By now most librarians are familiar with a host of 2.0 tools, but many of us are still wondering how best to take advantage of them. This presentation will demonstrate a few ways that librarians can harness the power of RSS to broadcast quality information – the stuff we create or even the stuff we curate – into the places that matter most to our patrons: library websites, patron iPods, or other community centered sites.  Starting off with an overview of RSS technology, the presentation will move into practical applications of interest to academic and public librarians, and will include extensive (hopefully live!) demonstrations of how RSS-powered content from blogs, news sites, library databases, and more can be delivered to our patrons when they want it, where they want it.  Time permitting, we may also explore instant messaging tools as a way for providing online reference.

Tools explored may include blogs, podcasts, an RSS to Javascript converter (possibly Feed2JS or FeedDigest), and may use MySpace or Facebook as well as Google Pages.