150-9227-0.html

• Online Services• http://reader.google.com• http://my.yahoo.com• http://bloglines.com

http://www.bloglines.com/

Even smart cell phones have means to read RSS

Where to get RSS Feeds

• Blogs – Most are RSS Enabled• Web sites - Check for buttons

• Databases – • Execute your search query• Create RSS Feed

Connecting READER with FEEDS

• Clicking on RSS Button will reveal the URL of the RSS Feed

• Copy the URL• Paste the URL in your READER and subscribe

the FEED

OK, we will take an example

Say for Example

• I am interested in News – Let me know what current News are reported by NDTV.COM

• I read blogs, so let me know what is latest on Peter Suber’s Blog.

• I want to know what all new articles are deposited in my favorite repository - http://openmed.nic.in

• What all new articles are added in my favorite database - PubMed - on the topic “Medical Informatics in India”?

Ok,we will use Google Reader as our

RSS Reader for this example

http://www.google.com/reader/

LoginLogin

Look for Add Subscription

Look for Add Subscription

Click on Add Subscription

Click on Add Subscription

We will now subscribe to RSS feedsOne by One

Let us first add Feed from News Site i.e. NDTV in our example

Open a New Window in your browser

go to the site i.e. NDTV.COM

Click on RSS button and Get URL of your RSS Feed for News

Click on RSS button and Get URL of your RSS Feed for News

Just Look URL. COPY it with

Ctrl + C

Just Look URL. COPY it with

Ctrl + C

Paste the URL Here

Ctrl+V

Paste the URL Here

Ctrl+V

Wow, Your News are

Here

Wow, Your News are

Here

Now let us subscribe a blog!Remember

Most blogs are RSS enabled So no need to look for any Orange

Button.Just enter the blog URL

Now let us add a feed from Blog

now.

Now let us add a feed from Blog

now.

Repeat steps for Adding

Subscription

Repeat steps for Adding

Subscription

Wow, Blog feed is here

Wow, Blog feed is here

To subscribe RSS Feed from any siteLook for Orange Buttons

Click and get the URL

Now for Repository.Look for RSS Button.Now for Repository.Look for RSS Button.

Look for URL Above and Copy

it.

Look for URL Above and Copy

it.

Add Subscription

Add Subscription

And it has been

done!

And it has been

done!

You can also create / customize an RSS feed to suit interest.

However the site should provide such facility

Let us see how we can create an RSS Feed on PubMed Database Site on a

Query

Now let us create a feed from PubMED

Now let us create a feed from PubMED

Enter your Query as you do normally.

Enter your Query as you do normally.

In Display Menu - Click on Drop Down Option for

RSS

In Display Menu - Click on Drop Down Option for

RSS

Click on Create FeedClick on Create Feed

Look for Small Orange Icon – and Click it.

Look for Small Orange Icon – and Click it.

Copy the URL of the Feed.

Copy the URL of the Feed.

Add Subscription

Add Subscription

And no surprise, It is

Done

And no surprise, It is

Done

You can Manage yours RSS Subscriptions

You can Manage yours RSS Subscriptions

See them all at one place.

No need to visit each site.

See them all at one place.

No need to visit each site.

You can even Export or Import your subscriptions to / from Other Readers

You can even Export or Import your subscriptions to / from Other Readers

We have seen the usefulness of RSS.

Now let see what is this RSS?

BlogsBlogs

Saved SearchersSaved

Searchers

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking

WikisWikis

NewsNews

Syndication

Isn’t that Really Simple?

RSS

• Stands for “Really Simple Syndication”.• Can also stand for “Rich Site Summary”, or

“RDF Site Summary”.

“Really Simple Syndication” is the default expansion of RSS nowadays.

