How do I get RSS feeds (in general)? 
Getting an RSS feed is simple.  But first, you will need to get an RSS "news reader" (sometimes referred to as a "news aggregator").  There are many different types.  Some are web based and some are installed on your computer.  They all, basically, do the same thing.  A couple of good examples of newsreaders are Google Reader, Bloglines, SharpReader, and My Yahoo!. If you have the latest versions of Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7, news readers are already built into the web browser. You do not have to download anything extra, just click on the RSS feed button or link and follow the prompts.

After getting your news reader, it is time to get some news to read!  Most sites that offer RSS feeds should display a button similar to these.

The buttons are your link to subscribe to the feed.  The news reader that you choose should give you detailed information on how to proceed from here. 

How do I subscribe to an RSS feed?
There are a couple of different ways that you can add an RSS feed to your news reader, but in general:

1. Copy the the URL (web address) for the RSS Feed. For example, if you want to subscribe to the Pius Library News feed, you would copy the following URL: http://piuslibrarynews.wordpress.com/feed/
2. Open your news reader and select Add Feed, New Channel, Subscribe, etc. (It will vary depending on what news reader you use.)
3. Paste the URL into the box that asks for the address of the feed.
4. Follow prompts as directed.

How do I subscribe to a Podcast feed?
There are a couple of different ways that you can add the a podcast feed to your news reader but, in general:

1. Copy the following URL (web address) for the podcast feed. For example, if you want to subscrbie to the Student-to-Student Podcast feed, you would copy the following URL: http://libraries.slu.edu/podcasts/podcastrss.xml
2. Open your news reader and select Add Feed, New Channel, Subscribe, etc. (It will vary depending on what news reader you use.)
3. Paste the URL into the box that asks for the address of the feed.
4. Follow prompts as directed.

Or to subscribe through iTunes:

1. Copy the same URL for the podcast feed.
2. Open iTunes and click on Advanced, then select Subscribe to Podcasts.
3. Paste the URL into the box that asks for the address of the feed.
4. Click on the title of the podcast to view and play all of the episodes.

Page adapted from Loudon County Library, Virginia.

Last updated December 5, 2007.