Blogging as a Tool: Innovative Approaches to Information Access
| Pages | 28-32 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050510640512 |
| Published date | 01 October 2005 |
| Date | 01 October 2005 |
| Author | Jay Bhatt |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Blogging as a Tool: Innovative Approaches to
Information Access
Jay Bhatt
28 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 9 2005, pp. 28-32, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050510640512
What is a blog? What does RSS
mean? What are feedreaders?
Blog
According to Jill Walker in her jill/
txt blog, ``A weblog, or blog, is a
frequently updated website consisting
of dated entries arranged in reverse
chronological order so the most recent
post appears first (see temporal
ordering).'' This definition of
``weblog'' is written for the Routledge
Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory to be
published sometime later this year.
Anyone can post information on the
web even without having the
knowledge of HTML language or any
other web authoring tools. Virginia
Montecino in Introduction to Internet
Terminology writes, ``With a blog, any
information entered is immediately
published on the web site it represents.''
A blog, therefore, can be a very
useful tool for communicating new
ideas and thoughts to a large number of
people quickly. From the academic
library perspective, a blog can be used
to broadcast useful information to
faculty and students in any specific
subject areas or it can be geared toward
a general audience within the university
community. Whatis.com in its
definition of blog points out, ``Many
blogs syndicate their content to
subscribers using RSS, a popular
content distribution tool.''
RSS
RSS stands for rich site summary. It
also stands for really simple
syndication. Virginia Montecino in
Introduction to Internet Terminology
states that, ``RSS ± (rich site summary
or RDF [resource description
framework] site summary). An XML
format for sharing content among
different web sites such as news items.
How does it work? A web site can allow
other sites to publish some of its content
by creating an RSS document and
registers the document with an RSS
publisher. A web publisher can post a
link to the RSS feed so users can read
the distributed content on his/her site.
Syndicated content can include news
feeds, listings of events, stories,
headlines, etc.''
Jay Bhatt, Peggy Dominy and Andy
Wheeler point out in their poster Keep
Up-To-Date Using Subject Specific
Blogs, RSS Feeds, and Listservs that
Blogs (a combination of the words
``web'' and ``logs'') and RSS feeds are
informal but valuable means of
communication to keep track of the
ever-increasing flow of new
information. With the laptop and the
internet connection provided, one can
access variety of blogs and RSS feeds
from different disciplines. Their poster
handout provides some additional
information on blogging and RSS feeds.
Feedreaders and Bloglines
A Feedreader is a lightweight open-
source aggregator that supports RSS
and ATOM formats. To be able to
access RSS feeds from different blogs
that provide them, one needs to
download a feed reader on their
computers. There are several RSS
readers available.
RSS Compendium is a list with links
to a variety of RSS readers categorized
by different platforms http://allrss.com/
rssreaders.html
A web-based free service called
Bloglines, can also be used to subscribe
to different RSS feeds from variety of
blogs when available. Feeds when
available, are indicated by either an
RSS or XML icon. Once the URL
associated with these icons is copied
and pasted into the Bloglines account or
in any feedereaders, feeds for that site
become available. When using
Bloglines, downloading of a feed reader
is not required and therefore feeds from
blogs can be accessed from anywhere
anytime.
According to the frequently asked
questions section in Bloglines,
Bloglines is a ``news aggregator'' of
many online information sources, such
as web sites, weblogs and news
services, now broadcast their content to
the web in so-called ``syndicated feeds''
or ``news feeds'' with new technologies
like RSS and ATOM. News aggregator
software and services collect those
syndicated feeds and present them to
end users in a variety of ways.
More information on how to set up
bloglines is available on several web
sites and presentations. Randy
Reichardt's Blogging & RSS:
Applications and Technology ±
Examples from an Academic Library ±
presentation at CLA 2005 provides an
excellent guide on using Bloglines to
receive feeds from different blogs.
Applications in libraries
There are many ways in which blogs
and RSS feeds can be used in the
academic library environment to
promote and market library services
and resources to faculty and students. In
this paper, their applications for the
engineering faculty and students at
Drexel University are described. A
poster presented during the Annual
Research Day (2005) on blogging is
available at ``Assisting faculty and
students in keeping up-to-date in their
area of research using subject specific
blogs and RSS (Real Simple
Syndication/Rich Site Summary) feeds'
and a copy of the handout is available at
``Handout to accompany the poster on
blogging''.
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