About RSS and feeds
What is RSS?
RSS stands for either Really Simple Syndication... or Rich Site Summary... or RDF Site Summary (depending on your point of view!). It's an increasingly common way of giving you control over the amount of information out there on the web. Rather than having to consult each web site and database in turn, keeping track of what interests you and culling the vast quantity of data that doesn't interest you, RSS gives you the power to identify what really interests you and ensure that it is delivered to your desktop.
A large number of web sites now provide RSS feeds, including the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, a plethora of web logs ("blogs"), and of course all those sites that specialise in mysterious IT topics! Feeds are now seen as an excellent way of gaining personalised access to news stories as soon as they are released.
How to tap into RSS resources
In order to read RSS "feeds" you need an RSS reader. There are many readers available to you, as a quick web search will indicate. Some cost a small amount of money, others are freeware. Some integrate with your internet browser software while others are standalone packages. Following the recent release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 7, which has a built-in feed reader, we anticipate that feeds are going to become much more widely used and understood.
If you have access to a feed reader, you can subscribe to our Maxus News Feed. Set your feed reader to check for updates regularly, and it will do so in the background. It will deliver news items from our web site straight to your desktop as soon as we publish them to the web! And of course you can subscribe to other web sites' RSS feeds, too, if your organisation's policies permit.
How to subscribe to the Maxus News Feed
The following screen shots show you how easy it is to use your RSS reader to subscribe to our feed. In creating the screen shots we used Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 as our browser software and as our feed reader. You can download any reader that suit your needs; you may find that your reader handles subscriptions slightly differently from Internet Explorer 7.
On our News page, you will find the universally recognised orange feed icon. Simply click on the icon to open the feed:
If you have not already subscribed to this particular feed, your Internet Explorer browser will give you the chance to subscribe:
When you click to subscribe, the subscription dialogue will open:
Click Subscribe again and the feed will be added to the list of feeds that you can see in your Internet Explorer Favorites Center pane:
Our news items provide you with a headline and a short abstract. If you want more information, you can either click to read more within your reader software or click to open the news item in your web browser software. And if you set your reader to check our feed on a regular basis for news items, each headline will be delivered to you as soon as it is released.
RSS and WebPublisher PRO
RSS feeds use XML as their engine. This means the feeds that you find on sites like ALIAnet, afl.com.au or so many private individuals' travel blogs are all written in XML. Because WebPublisher PRO has been using XML for several years, the great news is that Maxus can easily help you to create RSS feeds from your existing WebPublisher PRO textbases! Our own Maxus News Feed is powered by a CS/WebPublisher PRO textbase and it illustrates how you can use WebPublisher PRO to create new items for your users. As well, if you have a WebPublisher PRO library or museum catalogue, it's very easy to provide your users with an RSS feed of new items in your catalogue. You can even provide them with a personalised feed – instead of a feed of all the new items added to your catalogue, your users will receive information on only those items that match their specific subject interests.
RSS is user friendly, it's immediate, it's personalised, and it delivers relevant content without you or your users having to do anything. Contact Maxus or your local representative to find out how we can help you maximise your services with RSS.
Please contact Maxus for more information about any of the services mentioned.