Winnetka Public Library
768 Oak Street
Winnetka, IL 60093 (map)
(847) 446-7220

Northfield Branch
1785 Orchard Lane
Northfield, IL 60093 (map)
(847) 446-5990

Last Updated: May 29, 2007

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) on the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library website

Throughout the website you will find small boxes with "XML" written in them (like this - XML). Clicking on the XML box will take you to a page called an "RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feed" that has specially coded information (written in Extended Markup Language, which is typically abbreviated to XML) about topics on the website, such as book clubs, recommended reading, and library news. Computer programs that can display these pages are called "RSS news aggregators." In order to use the RSS feeds on the Library's website you will need to have an RSS News Aggregator installed on your computer.

A RSS news aggregator retrieves the news on the website from such a page. Using it you can check when something is new on the page without actually having to go to the website. If there are several websites you visit regularly that offer RSS feeds, you can subscribe to those feeds and check them to see if there is something new.

List of RSS Feeds on the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library Website (Click on the Orange XML to see the feed or subscribe):

XML - Library News
XML - Adult Book Clubs
XML - Youth Services Book Clubs
XML - Recently Discussed Books from Adult Book Clubs
XML - Titles recently reviewed on the BookBlog.
XML - The coming month's adult programs
XML - The coming month's youth programs
XML - One Book Two Villages news

Some News Aggregators:

Windows News Aggregators

  • FeedReader - A simple news aggregator that is freely available. Works on Windows 95 and up. Hint: Click on 'Download the Latest Version' and then choose the top file (ending in .exe) to get the installer.
  • SharpReader - A well-designed news aggregator available at no cost. It requires Microsoft .Net 1.1 (available from Microsoft Windows Update) to be installed. With Microsoft .Net 1.1 installed it should work on Windows 98 and newer.

Macintosh News Aggregators

  • NetNewsWire Lite - This is the free, simpler version of the commercial program NetNewsWire from Ranchero Software. The current version (1.0.8) of NetNewsWire Lite requires MacOS 10.2 (Jaguar) to run, but a version that runs on older versions of MacOS X (10.1) is also available for download

Other News Aggregators

  • Bottom Feeder - A sophisticated news aggregator that works on most operating systems (Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, MacOS 8/9/X, and Linux).
  • Sage - This is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser. It adds a menu item (Sage, under 'Tools') that lets you view RSS feeds from a tab in your browser.