Developing a current awareness service using really simple syndication (RSS)
| Autor: | Rebecca J. Holz, Stephen M. Johnson, Andrew Osmond |
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| Rok vydání: | 2009 |
| Předmět: |
Markup language
Libraries Medical Computer science Abstracting and Indexing RSS Information Dissemination Information Storage and Retrieval Health Informatics Library and Information Sciences Efficiency Organizational Personalization World Wide Web Wisconsin Humans Service (business) computer.file_format Organizational Innovation Identification (information) Library Services Push technology Organizational Case Studies Table of contents Periodicals as Topic Brief Communications computer Program Evaluation |
| Zdroj: | Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA. 97(1) |
| ISSN: | 1558-9439 |
| Popis: | Current awareness services alert scholars, researchers, and health care practitioners to recently published literature in their fields of specialization. Librarians who provide these services use various methods to keep current with academic and professional literature. Traditional methods include routing print journals, distributing photocopied journal tables of contents, and simply browsing professional publications. Newer methods include conducting saved searches in preferred databases and creating email table of contents alerts. Each of these methods has disadvantages: Routed print material moves slowly, distributing photocopies is labor intensive, and browsing material requires extra time and active participation. Saved searches involve expert users and continual search amendments. Email alerts flood in-boxes already brimming with unread items. The increasing availability of publisher- and vendor-supplied really simple syndication (RSS) feeds provides another option for current awareness services, one that addresses many of the problems of traditional means. While RSS is not a new technology and feeds have been commonly available for news and blogs for many years, journal content providers were slow to follow suit. Moreover, the benefit of RSS for journal content in the dispersed digital environment is limited, as the identification, location, and management of new journal articles from multiple feeds can frustrate and overwhelm even the savviest user. While library literature on RSS feeds has been plentiful in recent years, few articles discuss services that fully leverage the “push technology” power of RSS. The idea of providing a convenient and time-saving service to library users by collecting journal feeds and then bundling them into outline processor markup language (OPML) files categorized by subject has not been developed in the literature. Only one 2007 article describes using OPML files to access information from multiple content providers without multiple subscriptions, thereby simplifying user access to the material [1]. Librarians at the Ebling Library recognized the challenges patrons face in keeping current with the literature, as well as the potential of new services utilizing RSS. While the volume of tables of contents feeds supplied by publishers and vendors have increased markedly, feeds were still not readily recognized by, or easily accessible to, Ebling Library's patrons, few of whom reported using RSS as a means of staying current with the literature. The use of OPML was well outside the mainstream of librarianship, and, even among colleagues who were aware of OPML, few had considered how it could be used to easily share groups of feeds between users and readers. The value of identifying, collecting, and categorizing new journal articles as a service to Ebling Library's clientele became apparent. After acknowledging this need, a group of six librarians set out to develop and promote a new kind of RSS-based current awareness service that would save time, minimize effort, ensure quality, and allow customization. Inspired by the Feed Navigator developed by the National Library of Health Sciences at the University of Helsinki [2], a working group was formed and charged with exploring possibilities for an RSS current awareness service. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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