What are RSS Feeds?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it's basically a computer readable summary of the content of a Web Page.  The real benefit of subscribing to an RSS feed is that you no longer need to visit the site itself to stay up-to-date on the information that is being discussed.  If you subscribe to the RSS feed on a site, your RSS Reader will do all the work, showing you only what's new since the last time you've checked the RSS feed.  This is the value of RSS:  to be able to stay current with dozens of websites, quickly and efficiently.

Typically, you recognize an RSS feed because there is a little orange or blue button labeled "XML", "RDF" or "RSS", like this:

How do I get an RSS reader?

There are many different options for RSS Readers.  Different RSS readers behave and display data differently. Some of them can be accessed using a browser and some can be downloaded to your computer.   NewsGator is a free web-based reader that is simple to use and can be accessed from any Web browser.  Here are some other examples of readers:

How do I subscribe to an RSS Feed?

After you find an RSS Reader, you can then subscribe to a feed.  In order to do that, you need to find the XML, RSS, or RDF button.  I will use Clinical Evidence's website for this example.  They use an orange RSS button and that button points to the URL http://www.clinicalevidence.com/rss/rss.xml.  Right-click on the orange button itself and click Copy Shortcut.  If you use NewsGator as your RSS Reader, you can add the feed to your subscription list.  Click on "Add Feeds" on the NewsGator page, and you'll see a set of feed subscription options.  There are a lot of ways to find interesting and professionally helpful feeds but for this example click on "URL & Import" and paste your URL into the text input box.  Click "Add Feed" and you're done!

To read your RSS subscriptions, just click on the "Web Reader" link near the top left of the NewsGator website and click on the subscription you want to read.

PubMed RSS Feeds 

Add PubMed searches to your collection of feeds

NLM Technical Bulletin

Update notices to your reader

E-Journal Feeds

Health science electronic journals with RSS feeds