There seems to be a question regaring RSS feeds vs email alerts bouncing around on Medlib. Some librarians questioned the use of RSS feeds. One librarian offered a rather harsh criticism of RSS feeds saying, "I personally have never seen the point of RSS when we have toc's. Looks a lot like a wonderful solution for a problem which does not exist." Another librarian saw RSS feeds as being more a "pull technology" where the user must actively go to their RSS aggregator and read information. Because she thought of it as a "pull technology" she wondered whether "expecting busy HC professionals to seek out anything else (such as an RSS aggregator) will decrease current awareness usage."

I think I disagree with the "push and pull technology" theory being applied to RSS feeds and emails. If you think about it emails are also a pull technology. Once a user finds their feed reader of choice, they pretty much stick with it for a while. Yeah they might experiment and jump around to try bells and whistles, but once they settle on a reader they generally set up their feeds and let it do the work. Some users do not use the workplace's chosen email system, therefore they must go out and actively seek their chosen email program to read their emails. For example, I know many doctors who use their AOL, Yahoo, SBC, email instead of the hospital's email. Those doctors must actively go their email provider to read their information. In this case would that be a "pull technology" as well?

However, they do have their benefits and can be a useful tool for people who are interested. David Rothman who is using RSS feeds in his medical library successfully wrote an interesting response on Medlib explining his views on the strengths and uses of RSS feeds. One of the examples Rothman provides is, "RSS feeds can be set up to create email subscription forms or can be easily re-parsed into a web page for medical libraries that want to have Up-To-The-Minute medical news pages on their intranets for clinicians to make use of," that can't be done easily with emailed citations or TOCs.

Rest assured, RSS feeds are not going to displace email alerts or messages. RSS feeds are just another way to manage incomming information. There are all sorts of ways we get our information, TV, radio, newspaper, internet, email, mail, phone, face to face conversations. Depending on the message and our personalities not every technology will meet every need. I am sure there was somebody in the past who thought the telephone was a wonderful solution for a problem that did not exist. After all, they were able to communicate just fine writing a letter to their love one, why would they have a need to use a phone?