Saturday, April 9, 2011
Intro to Second Life
Just a brief note on my thoughts so far. This one will take a while before I'll be able to write a 'real' post. The control is rather clunky and things are taking forever to load - the few times I have logged in I have seen names but no people! Is this normal? Only time will tell...
Monday, April 4, 2011
RSS and The Library
To explore RSS in action I took a look at two completely different organisations that are using RSS feeds - the State Library of NSW and Popsugar (an entertainment 'news' website). By subscribing to RSS feeds from both sites I was able to see what could be gained not only by following a feed but also by having a library set up it's own.
The State Library of NSW has many RSS feeds (http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/rss/index.html) giving their users access to information regarding new materials acquired by the library as well as take a look as the new erecords being created, allowing for records to be searched online that were previously only available for searching within their card catalogue. All their feeds allow for users to see what's new at the library as well as explore collections online - users can see these things at a glance and quickly analyse what may be of relevance to them.
Popsugar's RSS feeds (http://feeds.feedburner.com/popsugar) are all related to entertainment news but users can decide what sort they want, from particular celebrities to tv shows to music, there are feeds available for almost every entertainment need!
So how can RSS enhance an library's ability to get information to clients? As sugested by the Moxie Librarian in her blog, RSS can be used by a library to "Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library customers and share the content on the customer’s personalized library webpage. Customers can choose to access selected RSS feeds, their library account information, subscription databases, and email/chat with a librarian all in one spot". By supplying an RSS, a library can promote it's collection as well as any up and coming events, allowing RSS followers to see at a glance information they may not have had before. The feed can be updated throughout the day and can even be used to highlight anything new going on in the library as well as the library world.
References
The Moxie Librarian. (2008). 10 ways libraries can use RSS. Retrieved on 4th April, 2011, from
http://moxielibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/10-ways-libraries-can-use-rss/
The State Library of NSW has many RSS feeds (http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/rss/index.html) giving their users access to information regarding new materials acquired by the library as well as take a look as the new erecords being created, allowing for records to be searched online that were previously only available for searching within their card catalogue. All their feeds allow for users to see what's new at the library as well as explore collections online - users can see these things at a glance and quickly analyse what may be of relevance to them.
Popsugar's RSS feeds (http://feeds.feedburner.com/popsugar) are all related to entertainment news but users can decide what sort they want, from particular celebrities to tv shows to music, there are feeds available for almost every entertainment need!
So how can RSS enhance an library's ability to get information to clients? As sugested by the Moxie Librarian in her blog, RSS can be used by a library to "Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library customers and share the content on the customer’s personalized library webpage. Customers can choose to access selected RSS feeds, their library account information, subscription databases, and email/chat with a librarian all in one spot". By supplying an RSS, a library can promote it's collection as well as any up and coming events, allowing RSS followers to see at a glance information they may not have had before. The feed can be updated throughout the day and can even be used to highlight anything new going on in the library as well as the library world.
References
The Moxie Librarian. (2008). 10 ways libraries can use RSS. Retrieved on 4th April, 2011, from
http://moxielibrarian.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/10-ways-libraries-can-use-rss/
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