For two years, I've been giving presentations showing ProQuest's mock-ups of what RSS could look like in its databases if it existed and EBSCO's crazy wack, real-life implementation. I tell the audience to tell ProQuest to implement already and then tell EBSCO to make their setup easier to use. Today, however, all of this changes because EBSCO has changed the way it offers RSS feeds and they've done a great job. EBSCO CIO Mike Gorrell told me the new version "kicks butt in the RSS area," and he is oh-so-very-right.

Now I can easily walk through a demo and show it live without having to worry about logging into MyEBSCOHost first. Now I can run a search and see that beautiful orange button directly on the results screen. Now I can click on that button and immediately get a URL to throw into my aggregator. My only quibble in testing so far is that I'd like to be able to either rename the feed or I'd encourage EBSCO to put the name of the patron's library into the feed title.

When I create my examples of bibliographies, community sites, and news alerts, I'll definitely be using EBSCO to show how easy this should be in *every* library database. A big thank you to Mike and his colleagues for listening and then actually acting to make this piece easier and more useful.

SPARC Video Contest

"The Internet gives new meaning to the notion that, by sharing ideas, we build a better understanding of the world around us. If you use YouTube or Wikipedia, exchange gaming tips on the Internet, or have a blog, you probably well understand the value of sharing information, ideas, and knowledge.

Sharing can also be a vital tool in helping to address complex problems that challenge society - like disease, hunger, global warming, and economic disparity. The sharing of ideas gives us ways to discover, collaborate, and create in unprecedented ways.

The SPARC Discovery Awards challenges you to illustrate in a short video presentation what you see as the value of sharing information. Use your imagination to suggest what good comes from bringing down barriers to the free exchange of information.

Videos must:

• Be submitted by December 2, 2007.


• Examine the theme described above.


• Be no more than 2 minutes in length.


• Have been completed between January 1 and December 2, 2007.


• Be narrated or subtitled in English.


• Be posted on the Internet and available for public use under a Creative Commons license. Acceptable licenses include: Attribution, Attribution- NonCommercial, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, Attribution- ShareAlike, Public Domain." [via Kay]

Hey, Dan - I wonder if ALA could submit a video....