RSS & Podcasts

[Kyle Cook]

RSS & Podcasts are some the easiest, most fun ways to enjoy the web. Tell us about your favorites or get help with RSS feeds and podcasts.

[Polly]

Newsgator Online is another RSS reader that is free and you don't have to download any software. If you can find a computer with Internet access, you can login and catch up on the feeds.

Here is the Library Journal link for Technology news.

It alerts me when SirsiDynix has uploaded the latest podcast of its programs for librarians.

Lots of librarians write blogs so if one is steadily useful, then I subscribe to the blog. Once subscribed, the RSS automatically pulls the latest posts from the blog into Newsgator without my having to do anything. Yay!

Feeds can be automatically sorted into folders according to subject matter or urgency or any other way you want. Individual posts can be archived into folders of the Clippings directory in your account at Newsgator for later use.

Anytime an RSS feed no longer meets the need, it is easily deleted with a click in My Feeds.

Give it a try - I've been using it for several years.

[Jenny Ellis]

Thanks for all the wonderful tips, Polly!

[Susan P.]

One of the features I like about Google Reader is the ability to share items -- if I find a blog posting to be particularly interesting or useful or whatever, I can click on the "share" or "share with note" button and Google creates a webpage that I can refer people to (if I'm so inclined). For those of us who remain blogless, it can be a way to tell family and friends, "Here's what's been keeping me from calling/writing/emailing."

[James Staub]

Personally, I try to keep my feeds to a minimum - fewer than 10. But I took today's challenge and subscribed to the This American Life feed, and discovered this animated short by Chris Ware for a classic TAL story. Thanks, RSS! (And thanks, Susan, for showing me how to share in Google Reader!)

[Jim Havron]

James' comment, "Personally, I try to keep my feeds to a minimum" is the trick for me. When I first learned about RSS I subscribed to too many feeds figuring I would sort through them later and find out which ones I wanted to keep. I found myself looking back later and just cutting feeds without reading/listening because I just had too many. I find it easy to get more information coming in than I have time to process.

For those interested, StoryCorps does a podcast of the weekly broadcast that they do on NPR. Links to the feed at www.storycoprs.net.

[Genny]

James recorded a StoryCorps interview with an amazing man named Hector Black. It was featured on the NPR - I remember hearing it on a broadcast of "All Things Considered" while driving to work one day.

It is a tragic story that Mr. Black tells with dignity and compassion. You can find the interview by searching StoryCorps with either James' name - his last name, Staub, will bring it up - or Mr. Black's.

[Christi U.]

Do you mean www.storycorps.net ?

[Lara Beth Lehman]

I am looking forward to all the NPR feeds! Good suggestion.

[Susan P.]

Another way I can get away with lots of feeds (I think I'm close to 50!) is by tagging them. That way I can just look at library or children's lit blogs at work and save my knitting ones for home!

[Joell Smith-Borne]

This is fabulous--two of my favorite things in one! Thanks for the tip!

[Mei]

Good idea to limit the nubmer of feeds. I also try to avoid ones with too many weekly posts since I know I won't have time for them.

[Margaret Brown]

Well, I already had Google Reader, and it works fine, when I remember to look at it. I've gone a little crazy subscribing to RSS feeds, so I have way too many. Maybe I need to dump some of them. Anyway, I didn't know about sharing them. Cool! Let's see if this works:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/09289815622466004386

So how did my avatar get on there? I'm clueless about that.