Tonight I browsed a copy of Information Trapping: Real-time Research on the Web by Tara Calishain. It’s an excellent guide to the use of RSS feeds, tags, feed aggregators and web page change detectors to bring information to you as and when it’s published.
Coverage included, amongst other things:
- What is RSS?
- The difference between meaningfully structured (XML) feeds and web (HTML) pages
- Choosing and using feed aggregators
- Tagging
- Advanced use of search engines such as Google and Yahoo
- Setting up notifications of changes on specific web pages
- Using email notifications
By far the majority of students still think that finding information on the web is all about using a search engine. This book is ideal for getting people past that stage. Well worth trying out in a few school libraries, not just for students – it’s ideal for librarians wanting to get up to date on these new research skills.
Don’t forget there is a course soon in East Lothian for those interested in Info Trapping. ICT Coordinators get first dibs this April but I’d be willing to repeat it for anyone interested in finding out more.
Details of the course will soon be posted here:
http://edubuzz.pbwiki.com/webresearch
thanks for the comment I ‘m sure I will be able to find out more facts and when I do I shall type them up on my blog