 A patient education library with a quiet space, good lighting and comfortable furniture To browse other articles on a range of HSL topics, see the wiki index.
Introduction
See also Current awareness services in health libraries | Medical podcasts & videocasts | Social media aggregators
RSS is an abbreviation for really simple syndication or rich site summary. RSS is one of several social media formats that facilitates electronic alerting and information 'syndication'. RSS feeds make this possible, for example, by keeping users up with their favourite websites without having to visit those websites regularly. Instead, updates are sent via an RSS feed to an aggregator. Users read the updates on their own readers. 'RSS feeds' or 'web feeds' syndicate content using RSS or Atom technology. Some websites that feature RSS do so by listing the terms "XML", "RSS" or "syndicate this site". RSS technologies allow users to see updates in XML (a markup language for data formats), delivered to a reader as a file or feed. An RSS aggregator such as Google reader is needed to read feeds. Some social media enthusiasts have switched to using Twitter in lieu of their RSS readers.
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Where RSS feeds are used
- Blogs - to alert readers when new information is posted
- Newspapers and journals - to alert readers when news is published
- Press releases and announcements - RSS is a useful tool for formal announcements, such as those from Health Canada.
- News updates - Google News
- PubMed has an RSS feature for current awareness as do other databases such as EBSCO.
Readers, Aggregators and Searching RSS feeds
Broadly speaking, RSS aggregators are categorized as follows:
- Google Reader and iGoogle are free readers
- Here's a list of RSS readers:
- Standalone clients - use to downloaded results to your computer. SharpReader is a popular free standalone RSS reader.
- Plugins can be used into some browsers and e-mail systems such as Microsoft Outlook, and downloaded to your desktop.
For an introduction to RSS, use an aggregator. No software is needed, and your account can be accessed from any computer. MedWorm is a free medical RSS provider and search tool built on data collected from RSS feeds. It collects updates from 2500 data sources. MedWorm provides new feeds for quick browsing.
RSS feeds for TOCs
- Alternatively, you can also set up RSS feeds to customized searches (including searches by journal title) in PubMed and in OvidSP.
Top RSS Feeds in Medicine
- PubMed.gov & Hubmed.org - information is pushed via RSS feed as research is published.
- Recent medical, clinical & research findings of importance.
- BioMedCentral (BMC) - The Open Access Publisher
- Nature Publishing - Medicine
- Open Medicine - http://openmedicine.ca/feed/RSS2
- Science magazine
- International weekly. Science news, commentary and research. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
- http://www.sciencemag.org/rss
- CBC News - Health & Science
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Library of Medicine (NLM)
- Medscape (WebMD)
- National Library for Health (NLH)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
Specialized Lists of RSS Feeds
- Top seven physiotherapy journals - feed by the UBC Physio Info-Blog
- RSS for Medics
- University of Alberta Health Research feeds
- University of Manitoba Health Sciences
- RSS feeds in the areas of psychology, mental health and neuroscience
Using RSS feeds in health
The content delivered via web feeds is usually in a markup language. As health websites are updated, the RSS feeds that have been created on those sites help to notify end-users that changes have been made. Often, the RSS feed is a summarized version like an abstract or information snippet rather than the text of a full article.
RSS and other web-based feeds have offered advantages for the user experience:
- Users can be notified of new content without having to actively check for it in e-mail.
- Information presented to users in an aggregator is typically simpler, and easy to read.
- Numerous medical journal feeds, pages, and websites are now integrated in one place.
- Media files like podcasts and vodcasts can be automatically downloaded without user intervention.
RSS readers and aggregators like Bloglines and MedWorm monitor live feeds and display articles as they are published. Most major websites and journals in medicine now have RSS and XML feeds. Some allow selecting between RSS and Atom formats.
Tutorials
References
- Barsky E. Introducing web 2.0: RSS trends for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2006;27(1):7-8.
- Barsky E. Introducing web 2.0: weblogs and podcasting for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2006;27(1):33-34.
- Barsky E, Giustini D. Introducing web 2.0: wikis for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2007;28(4):147-15
- Barsky E, Cho A. Introducing web 2.0: social search for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2006;27(1):
- Boulos MNK, Maramba I, Wheeler S. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ. 2006;6:41.
- Chu LF, Young C, Zamora A. Anesthesia 2.0: internet-based information resources and Web 2.0 applications in anesthesia education. Curr Opin Anaesthesiol. 2010;23(2):218-27.
- Giustini D. How web 2.0 is changing medicine. BMJ. 333(7582): 1283-84.
- Johnson SM, Osmond A, Holz RJ. Developing a current awareness service using really simple syndication (RSS). J Med Libr Assoc. 2009;97(1):52-4.
- Kamel Boulos MN, Wheeler S. The emerging web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. Health Info Libr J. 2007;24(1):2-23.
- Keim B. WikiMedia. Nature Medicine 2007;13:231-233.
- Winer D. RSS History
- Wittenbrink H. RSS and Atom: understanding and implementing content feeds & syndication
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