Great Description of Aggregators/RSS Readers

See this video below from Common Craft about aggregators/rss readers. For those of you already using a reader, then you can't see the video from your reader. You can click here to see it, although since you are already using a reader so you don't have to be convinced to use one... but I like the style of this video and you may too.

Click To Play

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start.

Bloglines Presentation for Managers, Nov. 9

Here is the slide show for the presentation at the Manager's Meeting for November 9.



Additional assistance in getting started using http://www.bloglines.com can be obtained by viewing the Bloglines Video Series.

Blog, Wiki, Aggregator Training for MALC

Last week, Damone and I conducted a training on blogs, wikis, and aggregators for the Memphis Area Library Council. Participants did not receive a paper handout for the training. They did receive access to a wiki and a blog that explains everything we covered in the class and more.

Using a wiki to explain a wiki, and using a blog to explain a blog just reinforced the material. Participants also had a chance to add content to the wiki and create their own blog posts (We used "pre-made" training blogs that participants could use in the class).

We then had everyone log into "pre-made" training aggregators so that they could see how easy it is to subscribe to web feeds.

One of my favorite moments of the training was showing a table that explained the difference between a blog and a wiki. I had added that table from a presentation at the Internet Librarian 2006 conference that was still going on at the time of our training. (I just recently wrote about these conference bloggers)

Through blogs, information that was shared in a conference in Monterey just the day before, was now being shared with the participants of this training. Also, since our "handout" was a wiki, I was able to add the content quickly. Had we used a paper handout, I would have been able to mention the new content, but I would not have been able to add it to the handout as we would have been required to turn in our final copy about three weeks before the training.

Bloglines Video Series

Since blogs show the newest stuff first, the videos appear in reverse order. However, I'll list the links to the posts in chronological order here. As a recap, for those of you who were interested in attending one of my aggregator workshops but cannot because of whatever reason, you can view these videos.

I. Bloglines Registration
II. Finding and Adding Web Feeds
III. Reading Your Web Feed Articles
IV. Saving Articles from Your Web Feeds

Here is the "handout" used during the training.

If you are having difficulty finding things you are interested in, you can take a look at all of my subscriptions. They are listed on the right side bar of this blog. Just scroll down and bit and you will see them. And, no, I won't make a video showing you how to do that!

IV. Saving Articles from Your Web Feeds

The final video (for now, at least) about getting started with Bloglines. This one shows you how to save an article in case you want to read it later.

III. Reading Your Web Feed Articles

Here is the third video for the Bloglines series. This shows you how to read your web feeds once you have subscribed to them.

II. Finding and Adding Web Feeds

Here is the second video on getting started with bloglines. This explains the basics of identifying and adding web feeds to bloglines. Enjoy!

I. Bloglines Registration

OK, for you folks who were not able to attend any of the aggregator workshops I am conducting, here is a boring video on registering for bloglines. I am going to do some follow-up videos on the fun part of bloglines but wanted to start from the beginning.

Mainly, though, you will see just how darn easy (and quick) it is to get started.

Receive Web Feeds in Your Email

Lately, I have been advertising the web feed reader/aggregator as a way to receive updates from various web feeds (click here for links to past articles). The only problem with this is that some folks have a hard enough time remembering to check their e-mail that they could never remember to check ANOTHER website.

Welcome to www.feedblitz.com. If you register for feedblitz, you can subscribe to various feeds and you will receive a daily email with any new posts that were added the previous day. While this does take a bit a work upfront, once it is set up, you can receive all of your updates through your familiar email interface.

For an extensive list of aggregators, visit this site. The first category is Web-Based Aggregators like bloglines. Scroll down to E-mail Based Aggregators to see a list of sites like feedblitz.

The Benefit of Aggregators

Doris makes an excellent point in a comment on my DOPA post.

I am relying heavily on other bloggers to make me aware of issues such as this one (with DOPA, institutions who take advantage of e-rate subscriptions to the Internet would have to filter social networking sites like myspace.com) and net neutrality. As Kevin, has written before, using an aggregator like bloglines seems a more efficient way to *try* to stay informed than wading through e-mail listservs messages and action alerts. I guess one could use all of these methods in concert.

