Intro: RSS

RSS or Rich Site Syndication (also 'Really Simple Syndication) is a free way to receive constantly updated news feeds from your favorite web sites and blogs showing you any new headlines and posts that have been added to a page and linking you to the full page on the web site. Special news readers, called "RSS Readers" or"RSS Aggregators" are required for you to be able to use RSS feeds. With an RSS feeder or aggregator rather than having to visit many web sites to check for new content, the RSS feeds list all of the new posts and updated news for you. Many RSS readers also 'alert' you when new content from your favorite web site is delivered. Options for news readers are varied and include stand-alone applications, plug-ins for Firefox and Outlook, built-in applications (Safari, IE 7), and web-based services. They are also available through Google and Yahoo.

By the end of this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Understand what RSS is and how it works
• Experiment with a variety of RSS readers
• Understand terminologies associated with RSS
• Recognize and subscribe to RSS feeds including government, legal, news and hobby related feeds
• Explore possibilities of using RSS on your library's web sites