RSS Feeds at Vancouver Public Library

RSS feeds are now available from www.vpl.ca. The feeds are provided free of charge for use by individuals and non-profit organizations for personal, non-commercial uses.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Syndication, in this sense, means redistributing published information to multiple places. (Think of syndication as how network television shows are later broadcast as syndicated reruns on local stations.)

The information is published on its home or owning website, and is then summarized and republished (or syndicated) as a feed, which you can access using a feed reader. Information delivered using RSS feeds is generally the kind of information that changes frequently, and where the end user (you) is interested in the latest version or update of that information.

Using the RSS reader of your choice or by integrating the feed into your website or your blog, you can access the latest news and releases from VPL.

Why use RSS?

The great thing about RSS is that it allows content to be delivered directly to you in one place. You no longer need to check and recheck your favourite websites for updates; the latest version of the content is delivered to your reader automatically as it becomes available. Whether it’s new books that have been added to the VPL catalogue or the latest headlines from your favourite news site, you no longer have to spend time searching for the information: it comes to you.

How to use RSS feeds

1. Get an RSS Reader

In order to view our RSS feeds, you will first need a RSS reader. An RSS reader is a computer program that allows you to subscribe to feeds, and displays those feeds for you. You can download the reader to your computer, or you can use an Internet based reader that lives on the web.

There are many free readers available on the Internet. Some readers work better on certain operating systems than others, so you will want to choose a reader that’s compatible with your system. These are a selection of popular RSS readers:

Microsoft Windows

Apple Mac OS

GNU/Linux

Web-based

(Please note that these links are provided for the convenience of our patrons. The Vancouver Public Library does not endorse the contents of third-party websites.)

2. Subscribe to the Feed

To subscribe to an RSS feed, simply click on the orange

button for the feed you want, copy the URL from the address bar, and then paste it into the appropriate field of your RSS reader.

Congratulations! You’re now able to receive news and updates directly from www.vpl.ca.

To identify other content you can subscribe to, look for the RSS icon:

RSS Feeds @ VPL

You can now access RSS feeds for all new VPL non-fiction titles. You can choose whether to subscribe to your favourite subject, or to all the feeds for a complete overview of new non-fiction titles at VPL.

An RSS feed for library news is also available.

Don’t forget, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds from many of your other favourite sites. Just look for the RSS icon.

For more information about RSS, check out: