An RSS feed is simply a file on the web that contains a list of items (such as posts on a website) in a special, machine-readable format. This makes it easy for an RSS-reading client (like Google Reader) to know what's new and what's old -- what you've read and what you haven't. Since blogging software automatically creates RSS feeds, it's easy to keep up with dozens of blogs in minutes a day.

RSS feeds (and its sister formats likes Atom) are also used to track changes to wiki pages, journal tables of contents, recurring searches of sites like del.icio.us (as seen below), PubMed, and our own Newly Cataloged Items list -- nearly anything for which you want timely updates.

Notes and links from the Blog/RSS workshop may also provide some useful resources.