RSS is written in XML language for syndicating information items on web.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?><rss version="2.0"><channel> <title>NDTV News</title> <description></description> <language>en-us</language> <link>http://www.ndtv.com</link> <copyright>&#169; Copyright 2006, New Delhi Television Ltd.</copyright> <pubDate>Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:13:17 GMT</pubDate> <category>National News</category> <image><title>NDTVNews</title><url>http://www.ndtv.com/images/ndtv.gif</url><link>http://www.ndtv.com</link></image> <item> <title>Surya Kiran trainer jet crashes in Karnataka, pilot killed</title> <pubDate>Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:29:00 GMT</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[<p><a href=http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090080888><img align="left" border="0" src="http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/images/thumbnail/ver1/m/mapkarnataka1.jpg" alt="Surya Kiran trainer jet crashes in Karnataka, pilot killed" style="margin-right:5px;margin-top:5px;width:70px;height:70px;" /></a>A pilot of an Indian Kiran trainer jet was killed in a crash on Wednesday morning near Bidar in Karnataka. </p><br clear="all" />]]></description> <link>http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090080888</link> <keywords>crash, pilot, Karnataka</keywords> </item></channel></rss>

XML Source Code of

RSS

XML Source Code of

RSS

RSS when viewed in Browser

RSS when viewed in Browser

RSS Format

• RSS feed is an XML file containing a list of items or entries.

• items are identified by links and can have some metadata associated with it.

• The most basic metadata for an item includes a title for the link and a description of it.

For example, a simple entry of an ‘item’ might look like

<item> <title>Title of an item in feed</title> <link>http://link.domain.com/item</link> <description>

This is the description of the item. </description></item>

Some Important Tags

rss – it is used to mark the global container.

channel – is used to mark the distributing channel. It has several descriptive tags and holds one or several items.

Container

<?xml version="1.0" ?><rss version="2.0">

<channel> …… ……</channel>

</rss>

Required tags for the channel

title - The title of the channel. Should contain the name.link - URL of the website that provides this channel.description - Summary of what the provider is.item. At least one item tag for the content of the feed.

<rss version="2.0"><channel> <title>Channel Title</title> <link>http://www.xul.fr/</link> <description>Some Description</description> <item>

…..…..

</item> </channel>

</rss>

Each item tag must hold these tags:

title. Title of the article.link. The URL of the page.description. Summary of the article.

<item> <title>Surya Kiran trainer jet crashes in Karnataka, pilot killed

</title> <link> http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090080888

</link> <description> A pilot of an Indian Kiran trainer jet was killed in a crash on Wednesday morning near Bidar in Karnataka

</description> </item>

<item>…….</item>

Format looks too complicated?Don’t worry

In practice you will perhaps never need to create an RSS Feed manually.

For all practical purposes you will be using RSS Enabled content managers or some other tools to exact data from pages and generate Feeds.

How does RSS work?

Content Provider

Content Consumer

How RSS Feeds are created?

• Manual MarkupYou markup the content manually.

• Software Assisted You just type in the content in forms.The software generates the markup.

• Publishing Platforms You simply use RSS enabled publishing platform / content manager.

Software Assisted

Manual mark-up is not required.

Number of software options are available to assist in creating RSS Feeds.

One such software is

Download from http://usablelabs.org/feedspringhttp://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Feed-Spring-Download-20514.html

Just fill in few forms and it will generate XML file i.e. RSS Feed

http://www.feedforall.com/download.htm

http://www.webreference.com/cgi-bin/perl/makerss.pl

RSS enabled

Publishing platforms Content managersDatabase based applicationsModern Library Automation Softwares

Modern publishing and content management platforms are RSS

enabledBlogging platforms like – Blogger, Wordpress,

Livejournal, Movable TypeSome popular open source, server-side, portal content

management systems such as PostNuke, (php), PHP-Nuke,(php) phpWebLog (php), SlashDot (Perl), Squishdot (Zope), Rusty Foster's Scoop (Perl), Roller (Java), and Drupal (php) can also create and display RSS feeds using their built-in news aggregators.

