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About RSS feeds
About RSS
In common with many sites across the Web, NewsUK is now offering RSS as a method for users to request information about updates to its content and functionality.
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What is an RSS feed?
The term RSS is lacking a universally agreed definition, but it is commonly said to stand for ‘really simple syndication’ : you could think of it as a way of setting up your own news-gathering service, one thread of which could be monitoring the changes to our content which are of interest to your own research or to groups of users in your institution.
RSS works by displaying multiple feeds of your choice in a single interface. One of its great advantages is that any site to whose feed you subscribe will automatically send you notification of updates, but without clogging up your email inbox. Not only are you saved from having to do the check, the feed also comes with summaries of new additions as they happen.
See below for the feeds on offer in NewsUK.
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How to activate feeds
There are two steps to using RSS feeds. You first need to choose a piece of software called a feed reader (sometimes referred to as an aggregator) so that your desired feeds can be displayed direct on your own computer. Feed readers are usually free and can be accessed (and downloaded where necessary) direct from the Web.
Next, you subscribe your reader to the RSS page (see below to learn how) so that it will begin to do its scanning for updates registered there. Since the information is sent to your own desktop or laptop computer and is handled independently of the website whose content you are interested in, you will not need any authentication to receive the update. You will, however, need to be authenticated if you follow a link from the RSS feed to NewsUK.
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Choosing a feed reader
There are two kinds of reader : browser-based versions which allow you to access your feeds from any computer (much as you can read your email anywhere with a Hotmail account), and downloadable programmes which store the information on the computer (or network) where the programme is installed, rather as your standalone email client does with messages that you read through it. One advantage of browser-based readers is that they require no additional software installation.
Some browsers (Firefox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 7) and some email clients (eg Outlook 2007) incorporate RSS technology as an inbuilt part of their interface.
Note that some feed readers are not compatible with all computer systems (e.g. some are designed to work with Windows only), so you will need to check that your intended reader will run on your setup.
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Subscribing to RSS
Once you have installed your feed reader you should follow the instructions it provides in order to add the NewsUK feed(s) : common methods include
- dragging the orange RSS button
 into your feed reader
- clicking on the button to activate the link to a page from which you can usually either cut and paste or simply drag the URL of the RSS feed into your feed reader.
The automated process will do the rest, checking at regular intervals and displaying information about new additions in NewsUK as soon as it becomes available.
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Feeds available in NewsUK
NewsUK Headlines RSS feed – sign up to receive a selection of the latest headlines from the publications listed on NewsUK.
(Note : you can subscribe your feedreader to this feed by using the link(s) as described in the section above.)
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