#9 Finding Feeds

Listen to this podcast:

If you are hearing-impaired or do not have access to audio on your computer, a transcript of this podcast is available.

Discovery Excercise # 1:

1. Explore some of the search tools noted below that can help you locate some news feeds.

Now that you have a feed reader (your Bloglines or Google Reader account), you can begin adding other feeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate feeds:

• When visiting your favorite websites -- look for news feed icons that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site. (Here's an image that contains a sampling of several feed icons).

• Use Blogline's Search tool - Bloglines recently expanded search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations and the web. Use the Search for Feeds option to locate RSS feeds you might be interested in.

• Use Google Reader's browse feature to search for blogs, news, and other websites with RSS feeds.

• Other Search tools that can help you find feeds:

• • Feedster - One of the largest collections of RSS feeds, Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs & podcasts
  
  
  • Topix.net - This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlet RSS feeds for information, not weblogs.
    
    
  • Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted.
    
    
  • Technorati - Technorati is a popular blog finding tool that lets you search for blogs. Since RSS feeds are inherent to all blogging tools, Technorati Blog Search can help you find RSS feeds for topic specific blogs you may be interested in.
    Additonal Resource: Technorati Tutorial on finding and adding your blog
  
  
  • Your friends and co-workers -- Ask your co-workers which feeds they subscribe to. It's one of the best ways to find fun and interesting sites you'll find both enjoyable and useful to keep up with.
  
  

Many of your co-workers may already be keeping up with feeds from some of the following popular library-related websites and blogs:

• The Shifted Librarian
  
• Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology
  
• Circ and Serv: Circ. Reserves. ILL. The view from this side of the desk.
• Feel-good librarian
• Librarian in Black
• Librarian.net
• Uncontrolled Vocabulary podcast discussions about library issues
  

Check out some of the blogs above. Like what you're reading? Subscribe to the feed! You will soon discover that feeds lead to other feeds. Just like you friends in Facebook lead to other friends!



Discovery Excercise # 2:

Create a blog post about your experience. Don't forget to send an e-mail to ekulibrarylearning@gmail.com with the link to the blog for that post to get credit. Don't know what to blog about? Here some questions to think about ...

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing? What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

EXTRA STUFF -- Feed icon information:

In Febuary of this year, the adoption of a standard feed icon among websites and browsers finally began to assist in stopping the madness and confusion caused by so many variations. So far this icon has been adopted by many websites and browers, including Opera and FireFox, where it displays in the address bar:


For more information about this emerging new standard, see Feedicons.com