Description
RSS Feed technology, so promising to information professionals right out of the gate, proved to be difficult to harness and focus for a number of reasons, including the need to train users how to use RSS, the need for users to maintain a separate RSS reader, and constraints on users’ time and attention. After training sessions, users unanimously saw its potential, but most didn’t keep up with the technology’s demands. Over the last few years, “big gun” library vendors like EBSCO, ProQuest, and Gale have started including functionality that allows users to generate RSS feeds for their searches. At the same time, free software applications which allow individuals to create and manipulate RSS feeds on have been developed and released to the public. This opens up a number of possibilities for freeing database content from the limitations of user-initiated searching. This session will focus on both the technical know-how and creative possibilities of using RSS Feeds as a librarian.
Start Date
18-3-2010 8:30 AM
RSS Feeds Freed From Readers: Getting the Benefits without Training the Users
RSS Feed technology, so promising to information professionals right out of the gate, proved to be difficult to harness and focus for a number of reasons, including the need to train users how to use RSS, the need for users to maintain a separate RSS reader, and constraints on users’ time and attention. After training sessions, users unanimously saw its potential, but most didn’t keep up with the technology’s demands. Over the last few years, “big gun” library vendors like EBSCO, ProQuest, and Gale have started including functionality that allows users to generate RSS feeds for their searches. At the same time, free software applications which allow individuals to create and manipulate RSS feeds on have been developed and released to the public. This opens up a number of possibilities for freeing database content from the limitations of user-initiated searching. This session will focus on both the technical know-how and creative possibilities of using RSS Feeds as a librarian.
Comments
One example is a current awareness subject feed: http://concordia.csp.edu/Library/help/feeds/biologypeerreview.html.