Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide

Citation

Macoustra, J. (2008), "Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide", Library Management, Vol. 29 No. 6/7, pp. 620-622. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120810894590

This book is a detailed guide to everything related to blogging and RSS. Its scope does not necessarily have to be aimed only for the use of a librarian/information professional within a library; anyone could pick up this book and make good use of it. However, its focus is towards the library and information environment, and is somewhat US‐centric. That factor is not a barrier to the reader from exploring blogs that are written from within their own location.

As an avid reader of RSS feeds and blogs, I knew I would be able to learn more from the content provided by the author.

The author introduces us to the initial concept of a blog, what it is, what it can do and why it is a very useful tool. He also makes the reader aware that there are different types of blogs, which range from topical blogs which focus on an individual specialist subject, organisational blogs where employees can interact internally and then personal opinion blogs, which represent the thoughts and writings of an individual. This raises the readers' awareness that what has been written may be highly subjective, and should be treated as an individual opinion.

There is a brief look at the short history of blogging and its impact so far on other types of media and how people receive information from the outside world. The author says that the early bloggers put their readers at risk of boredom by writing about what they had for lunch etc. But things have moved on in leap and bounds since those days. It looks at the impact blogging has had on search engines and how they have altered basic search results and demonstrates how rumours can be spread by opinion as well as fact. Blogging has had a major affect on topics from serious issues like politics and religion through to the more bizarre subjects.

In the second chapter the author takes us through some of the blogs written by librarians and then a selection of interviews with some of them. The interviews take the form of standard questions and those interviewed are made up of people who are well known in our industry and those who are not so well known. There is plenty of scope to discover new bloggers and tomorrows' rising stars. One blogger interviewed described an egotistical element of bloggers as being a possible problem given the power that can be wielded by the writer. The bloggers also list the favourite top five blogs that they read.

I found particular enjoyment in the blog example for the Dewey Decimal Classification system, 025.431: The Dewey Blog. The example shown “Do stupid things faster with more energy” takes the reader through what the writer Jonathan Furner enjoys as his favourite national dish, (six pints of Stella and a chicken tikka masala) on to the fact that the medical establishment has decided that coffee is good for you. This observation takes him onto coffee classification, starting with the basic code for coffee with some lateral thought through agriculture, coffeehouses and management of public households. I found it interesting seeing an example of how classification can take on so many different facets from a single word. I should be grateful that he didn't try and classify six pints of Stella and a chicken tikka masala according to Dewey …

As you work your way through the examples you have the urge to have your laptop open ready to explore these blogs further. They are articulately written and contain a sense of humour in some instances.

The miscellaneous blogs section is also worth exploring as they give examples outside of the library environment, opening the way to other uses for blogging outside of the professional world.

Chapter 4 asks “Why blog?” and then takes the reader through detailed instructions on how to start and the methods available. Using one particular blogging product, there is instruction for choosing a template, profile management and posting. It looks at options and settings for using the software and then progresses on to two other forms of blogging; moblogging and podcasting. At this point, there is no technical knowledge required, as the software has it built in and a server is available for the blog creators' use as part of the product.

The next chapter is a complete guide to RSS. As someone who had set up their first RSS feeds using initiation by fire, it was interesting to see if I had actually started off correctly when I set up my first feeds. The chapter looks at the history of feed development through to present technologies and takes a look at what's in a feed, demonstrating the XML‐based language used to create them, breaking it down into sections that can be easily understood by the reader.

A table is provided showing the features of the various types of feeds and then onto screen examples of feeds and how to locate them.

The reader progresses on to the subject of aggregators, what they are and how to use them to subscribe to feeds. Once the reader has subscribed to a selection of feeds there are instructions on how to manage them efficiently. There is a huge amount of information provided that a novice would find invaluable.

The chapter brings podcasting and RSS into the equation, which is fairly technical. The author stresses that an iPod is not necessary to podcast, and there are other media available that can be used to create a podcast.

Chapter 7 gives more resources not already covered in the book to locate feeds and other services created by libraries. Again, the resources are US‐focussed, but that is not a particular deterrent to locating relevant sites in the readers' own location. The BBC and the Encyclopaedia Britannica were included as a resource.

The final chapter on creating feeds describes the three ways that this can undertaken but that the options are dependent on the content source. The first option is to write the coding yourself. Once I had got past this section, I was relieved that there were other options available to the creator of feeds. The third option of creating a fully‐automated feed was more appealing to me. Detailed instruction is provided on how to do this and how to add external content to the site. The copyright aspect of adding content written by others is addressed as a “fair use” issue, as is the down side of that content doing a disappearing act, should the provider of that information move or delete it.

Finally, there is a comprehensive list of further reading, a section of examples of feed codes and a glossary.

I enjoyed this book, and should I decide to start my own blog, I know what my reference material will be to assist me in the task. In the short term, I will stick with reading the pleasing offerings of other bloggers.