We’ve been seeing lots of submissions of podcast and RSS index pages, blogs, and and other cool pages that aren’t RSS feeds. So I’ve added a new node in the College and University Feed Directory for non-RSS links. As soon as it starts to grow, we’ll put some structure around it.

Bring on your links!

Slippery Rock University’s Bailey Library has a blog entitled Cites & Bytes @ Bailey and an accompanying Atom feed.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed RSS and Atom feeds of your school’s content for Thomson Peterson’s Edufeeds.com, the directory of college and university feeds. The directory is pushing 900 feeds, and it grows each week. It’s time to give something back.

This week, the directory began supporting OPML exports of feeds in individual directory nodes, making it easy for you to begin subscribing to large blocks of feeds in the directory by taking an OPML snaphot and importing it into your feed reader (e.g. Bloglines). From there, of course, you can prune any feeds you don’t plan to scan.

I can think of several instances where this could be helpful. You could probably think of many more.

Let’s say you’re in library acquisitions and you want to keep up with acquisitions made by libraries around the world. You can browse to the Libraries-New Acquisitions node, click on the OPML icon, and in a short time you’ll be subscribed to (today) 111 feeds containing information about new acquisitions.

Or let’s say you’re doing research on podcasting in higher education. Browse to the Podcasts node, pull your export, and there you’ll have a nice set of podcast feeds to begin your work.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Thomson Peterson’s!

Well, we’re going to try something different (for us). We have this feed directory with more than 700 college and university RSS and Atom feeds of all shapes, sizes, and subjects. There’s a ton of great content flowing through these feeds. I know, because I subscribe to several hundred of them. In large measure, you’ve submitted the feeds. So the question is, where should we go with this directory? I have some ideas. In fact, we are working on some new features that are sure to thrill and delight (me). But I am wondering, what features would be useful to you? What features would encourage and promote use of the feeds? For example, the author of Really Simple Sidi (RSS) suggests an Abstracting and Indexing category. If you have suggestions about features you’d like to see, leave a comment or drop me an email: dan.karleen@thomson.com.

These numbers will give you a sense of where the College and University Feed Directory stands after just a few weeks in beta.

Admissions - 8 feeds
Alumni -15 feeds
Blogs - 14 feeds
Calendars - 45 feeds
Faculty and Staff - 9 feeds
Human Resources and Employment - 8 feeds
Journals and Publications - 85 feeds
Libraries - 97 feeds
News - 197 feeds
Podcasts - 19 feeds
Research Centers - 29 feeds
Schools and Programs - 74 feeds
Sports - 40 feeds
Students - 23 feeds
Technology - 31 feeds

You can subscribe to a feed that highlights new feeds as they’re added.

Thomson Peterson’s College and University Feed Directory is now in beta with very basic functionality as we add feeds we’ve gathered, refine the moving parts, and add enhancements. As you’ll see, we’ve created a number of top-level nodes, but these are by no means set in stone, and many nodes will be needed below these. Over the coming days, we will be adding several hundred feeds to the directory, but feel free to add your own feeds or suggest those of others. Inclusion in the directory is free.

Instructions for Adding URLs to the Directory

1. Browse to the appropriate node in the directory and submit your feed. If an appropriate node does not exist, please email the directory editor with details about the node you wish you add.
2. We welcome feeds of all kinds from the .edu community, including sites about .edu’s.
3. We will try to review and publish the submitted feeds on a daily basis.

This link will take you over to the directory.

You can read more about the concept for the directory in the original annoucement.

Be on the lookout for an FAQ relating to this directory.

We are very close to launching the College and University Feed Directory I announced few weeks ago. As it stands, we expect to launch with well over 500 public feeds from college and university websites.

The latest to come in is a feed from Paul Baker at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

If you would like your feed included in the directory, email the directory administrator or drop us a comment.

Today at the Web Communications and Strategies Conference, we’re announcing the coming launch of the College and University Feed directory, a free resource to help colleges and universities promote their sydnicated feeds.