RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". It is a way of getting regularly updated content (e.g. news headlines, blog entries, podcasts, table of contents of online publications) on web sites.
Typically, an RSS feed contains a list of latest available headlines, summaries of the articles and links pointing back to the full articles. By subscribing to RSS feeds published by your favorite web sites, you can keep track of updates of their contents without the need for visiting the web sites one by one.
Step 1: Sign up for a feed reader/aggregator
You need a software called "feed reader" or "feed aggregator" to regularly and automatically check for new contents in RSS feeds and download them for you. There are many RSS readers available. Some are desktop software. Some are built-in to browsers. Some are web-based. Many of them are free.
These are directories or lists of RSS tools to explore: The top five RSS readers | The 3 best free RSS reader apps
Step 2: Subscribe to and read feeds
With the feed reader, you can then add or subscribe to feeds and read them.
You may refer to the Help pages for individual RSS readers for detailed steps on how to subscribe and view RSS feeds.
Many sites display a small icon to show that a feed is available. Look for these icons:
Some sites have feeds but may not make them easy to find. Here are some tips to locate these feeds:
The "Library updates", "New books", "New journal articles", "New websites & events" & "Latest news" pages of this guide suggest some useful websites with RSS feeds available for you to add to your feed readers.
There is no standard for how to add or subscribe to RSS feeds, but there are roughly two ways to add a feed:
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