E-mail is an entrenched part of MPLIC work culture. I look forward to the day when scanning blogs becomes second nature to us.

Without my bloglines subscriptions, my knowledge of current tech trends in the library world would be extremely limited or much harder to maintain.

Thank you to Doris for making that connection!

Put Everything in One Place and Be Done with It

I have already discussed web feeds, but now I want to talk about using those web feeds in more detail. You may be saying, "This web feed stuff seems too techie for me." Or you may be thinking, "I can hardly handle e-mail. I can't add anything else to that." At the same time, you may be saying, "I can't keep up with all this information."

Those are all the reasons why you SHOULD register with a service like bloglines. With a service like bloglines, you can "subscribe" to a blog (or any other site with web feeds). Once you register (a simple process), you "subscribe" to web feeds by doing this:

1. Find the syndication button on a site that provides web feeds (all blogs are web feeds; however, many websites are providing this service as well). The syndication button can say RSS or XML or ATOM or SUBSCRIBE (one complaint people have is the difficulty in finding the syndication button because they can look like different things, but that should be changing soon).
   
2. Click on that button. You will be taken to a page that looks like hieroglyphics (actually HTML).
   
3. Copy the URL by clicking on the address bar and hitting CTRL+C on your keyboard (or however you like to copy) .
   
4. Go to your web feed reader/aggregator.
   
5. Click on Add.
   
6. Paste the URL into the provided text box. THAT'S ALL! A simple copy and paste.
   

Now, when you go to your web feed reader/aggregator, blogs or web feeds with new additions will be in bold with the number of new articles in parentheses to the right of the title. Click on the title and the new articles appear on the same window. No more traversing the internet. You have a one-stop shop!

For your convenience, I have placed the feed URLs for all library blogs below, so just copy these URLs and skip to step 4 in the instructions above.

http://memphislibrary.blogspot.com/atom.xml (ILS Blog)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MplicTechTrain (This blog)

http://mplic.wordpress.com/feed/ (Reference Highway)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Leap (Library Leaders)

Internet: Web Feeds and Aggregators

Aggregators or Feed Readers such as bloglines.com or my.yahoo.com are necessary to take advantage of a feature on the web that is gaining momentum. This feature is called the web feed. With an aggregator, people can subscribe to web feeds. In the future, they only need to go to their aggregator to find all the new articles that have been posted to their subscribed feeds. Once limited to blogs and such, web feeds are spreading to many types of web pages.

For example, the new ILS will have a feature that allows customers with aggregators to subscribe to a specific catalog search. If someone really likes a certain author like James Patterson, they can subscribe to that catalog search and their aggregator will notify them when a new article (or book) is added.

You will know if a website is a web feed if it has a little button that says either RSS, XML, or ATOM. Registering for an aggregator is as simple as registering for email. And it is free.

Scan the Hennepin County Library site for an example. See the page that lists all the available RSS Feeds on their site.

Try this article from the Boston Globe.

Internet: Bloglines.com

Here is a bit of advice I would like to share with you. More of a demand, actually. Register with http://www.bloglines.com/. Why? We all know what blogs are, but do we? My image of a blog used to be someone’s personal rants about the world and pictures of their Schnauzer named Walter. While that is a correct visual for many blogs, there is another blogworld out there. Take these for example:

scanblog.blogspot.com. A blog from 3 OCLC staff about all things present and future that impact libraries and library users.

Theshiftedlibrarian.com. A blog about one librarian’s experience on the theorized Information Shift, a change from pursuing information to receiving information and how that change will affect libraries.

What does this have to do with bloglines.com? Well, these are two of maybe 40 blogs about the library profession. Who has time to continually check all of these websites for new articles? No one. However, if you register with bloglines, you can “subscribe” to any blog and bloglines will send the articles to YOU.

Stay on the cutting edge of technology and the change facing the library world today. Register with bloglines.com, now.