WEB 2.0 Applications are RSS enabled

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/List_of_web_2.0_applications

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2008/the-100-top-web-apps-for-2008/

Database Driven Applications

• Database driven applications can easily be made RSS enabled by creating reports (displaying items) in XML format for RSS Feeds

PERL Script used in OpenMED

(EPRINTS) TO Generate RSS

Feed

PERL Script used in OpenMED

(EPRINTS) TO Generate RSS

Feed

Libraries and RSS

Libraries are ideal candidates for adopting and using RSS to their advantage as– Information Producers– Information Gateways– Information Consumers

Libraries as Information Producers

• As information producers, libraries maintain their web sites providing information about its services, new additions, announcements and other many other information tools like OPAC

Libraries Can -

• Create an RSS feed for new additions to the online catalogue• Create an RSS feed tied to a library card account for hold

notifications and/or overdue materials.• Create an RSS feed for new programs and events posted on

the library website.• Create an RSS feed for the library’s electronic newsletter.• Create an RSS feed for press releases and other media

advisories.• Create an RSS feed for library closings, including emergency

closings.• Create an RSS feed for library job openings

As a gateway to information, libraries can:

• Subscribe to a few RSS feeds, such as local news websites, and share the content on the library’s website.

• Subscribe and share RSS feeds of interest to library users.

• Compile list of useful RSS feeds with suitable annotation to help users to pick up feeds of their interest.

Libraries can Re-Publish RSS Feeds

• Create RSS Feeds from databases like PubMed on “queries” that might be of interest to various departments of parent institute of the library

• Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library users and re-publish them

• Content of RSS feeds can be displayed from

websites by running suitable scripts at web servers.

• When someone visits such websites these scripts get activated.

• Scripts extract RSS Feeds from providers’ websites and display items with appropriate links to providers’ pages.

• Let us take a simple example of Re-publishing RSS Feeds for special interest groups

• Say there is a university department for “Medical Informatics”.

• Faculty and Students would like to be alerted on what all is being published on “Medical Informatics”.

Generate an RSS Feed by suitable query

Generate an RSS Feed by suitable query

For our example we will select a site that allows to publish RSS Feeds for free.

http://suprglu.com

(There are many such services)

Libraries as consumer can subscribe to Feeds

of Interest to Librarians

http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=RSS

Conclusion

• RSS is a new way of delivering and consuming information

• Librarians and Libraries should exploit this technology to effectively promote the content they produce

• Help their users to select appropriate feeds• Re-Publish selective RSS Feeds to cater special target

groups• Use this technology to keep themselves up-to-date in

this era of Information Explosion

Further Reading:

• RSS - A Primer for Publishers & Content Providers (M.Moffat) - convincing rationale for RSS and valuable Q&A - http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/

• Searching RSS Channels for News (Utah State Library) - http://www.rssgov.com/rsssearchworkshop.html

• RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters (M. Nottingham) - http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/

• Set Up a Simple Syndication Feed Using RSS (L. Angelius) - http://www.devx.com/xml/Article/10790

• RSS FAQ (Ed Pimentel) - http://radio.weblogs.com/0105060/categories/blogging/2003/08/26.html#a1637

• RSS 0.92: A Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide to Creating Your First Document(M. Trump) - http://www.jamsterdam.com/rss092/

• PHP and XML: Parsing RSS 1.0 (K. Yank) - http://www.sitepoint.com/article/560/2

• Explanation of RSS, How You Can Use it, and Finding RSS Feeds (M.Fagan) - http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml

• What is RSS and how can it serve libraries? http://eprints.rclis.org/2531/1/RSS_and_libraries_EN3.pdf

• Library 2.0: RSS Feeds Dynamic Uses for Special Libraries http://www.sla.org/pdfs/sla2007/hartrssfeeds.pdf

• 10 Ways Libraries Can Use RSS - The Moxie Librarian http://moxielibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/10-ways-libraries-can-use-rss/

THANKS

Slides can be downloaded from:

http://blog.sukhdevsingh.com/2009/02/rss-and-libraries.htmlorhttp://www.slideshare.net/sukhi/rss-and-its-use-in-libraries