Maplewood Library now has a blog, and you can subscribe to the feed from our blog to get the scoop as soon as we post it.  Look for  the button on our blog, then click on the "Atom" link to subscribe to our feed.  So what is a blog, and what is an RSS feed?

What is a blog?

A blog (see Wikipedia for a fuller definition) is an online journal that contains short entries that are arranged chronologically. Blogs are often more personal in nature than most websites. Readers can view recent articles, view past articles in the archives, and often view articles organized by category. Blogs are often interactive and allow readers to add their own comments.  In our Maplewood Library blog, we will be highlighting recent and upcoming programs and activities happening at the library.

What are feeds?

Feeds (often known as RSS or Atom Syndication) deliver new articles from chosen blogs and news sites directly to your internet browser, inbox, or desktop. You no longer have to check your favorite blogs or news sites to get the latest news. For more information about how feeds work, read this article.

How do I use feeds?

You can use feed aggregators (what is a feed aggregator?) to download blog articles directly to your web browser, your desktop, or your inbox.  There are different types of aggregators:

• If you’d prefer to get your feeds on a web page that you can access at any time, from anywhere, try NewsGator, Bloglines or MyYahoo.
• Do you want your feeds to appear in your browser’s bookmarks folders? The Mozilla Firefox browser, and the new Internet Explorer version 7 have an easy to use, built-in RSS aggregator features. 
• Other popular programs include , FeedDemon, Google Reader, and NetNewsWire (for Macintosh).

You can feed content from our blog, or any site that has an or or button to the aggregator you have chosen.