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New Ways of Delivering Service: Blogs and RSS
By Ian Baaske, NSLS
March 31, 2006
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Blogs and RSS continue to increase in mainstream popularity. Many libraries are also using these tools effectively.

Blogs

A blog is a regularly updated Web site. The site's content takes the form of "postings" with the most recent postings going to the top and the oldest postings displaying automatically to an archive section. Most blogs are syndicated through an RSS feed (described below), which is automatically updated as well. All the author of the blog—typically referred to as a blogger— has to do is log in, type a message into a few text boxes and the blogging software takes care of the rest.

Blogs are often confused with online forums, CoPs, and wikis. But unlike these other types of software, blogs do not rely on Web site visitors for their content. I often hear the question, "What if I have a blog and someone posts something inappropriate?" In a blog, the content is created and managed by the blog's author, not by visitors. Many blogs do offer the opportunity for readers to post comments; many don't, and almost all blogging software allows for commenting to be turned on or off.

Blogging has gained a lot of attention in the last couple of years, mostly due to its heavy influence in political circles. Collectively, blogs can have a decided impact through cross-linking, persistence, and determination. Bloggers foiled a proposed Virginia law that would require mothers to report miscarriages to the police within twelve hours or face jail time. Conservative bloggers are largely credited with the CBS News's eventual retraction of its report on the President's National Guard service. If nothing else, this demonstrates the power blogs can have. In this month's Vanity Fair, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller blames the blogosphere for much of her troubles, but concedes that getting appalled at blogs themselves would be "like getting appalled at the Industrial Revolution."

In libraries, blogs are often used as publishing tools such as Algonquin Area Public Library's Community Site or Thomas Ford Memorial Library. In these cases, blogging software is used as a way to quickly and easily publish, syndicate, and archive announcements of interest to the community or to library patrons.

Many librarians maintain individual blogs with commentary and thoughts on the profession. Two of my favorites are Librarian in Black and Library Stuff and of course our own brand new NSLS blogs.

One of the NSLS blogs, Ad Lib, focuses on library advocacy issues. But because it's maintained by an NSLS staff member, it's limited legally in the sorts of commentary it can make on policy, referendums, and civil liberties. (Basically it can inform but not advocate.) There may be a place in the future for an interlinked collection of library-related blogs, maintained by private citizens, and advocating library issues.

RSS

Fourteen years ago, when, in his darkly brilliant song, "The Future," Leonard Cohen first sang, "Things are going to slide in all directions / Won't be nothing you can measure any more," he probably wasn't referring to the Internet as it is now. Yet the description fits. The web is filling constantly with new information. It would be impossible to know about, let alone have a chance to look at, all that there is to see about any given topic.

RSS is one of the better tools for coping with the constant stream of data. At its bare bones, an RSS feed is a way for a Web site to broadcast the fact that it's been updated and what new information has been added. Using software called "an aggregator," users can subscribe to RSS feeds—as many as they like—and see almost immediately any news or updates to the sites they've chosen. I use a desktop aggregator called Abilon, but there are any number of others, including SharpReader, AmphetaDesk and the Web-based Bloglines and News Is Free.

Abilon sits in the lower-right hand corner of my screen. Periodically (I have it set for every ten minutes), it checks all of the feeds I've subscribed to. Updates to blogs, news stories, comments made to my Flickr photos, changes to wikis, Sarah Long's latest Daily Herald column—anything new in any of these areas will appear briefly, hovering in the corner of my screen. I can click on it if I'm interested, ignore it if I'm not or go in and read it later. But the burden has shifted. No longer do I have to remember to check every Web site that might be updated. I can see at a glance which have and which haven't.

RSS is a great tool for developers as well. Content syndicated through RSS can be reworked and redisplayed in web applications. NorthStarNet's Community-in-a-Box project uses RSS feeds from calendars, news, weather, and blogs to create a seamless, integrated, automatically-updated community portal. Check out Algonquin and Lake Zurich Area.

Technology companies are working to integrate RSS more seamlessly into the web experience. The new version of Internet Explorer (now available in Beta) has RSS support built in as does the current version of Apple's browser, Safari. Firefox has something it calls "Live Bookmarks" which are browser bookmarks that automatically check RSS feeds for updates.

My Yahoo! and Google use RSS to create and display their customized portal pages. However, because of the finite screen real estate available to such pages, they're inherently limited.

Yahoo! is also experimenting with integrating RSS into email. An already existing service called R-Mail allows people to receive an email message when a feed is updated. However, many people feel they receive way too much email as it is. My guess is that eventually online information will segment into 1) critical, which you'll receive in some form of Instant Messenger; 2) personal, meaning from a person directed to you specifically, which you'll receive in some form of email and 3) informational, which will come in some form of RSS. But it's just guess: things are going to slide in all directions.

About the Author

Ian Baaske is a Web Applications Developer at NSLS who writes the code and programs for NSLS's various Web sites.

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