Method 4

I am a big fan of RSS feeds. The three feeds I have posted are an example of the three areas I had and continue to use RSS feeds for.

My 3 feeds:

New York Times Theatre - http://feeds.nytimes.com/nyt/rss/Theater
I am a big fan of theatre. Before becoming a librarian I was active as an actor and director and even received a master's degree in theatre history and theory. I use a variety of RSS feeds to keep me posted on what is happening in the industry.


iLibrarian - http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/feed/
This has been my most active collection lately. I have a variety of feeds, like this one that I keep for my own professional development as a librarian. This feed is one of my favorites, because it keeps me apprised of the newest developments in social computing and how librarians may take advantage of them.

ALA Job Listings - http://joblist.ala.org/news/index.cfm?rsstitle=Latest%20ALA%20Job%20Listings
As a recent MLIS graduate my collection of job feeds were invaluable in my job search, especially in the tough economic climate we are currently facing. I strongly believe that these feeds were essential in helping me obtain my current position.

The job feeds are an excellent example of why RSS can be such a useful tool. During my job search I had subscribed to seven different feeds, all posting job openings related to library science. While there were some double postings, every feed also had items that I could not find in any other feed (whether because they were region specific, industry specific, or some other reason). If I were to search these individual websites everyday, it would easily take an hour or more. With RSS feeds, I can go to one site everyday and within minutes, go through any new postings. RSS feeds also allowed me to further specify my search. For example, in addition to the general ALA job feed, I also subscribed to feeds specific to four states that I was most interested in working in.

While I primarily use RSS for the above purposes, there are countless ways users can utilize RSS feeds, and I could not recommend it strongly enough for anyone who uses specific sites on a regular basis for information.