Library Services and Collections

The following information is taken from Are you ready for Web 2.0? An Introduction to Blogs & RSS by Nicole Engard (accessed 5/1/06)

What is a Blog?

A blog is a website in which journal entries are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog (accessed on 1/19/06)

What makes a blog a blog?

• Posts displayed in reverse chronological order (this is a definite)
• Posts made on a regular basis (web sites are mostly static, blogs change)

It's that simple!

What is RSS?

The technology of RSS [Real Simple Syndication] allows Internet users to subscribe to websites that have provided RSS feeds; these are typically sites that change or add content regularly. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) (accessed on 1/19/06)

What does that mean?

You can be notified when there is a change on a website (more specifically a blog) if that site offers a RSS feed.

One of the original uses for RSS was syndication. This means that you could publish content from another website on your own site for others to read.

RSS feeds are difficult to read without an aggregator or feed reader of some sort - see: www.jenkinslaw.org/webblits/rss.php.