RSS a reference service?
Two things about RSS feeds struck me as interesting as I surfed the Web. One is a post written by Colin Rhinesmith of Community Media in Transition about the importance of RSS Feeds, in particular for PEG Acess TV. And the other one is a presentation called Using RSS Personally and Professionally by Patricia F Anderson.
Rhinesmith explains that:
RSS feeds allow Internet video players (like Democracy) to subscribe to and deliver an access centers’ video to viewers on-demand. This is important because it provides a fairly easy distribution platform (and free as in Democracy: Internet TV) for PEG access TV centers looking to reach an audience on the web. This is also important for people like me who would like to have an easy way to find more access centers’ videos on the web.
Makes me wonder if RSS (and all web feeds) is a form of Reference Service? Libraries have Reference Service Desk and Librarians to help the users to get to the information as quick as possible. Blogs and websites have RSS feeds that will enable its readers to have the information and articles delivered to them.
In Reference Service, which is a service offered by a library to help its patron to get the correct information they wanted, there is a niche service called Selective Dissemination of Information or SDI service. It is a service that provides a list of reference materials for a particular topic or for a particular patron. The library patron is informed of any new additions or update periodically and consistently by the Reference Librarian. Is this the same thing?
Something to ponder about. Meanwhile, here is another teaching tool - a slide presentation from Patricia Anderson from the University of Michigan health Service.
Juned, RSS feeds are much more than just a reference tool or a delivery system! They’re data that you can use by filtering it, combining it, visualizing it, correlating it, all kinds of things! RSS Mashup tools like Yahoo! Pipes, Google Mashup Editor, and Microsoft Popfly let people do incredible things with them. Check out my post about it:
http://socialstrategist.com/2007/06/02/more-signal-less-noise-the-power-of-rss-mashups
Hope you like it!
Jay, Like the post. And I could not but agree with you. RSS may start out as a reference service or a delivery system but since it handles malleable information it could be develop into several things. All dependent on the imagination of the person and also an understanding of its user - this in itself is a sign of a good reference service.