Taking Advantage of blog Technology and RSS

If you don't want to have to remember to check http://alaska-library-association.blogspot.com/ to see new AkLA postings, you can subscribe to the RSS feed. If you subscribe to the news feed then as long as you check your news aggregator, you'll see when a new announcement has been posted to the AkLA blog.

There are different ways to read news feeds. I'll mention a couple of ways here...

Option #1. Using Mozilla/Firefox on a PC (and perhaps a Mac?)

1. Install the Sage plugin
   
2. Close Mozilla/Firefox and then open the browser
3. In the tool bar, select Tools => Sage
   Sage should open on the left side of your browser
   
4. In the Sage dialog window, right click in the "white space" and select "New Bookmark"
5. In the "Properties for New Bookmark" dialog window:
   a. Type a Name for your feed (e.g., AkLA)
   b. Cut and paste the following URL for the Feed Location
   http://alaska-library-association.blogspot.com/atom.xml
6. Click OK
7. You're done! You should see the new resource/bookmark in the Sage window (left side of your browser). Click on the name of the resource you added (e.g. AkLA). The right side of your browser should bring you to the AkLA news feed page (e.g., postings to the AkLA blog)

Option #2. Using Mozilla/Firefox on a PC (and perhaps a Mac?)
Use "Live Bookmarks"

1. In your browser tool bar, select Bookmarks => Manage Bookmarks
2. In the "Bookmarks Manager" window, select File => New Live Bookmark
3. In the "Properties for New Bookmark" dialog window:
   a. Type a Name for your feed (e.g., AkLA)
   b. Cut and paste the following URL for the Feed Location
   http://alaska-library-association.blogspot.com/atom.xml
4. Click OK
5. You're done! The feed is now stored in your Bookmarks
   

Option #3. Using Yahoo on a PC or Mac

1. Create an account on MyYahoo, or if you already have an account, log in
2. Once logged into MyYahoo, click the "Add Content" link (located near the upper left)
3. Click the text link "Add RSS by URL" (next to the Search for Content box)
4. In the URL box, cut and paste the following URL:
   http://alaska-library-association.blogspot.com/atom.xml
5. On the confirmation page, click the "+Add to MyYahoo" button
6. You're done. Click the link "Go to My Yahoo" and you should see an entry for the Alaska Library Association

Option #4. Using IE on a PC (an perhaps a Mac?)
Depending on the format of the news feed (xml, rdf, etc.) you may or may not be able to read the feed without using a Newsreader. In the case of AkLA you can go directly to http://alaska-library-association.blogspot.com/atom.xml and the xml is parsed-- you'll see information in readable format. However, to take advantage of RSS, you should use a plugin or Newsreader/Aggregator.