2005

Web Feed, The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread.

Gred McKiernarn from Iowa State University presented on “Web Feed, The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread. Greg with a confessed quirky sense of humor discussed why web feeds are the best thing since sliced bread with copious power points that contained numerous examples of RSS feeds. For those of us not familiar with RSS feeds he gave an overview of broad and specific use of web feeds.

  • Why a feed?Automatic notification of a change on a website. The news comes to you.
  • How a feed?There are software products available that can create RSS outputs. You also need reader to read an RSS feed. Currently IE does not have one native to it. However it is rumored that IE 7.0 will have one.
  • Where a feed?You need to subscribe RSS feed
  • When a feed? Examples of RSS feeds are:
    • Notice of changes in Library Services. For instance, a library can have a RSS feed for a specific classification of books, reference books or Resource Guides. This is one of the many ways that we can reach our patrons.
    • Vendors are beginning to provide RSS feeds: Proquest’s ABI/Inform and Compendex.
    • Can be used to inform the community of instruction activities.