RSS is a tool that you should be looking at through two lenses. First, think about how it can be useful to you personally for keeping up with professional topics and news (and personal interests too.) There are many personal/profession blogs out there that might be worth subscribing to, for example, LibraryCrunch and Stephen’s Lighthouse. See Part 1 of the course web site under Blogs To Watch for more examples. If you are better informed and more up-to-date, that can only improve the service you provide.

But, you also should be thinking about RSS feeds in terms of how you might offer them as a convenience to your end users. Libraries are offering feeds of content they create (library news, reading recommendations, etc.) as well as leveraging feeds that are built into subscription services (i.e. databases and catalogs.) These are some of the most popular uses for RSS feeds in libraries:

• News and events promotion
• New materials or staff picks
• Integrate selected resources into courseware
• Custom search alerts from databases or catalog

See Part 2 of the course site for some examples.

Remember that in all of these cases, the information goes to the user — not the other way around. It’s all about integrating library presence and resources at likely points of need and giving the user some control over how they get their information.