DIY Librarian

At a recent meeting, a colleague mentioned that we are using RSS feeds, and my boss (a professor, not a librarian) asked what an RSS feed was. I winced as my colleague launched into an explanation that began with XML.

My boss doesn’t need to know that an RSS feed is an XML file formatted to be read by a feed aggregator any more than she needs to know that our Web site is hosted on a Linux server or which brand of soap our custodian mops the floors with. All she needs to know is what we can do with the feed.

Right now, there are still a lot of people clicking on links to RSS feeds and staring, puzzled, at lines of unintelligible code. But those days are numbered. After I installed Firefox 2, the first time I clicked on an RSS link, Firefox let me know that I had encountered a machine-readable feed, and gave me some options. I selected Bloglines, because I already have an account there. Now when I click on a feed, I am automatically taken to the Bloglines subscription page—or I get a message telling me I am already subscribed to the feed.

I am sure that in the early days of television or radio, the process was a bit mystifying. But now we just take it for granted—hop in your car, turn on the radio, and let the tuner find a station for you. Soon I think news feeds will be just as automatic for most people.

So, for now, we do still need to invest a certain amount of energy in helping people use our RSS feeds. But we should also be thinking about what’s next.

I was reminded of this as I read Roy Tennant’s January Digital Libraries column in Library Journal (why yes, I am still behind on my reading), “Facing the Not Knowing.” Tennant urges us to prepare for constant change and plan for obsolescence rather than longevity. “We need to become comfortable with the not knowing,” he says.