RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or (Rich Site Summary) feeds provide news headlines, brief article descriptions via a file that is automatically updated whenever those headlines/articles change, providing the user with new content in their own environment in real time. The main advantage is that the user can keep up to date with all the latest information from their favourite sites, in one place, without having to visit each site individually. The number of websites providing RSS feeds is rapidly increasing.
A feed reader is software that checks RSS feeds and lets users read any new articles that have been added to them. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications, allowing you to read feeds when not connected to a network.
Web-based news readers allow users to catch up with their RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let users store them on their main computer, in the same way that e-mail can either be downloaded or kept on a web-based service. An example of a current reader is www.feedly.com
Select the content you want to receive by finding and subscribing to the relevant RSS feeds. This is done by clicking on the orange feed button or the 'RSS' or 'XML' button eg or to enable subscription to the feed in various ways, including dragging the URL of the RSS feed into the news reader, dragging the icon into the news reader, or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in the news reader. Users can create a whole set of feeds according to topics and subscribe or unsubscribe to exactly what they want to see and when. An RSS reader can be used to receive alerts from journals and databases such as Scopus. This can be a useful way of keeping up to date with publications by a particular author.
For further information or support on creating RSS feeds contact Rachel Henderson.