Rich Site Services: Web Feeds for Extended Information and Library Services
September 22nd, 2004Just in time for my fall presentation schedule, Gerry McKiernan has a wonderful overview on using RSS applications in libraries.
Also, he’s got a new acronym for RSS (did we really need one?) - Rich Site Services. I like that. It may start to confuse people more though. Another note: I mentioned a few months ago that Ingenta will be the leader in RSS feeds for online vendors. Gerry proves my point by highlighting their work:
“IngentaConnect, the-journal collection offered by Ingenta Inc., is a notable example of a vendor service, providing Web feeds for each of its more than 28,700 journals”
Also, he has other great ideas:
“In addition to current implementations, other library functions and services could also be enhanced through a broader use of Web feeds. For example, the review of newly published and forthcoming titles by selectors and bibliographers could be significantly expedited if publishers and book vendors provided feeds for individual titles and disciplines. If electronic journal vendors and publishers syndicated their content, users could choose to receive desktop notification for newly-published relevant articles by journal title or discipline.”
Yes Yes Yes!! We RSS promoters have been saying this all along. I think that the most important thing here is to be brave and get the product out there. That’s what Ingenta did. I already have feeds created for new books added to the Amazon database for specific keywords. Why not from my library catalog? Why not new articles from content providers for my keywords. It’s a no brainer, really. Guys: don’t say that we didn’t warn you about this stuff. We attend conferences and when we mention RSS, we get blank stares in return. Open up your eyes and unclog those ears. Your customers are going to want this technology soon. You might as well beat them to the punch and at least look smart.
Another idea: Open up those backends and let the librarians do it themselves. Look how successful Google, Amazon, and Ebay API has been…