One of the advantages of RSS - as I can see it - is that the readers
allow you to bundle/manage all your feeds together in one place. Also
they can contain links to other content like MP3's etc. It's also
supported in the new beta version of IE7 see eg
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/08/02/446280.aspx - so eventually
you wont need a separate RSS reader - which will make life simpler.
Some of the bigger content providers need to look at this technology -
at the moment the only aggregator service who has done this that I'm
aware of is Proquest.
Mark Brown
Electronic Services Librarian
Library Services
University of Central England
0121 331 5291
Electronic Services:
http://library.uce.ac.uk/frameEservices.htm
Troubleshooting Form:
http://library.uce.ac.uk/trouble.htm
"If you don't make mistakes, you're not trying hard enough!"
-Charlie Parker
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Legg Rosemary
Sent: 31 January 2006 13:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Charging for alerting
Well, the answer here is, the library user tells me which titles he/she
is interested in, I do all the setting up of the etocs, then we simply
circulate them to the appropriate list by email. Where we have full
online access, I make sure they have the necessary passwords to access.
I still can't say I use RSS. Most of our users use the intranet only
intermittently, but seem much more comfortable dealing with
straightforward email.
Keeping it simple seems to be the key, certainly as far as the users are
concerned.
Rosemary Legg
Electronic Services Librarian
Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Health Library
-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of MacLeod, Roderick A
Sent: 31 January 2006 11:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Charging for alerting
What a great deal of effort seems to be expected from an average
academics who might want to keep up to date with tables of contents.
They need to:
1. Understand the concept of RSS, download a feed reader or register
with a web-based reader, locate relevant feeds from places such as the
helpful list at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/techserv/ejrnl/rss.html or
notice the 'RSS' or 'XML' graphics on some sources, and then load these
individually into their readers, periodically check individual feeds,
etc etc. This is not an easy process. An average academic might be
interested in numerous titles from numerous publishers, and the process
requires quite a bit of effort.
And/Or
2. Find email alerting TOC services, such as Zetoc or Injenta or
Contents Direct or numerous others, register, select titles of interest
from these various sources, and then wait for the barrage of individual
emails. They have to remember different usernames and passwords, and in
order to edit profiles may have to visit numerous sites. Sometimes the
email alerts will contain links straight through to the content, and
sometimes not. Even a nice service like Zetoc covers only a proportion
of available titles.
And many journals still don't have feeds or email TOCs.
Surely there's an easier way?
|