#12 Discovering feeds on our catalog and website

Now that you've had a chance to explore RSS and feeds we're going to take a look at how our new catalog and website uses feeds to send information out to our patrons.

Once you're familiar with it, you'll start to see that bright orange RSS logo popping up all over the internet and our catalog is no exception.

The catalog incorporates some popular RSS feeds all in one place for our patrons to easily browse without having to sign up for an account with a feed reader service such as Google Reader or Bloglines. The drawback of this ease of use is the inability to adjust which feeds they read.

Our website also has RSS feeds within the site that allow a patrons to subscribe to popular content such as upcoming programs, new books and new DVDs using their own feed reader (Google Reader, Bloglines, etc.). In this manner all of the frequently updated content on our website is automatically being pushed to the patron without the patron having to search our site for the information.

Try It Out!

1. Go to the catalog and review our feeds.
2. Now spend some time browsing our new website. Can you find the feeds? What other interesting content can you find on our new site?
   
3. Using the account you set up in the previous exercise, subscribe to a feed you found.
4. Go back to your blog and write a blog posting describing your experiences using RSS feeds in these two different manners. How do you think patrons will respond to these technologies? How can the catalog and website RSS feeds help us serve the public more efficiently?
5. Be sure to visit the staff page to submit this exercise as described in exercise #1. Don't forget to add a link to your blog posting. Read below for more information.
   

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Recording Progress:


Recording progress on the staff page is as easy as cut-n-paste.

First you'll need to sign up. This will be covered in the directions for activity #1.

For the first two activities, just check off the appropriate check box as discussed in "Sign up for MMSCL 2.0". Once you start recording your discoveries through your own blog (activity #3), you will need to check-off the item and enter the permanent link to the individual blog post that covers the exercise or "thing."

Depending upon the Blogger template that you selected, the "permanent link" for each individual post can be found either through the post’s title or through a link in the posts footer area the contains the date.

To record progress for an individual item on the Staff Page:

1. Log in to your blogger.com account that you created in activity #3.
   
2. Click on the permanent link for the individual post.
   
   Example:
   
   Here is where you would find the perma link for this sample blog post:
   
   
   Click on this link to see actual post.
   
   
3. Select the "permanent link" url from the address bar at the top of your browser and right click. Select Copy.
   
   
4. Follow the instructions from item #1: Sign up for MMSCL 2.0.
   
   
5. Right click on the address line for the item and select Paste.
   
   

See, it's as easy and copy-n-paste!

Your staff information page should now show a light grey "OK" image. After your activity has been reviewed and approved, the "OK" image will turn purple.