RSS Information Page 1. What is RSS? 2. How do I subscribe? 3. Why not just visit the webpage? 4. What types of pages are available as RSS? 5. Do other websites offer pages as RSS?

1. What is RSS?

The easy answer:

It's a way to subscribe to a webpage, so you get the updates when they are posted. 
Web pages that have this feature enabled often have an orange XML indicator like this  
or an orange RSS like this   or the standard RSS feed symbol like this on the page.

Techie answer:

RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary (sometimes referred to as Really Simple Syndication); a set of XML communication standards created by Netscape. RSS allows a web developer to share the content on his/her site. RSS repackages the web content as a list of data items, to which you can subscribe from a directory of RSS publishers. RSS content usually includes news stories, headlines, content from discussion lists, or corporate announcements and is primarily used by news websites and weblogs. RSS "feeds" can be read with a web browser or special RSS reader called a content aggregator.

2. So how do I subscribe?

You use an "aggregator."

Instead of visiting all of your favorite websites individually, you can scroll the aggregated headlines using a web-based newsreader such as Bloglines, My Yahoo, NewsGator, or Feedster.
 

3. Why not just visit the webpage?

You can save time by only visiting the new entries on the updated pages.  If you were to check a web page every day to see if anything had been added, this would use valuable time, and some pages may not be updated daily.  Checking your aggregator allows you to quickly see which pages have been updated, and view the headlines, and in some cases, the full content of the new article.

4. What types of pages are available as RSS?

Spring Lake District Library has five RSS feeds. You can subscribe to 1 or all 5, it's up to you! 

SLDL Website Feed	Keep up with all the news and happenings at the library.
SLDL Program Feed	Find out what programs are being presented.
SLDL Mobile Feed	Our Mobile site.  Perfect for PDAs or Smartphones.
SLDL Storytime Feed	Keep up with the Storytime schedule.
SLDL Podcast Feed	Audio from some of our library events.

5. Do other websites offer pages as RSS?

YES! Keep up with technology news at Wired.com.

Like sports? Try WGN's Baseball site

Keep up with bestsellers at Barnes & Noble

Visit your favorite webpages and see if they offer RSS feeds!  Professional organizations and journals may also have RSS feeds available.

This page updated 12/19/2006