Week 2: RSS & Newsreaders

Read

7 Things You Should Know About RSS (PDF), by Educause Learning Initiative

View

RSS in Plain English, by Common Craft



Do

1. Use your browser to go to www.bloglines.com.


2. Create a free Bloglines account. For help see "How do I sign up?" or other FAQs.


3. Subscribe to the Library News blog by
   
   
   
   1. Signing in to Bloglines
   
   
   2. Clicking "Add"
   
   
   3. Typing http://neiuinfo.org/librarynews into the Blog or Feed URL box
   
   


4. Subscribe to a few of the NEIU staff blogs created in last week's module. For a list of these see the Library Bloggers area in the sidebar.


5. Search Bloglines by keyword choosing "Search for Feeds" to find additional blogs of interest. Anything: reading, quilting, gardening, motorcycles, tattoos...


6. Share your Bloglines blogroll by
   
   
   
   1. Signing in to Bloglines
   
   
   2. Clicking "Account" (upper right), then "Blog Settings"
   
   
   3. Filling in a User Name and choosing "Yes, publish my Blogroll"
   
   
   4. Clicking the "Save Changes" button
   
   
   5. Posting the blogroll URL on your blog
      
      example: http://www.bloglines.com/public/lisacwallis
   
   
   
   

Please note you have the option of making each RSS feed you add either public or private. Public feeds will show up in your blogroll; private feeds will not.

Explore

Bloglines isn't the only free Web-based newsreader available. You could also use:

• NewsGator Online


• Google Reader

RSS Feeds also have special search engines to help you identify additional resources. To find more feeds to add to Bloglines, search:

• Robin Good's Best Blog Directory and RSS Submission Sites


• The RSS directories of Google, MSN, and Yahoo!