RSS

Have you noticed these orange boxes popping up on your favorite web pages? They are a sign that the web page has an RSS feed. RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication, and it allows you to subscribe to a web site through an aggregator. You are notified in your aggregator when changes have been made to the site. The site "feeds" the aggregator the updated information. It is like having a subscription to a magazine, instead of having to check the newsstand to see when the new issue is out.

Here are some sites that explain RSS in more detail:
RSS quickstart
RSS Feeds from Evaluate It
RSS from Wikipedia
Aggregator from Wikipedia

Here are links to some popular aggregators:
Bloglines webbased
Sharpreader for Windows
Net News Wire for Macs
Straw for Linnux
List of Other Aggregators

Not only do individual web pages have RSS feeds, but often blogs do as well. Subscribing to a blog makes keeping up with it that much easier. What's a blog? Wikipedia has an excellant description of a blog.

So far, we have a number of pages with RSS feeds at Hackley Public Library:
New Sites (actual page), New Sites (feed)
Events at the Library (acutal page), Events at the Library (feed)
Top of the Stairs (actual page), TOTS (feed)
New Books(actual page), New Books (feed)
If you click on the acutal page link, it takes you to the page on the library's web site. If you click on the feed link, you will get a lot of code. To subscribe, copy the address that appears in the location area, and paste it into the area of your aggregator where you add sites. Your aggregator will have more specific instructions. You can also subscribe from the page by clicking on the orange button "" that appears on the page to which you want to subscribe.