Archived Event

Free your content! RSS for Libraries

Date : Aug 07, 2007
Start Time : 11 a.m. Eastern
Length : 00:01:00

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RSS (Really Simple Syndication), is an XML-based format for syndicating content on the Web. It's a common thread behind almost all social technologies. Blogs, wikis, social bookmarking sites, Flickr, podcasts and many other Web 2.0 sites all have RSS feeds that allow consumers to receive content without having to visit the site where the content actually lives. RSS separates content from presentation, allowing the content to be reused in multiple places and combined with other content to create unique resources. Another great feature of RSS is that it's actually easy to utilize, even for people with little technical background.

Paul and Meredith will describe what RSS is and how to use it in a variety of ways in libraries: to make it easier for users to find out about your collections and programs, to push subject-related content to patrons, and to publish dynamic content on a variety of pages. There are many tools that make generating RSS feeds, subscribing to RSS feeds, displaying RSS feeds and mixing RSS feeds an incredibly simply proposition for those with little technical knowledge. In addition, they will show you how to use RSS to easily keep up with the topics you are interested in without having to visit multiple websites each day.

Meredith Farkas ?Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University

Meredith G. Farkas is the Distance Learning Librarian at Norwich University in Northfield, VT. In this position she has had the opportunity to implement many social technologies for use with her patrons and her colleagues. Meredith is the author of the book Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication and Community Online (Information Today, 2007) and writes the monthly column "Technology in Practice" for American Libraries. She also is the author of the blog Information Wants to Be Free and contributes to the collaborative blog TechEssence. She is the creator of Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki as well as a number of national conference wikis. Meredith is a passionate advocate for affordable online continuing education for librarians and developed the free online course, Five Weeks to a Social Library, to teach librarians about social software. In March 2006, she was named a Mover and Shaker by Library Journal for her innovative use of technology to benefit the profession.

Paul Pival ?Distance Education Librarian, University of Calgary

Paul R. Pival (MLS, SUNY Buffalo) is the Distance Education Librarian at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and the author of the blog, The Distant Librarian (http://distlib.blogs.com). Prior to his arrival in Canada in late 1999, he supported distance students for four years at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Paul has been speaking about, creating and consuming RSS feeds since 2003.