Keep up with RSS feeds using Netvibes

Editor's Notes

1. This is a snapshot of a practical session I do with academic staff.
2. Definitions:Most people will tell you that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what it stands for, you just need to know what it does and how it can help you keep up to date with whatever you’re interested in.
3. An RSS feed automatically alerts you to new content that has been added to a website. Not every website has an RSS feed but the ones that do will have an icon like the orange button here or you might see the words RSS feed or News feeds or ‘subscribe to this feed’. Most people will recognise the RSS logo on the BBC News home page.
4. Web2Practice have produced a short animated video that explains RSS in simple terms.
5. Netvibes is one of many feed readers that are freely available. One of the reasons we like netvibes is that you can make your page public as well as sharing with colleagues.
6. I create a demonstration page before the session to demonstrate how you can use RSS feeds in your everyday life. Depending on the audience, I’ll add a feed from The Archers, the weather, twitter feed, football team feed etc.
7. Then I create another tab which shows how you can keep up to date with your research topics. On this slide you’ll see feeds from journal titles, a saved search alert from a database and a saved search alert to the library catalogue.