LIBR 246-12: Web 2.0 and Social Networking Tools (Fall 2008)

September 15 - September 21, 2008

• Learning Objectives
• Lecture
• Readings
• Examples
• Things to Do
  

Learning Objectives

By the end of the week, you should:

1. Understand what RSS is and what can be done with it.

2. Identify uses of RSS in libraries.

3. Be able to manipulate RSS feeds and display them on a website.

 

Lecture

Quicktime Movie (15 minutes)

Slides (PDF)

Transcript (PDF)

 

Readings

Required

Farkas, Chapter 4

“7 Things You Should Know About RSS.” Educause.
Reichardt, R. "Success Story: RSS Moves into the Mainstream at the University of Alberta Libraries." Library Connect, 3.2.
Schroeder, S. “The RSS Cookbook – 10 Advanced RSS Tricks.” Frantic Industries.
Rothman, D. (2008). "Favorite RSS Resources and Tools."

Optional
Rethlefsen, M. (2007). "Using RSS to Add Currency to the Library Website." (Video)
This video offers useful instruction on how to do some of the activities you will need to do this week. Here is the website Melissa developed during the video.

 

Examples

1. Homer Township Public Library

2. Norwich University Library Databases for Military History page (note the syndicated blog content on the side of the page)

3. Do some searches in the Hennepin County Public Library Catalog and notice the RSS feed on the right-hand side of the page. Do a subject search for “cookery” and click on the RSS icon.

4. Seattle Public Library Reader's Corner (RSS feeds for every book list)

5. University of Alberta's New Books by Subject

 

Things to Do

1. Explore the above examples.

2. Complete Exercise 2, due September 20.

3. Write at least one blog post on one (or more) of the following topics (due September 20):

1. Why should libraries care about RSS?

2. How can you envision using some of the tools you used in Exercise 2 in a library environment?

3. Write your own reflections on what you learned this week.

4. Write a blog post that includes a brief description of an article, technology, blog post, or other interesting resource outside of the classwork you've found that's related to that week's topic. Be sure to include a link to the resource (due September 20).

5. Comment on at least two other people's blog posts (due September 22).