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Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds allow you to view the headlines of news content from several sources in one location. RSS feeds may come from blogs maintained by professionals who post links to articles and significant Websites or the feeds may come from reputable business databases and news Websites.  Listed below are the directions for getting started. Please Ask a Librarian if you have any questions or problems.

1. Find an Aggregator

There are many aggregators out there. Some cost money and others don’t. Some are downloaded to your desktop and others are web-based. To get started we will use a web-based aggregator called Bloglines. To register for an account go to: http://www.bloglines.com/register.

 

2. Find RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are very popular and many news sites provide access to RSS Feeds. To determine if a news source you use provides RSS Feeds look for a small orange button that says RSS or XML.

Sometimes sites provide a link to RSS feeds at the bottom of the main Website page.

3. Add RSS Feeds to Your Blogline Account

a) Login to Bloglines and click on the tab labeled My Feeds.

b)  Just underneath the tab you should see a link to add RSS ffeeds.  Click on this button.

c) Next open up a new browser window by clicking on File at the top of your screen, then click on New, and finally click on Window.

You should now have two browser windows open.  In one is your Bloglines account.  In the other you will search for sites that have RSS feeds. 

Go to the site that has the RSS Feeds you want to access.  Click on the orange RSS feed button (or XML button).  A page full of html coding should appear.  Copy the URL from the page that contains the coding.

d) Paste the copied URL into the box on the Bloglines page next to the words Blog or Feed URL.  Then click on subscribe. 

 

Repeat this process until your Blogline account contains all the feeds you want to access.  Next time you come into your Bloglines account you will have the headlines and abstracts (and sometimes fulltext) of all the news you want to read.