LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Spring 2010)

February 16 - 22

• Learning Objectives
• Lecture
• Readings
• Examples
• Things to Do
  

Learning Objectives

By the end of the week, you should:

1. Understand what RSS is and what can be done with it.

2. Identify uses of RSS in libraries.

3. Understand how RSS feeds can be manupulated and displayed on a website.

4. Identify strategies for getting patrons to use RSS feeds from the library.

5. Know what start pages are and how they might be used by libraries.

6. Be aware of LibGuides and how they compare to start pages.

 

Lecture

Text lecture

 

Readings

Required

Farkas, Chapter 4

“7 Things You Should Know About RSS.” Educause.

Reichardt, R. "Success Story: RSS Moves into the Mainstream at the University of Alberta Libraries." Library Connect, 3.2.

Rubel, S. (2006). "35 Ways You Can Use RSS." Micropersuasion. (many of the examples don't work, but it will give you an idea of what's possible with RSS)

Schroeder, S. “The RSS Cookbook – 10 Advanced RSS Tricks.” Frantic Industries. (last time I looked at this, the style sheet on the site was messed up, so you might want to copy the text and paste it into a word processing program to read it)

Rothman, D. (2006). “Recap: My notes on RSS for Clinicians.” DavidRothman.net.

King, David Lee. (2005). “Creating a Personalized 'My Library' page with no sweat.” davidleeking.com.

Trainor, C. (2008). "Making Your LibGuides Rawk." BIGWIG Social Software Showcase

Optional
Rethlefsen, M. (2007). "Using RSS to Add Currency to the Library Website." (Video)
This video offers useful instruction on how to do some of the activities you will need to do this week. Some of the tools she uses are no longer in existence.

 

Examples

Library Uses of RSS

1. Homer Township Public Library

2. Norwich University Library Websites for MSIA (note the syndicated news content on the side of the page)

3. Do some searches in the Hennepin County Public Library Catalog and notice the RSS feed on the right-hand side of the page. Do a subject search for “cookery” and click on the RSS icon.

4. Seattle Public Library Reader's Corner (RSS feeds for every book list)

5. University of Alberta's New Books by Subject

 

Library Start Pages and LibGuides

Dublin City Public Libraries (Old page at PageFlakes)

Cornell LibGuides

DePauw LibGuides

 

RSS Manipulation Tools

RSS to Email - Feed My Inbox, Feedburner

Mix RSS Feeds - Feed Blendr, Feed Combine, Feed Rinse, Yahoo Pipes, Feed Informer

Display RSS Feeds on a web page - Feed2JS, Grazr, FeedRoll, FeedoStyle

Filter Feeds - Feed Rinse, Feed Sifter, Yahoo Pipes,

 

Start Page Tools and LibGuides

Netvibes

PageFlakes

iGoogle

LibGuides

 

Things to Do

1. Explore the above examples.

2. Write at least one blog post on one (or more) of the following topics (due February 20):

1. Why should libraries care about RSS? (Tag = blogpostwk4n1)

2. How can you envision using some of the tools you explored this week in a library environment? (Tag = blogpostwk4n2)

3. How can librarians get their patrons to use RSS and/or understand the benefits of it? (Tag = blogpostwk4n3)

4. Why do you think so many libraries have embraced LibGuides over the past few years? What's the appeal? (Tag = blogpostwk4n4)

5. Write your own reflections on what you learned this week. (Tag = blogpostwk4n5)

4. Write a blog post that includes a brief description of an article, technology, blog post, or other interesting resource outside of the classwork you've found that's related to that week's topic. Be sure to include a link to the resource (due February 20). (Tag = resourcewk4)

5. Comment on at least two other people's blog posts (due February 22).