Alkek Library News

Add Your Favorite Magazine to Google Reader

Want to see Men's Health or Rolling Stone on your Google Reader? Add it to the reader of your choice with a RSS feed.

Step 1: Go to periodical list and look up your magazine name.

Step 2: Go to the database link and locate the option for RSS. In Ebscohost databases, you have to click on the option Alert/Save/Share (see picture)

Step 3: Don't add to your Google Homepage (that hasn't been working for me!). It works great in Google Reader though.

Step 4: Enjoy the RSS updates of new issues.

If you cannot locate the RSS function in your database, click on the database help button or contact me, ca20@txstate.edu for help.

Use Startpages to Organize Your RSS Feeds & More

One of the coolest new tools I've been using lately is NetVibes startpage. A startpage is a personalized web homepage. Others include: iGoogle, Pageflakes, and MyYahoo. I've chosen Netvibes because you also have a public version you can share with others socially. (Pageflakes also has this feature.) Here is my Netvibes public page. Notice the different tabs .

On both the private and public page, you can choose what modules and widgets to add.  Netvibes already has many to browse and choose from. If you already have a delicious, facebook or flickr page you can have them fed to your startpage. See the larger view of the image by clicking on it.

You can also create different tabs to organize your feeds. I have one for blogs, database & journals feeds, and one I have created for research feeds for a presentation I am giving.  Tabs help to organize your RSS feeds according to how you want to view them.

On the private page, you see the same modules as on the public page plus you can add a widget to monitor your email from your different accounts in one place, have a calendar, weather widget, and more. Its as easy as clicking the "add content" button, pasting the RSS feed URL into the box and adding it to your page.

Most databases will allow you to subscribe to a search query or the latest articles from a particular journal. Use the databases help feature or look for the RSS image to find out how.

Here is a nice comparison of different startpages that discusses the different features of each one. At the bottom of the post is a chart that puts all the features together for easier comparison.

Watch the library workshop page for future workshops in late summer or the fall semester on setting up personalized startpages. Or follow the links above to create your own startpage now.

Library News Blog has a new Host

Alkek Library reference/news blog is changing its look to follow the design of the main library website and in order to do so, it is moving to a new host. The blog will have a new URL...http://alkeklibrarynews.typepad.com/alkek/

Please update your bookmarks and if you subscribe via RSS, you will need to resubscribe.

We hope you enjoy the new look....