Resource of the Week: RSS Channels from Intute
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

If you’re one of our regulars here, you know we’re huge fans of Intute, “a free online service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research, selected by subject specialists from “a consortium of institutions within the UK Higher and Further Education sector.” Intute, which launched in July 2006, evolved from the Resource Discovery Network, UK higher ed’s original subject gateway project.

In a Resource of the Week last month, about global RSS feeds, we singled out Intute’s Social Science feed as a good source of new UK government publications, which we like to post on DocuTicker, our sister weblog. Recently, Paul Ayres, Research Officer for Intute’s Social Sciences gateway, dropped us a note to thank us for the hat tip and remind us that Intute offers more than 100 subject-specific feeds from various parts of its service. So we thought we’d remind you.

This is not the only quality Web directory which offers subject-specific feeds; Librarians’ Internet Index, notably, makes extensive use of RSS. But Intute’s subject feeds are well worth your time because it is not U.S.-centric, and you’ll be introduced to resources you might not otherwise see.

I browsed some feeds at random and quickly unearthed a few gems (annotations from Intute catalog listings):
+ From the Arts and Humanities: Middle Eastern gateway feed –
Learn Hebrew with audio and transliterations (Israel)

Learn Hebrew is a website aimed at beginners of Hebrew. It uses virtual ‘flashcards’ of over 1,700 Hebrew words and phrases arranged into 46 topics to build vocabulary and improve pronunciation. Each Hebrew word or phrase is presented as an image with Nikud vowels, and clicking on the word allows users to hear it spoken This multilingual site features menus, transliterations and translations in five different languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish and Dutch. Simple to use, this is a good resource for any learner of Hebrew needing quick and easy practice.

+ From the Arts and Humanities: Humanities Computing gateway feed –
Time and date (Norway)

Run by amateur enthusiast Steffen Thorsen, the Time and Date website provides a number of tools for calculating times and dates, including calendars and world clocks relating to the current year as well as historical and future years. The variety of tools can be confusing, but they are simply laid out and easily customised, particularly after free registration. A calendar can be created for any year and customised to show the phases of the moon or the holidays in various countries. Calculator tools allow the user to find out the duration between any two dates. Current time tools workout the time in major cities worldwide. An attractive world map shows which parts of the Earth are currently in daytime and night time. The user can compare time zones between cities and calculate a suitable time to make international conference calls. There is a countdown to New Year 2008 and tools to create a customised countdown to any date. The user can find out which code is needed to make international calls from many countries and to calculate the distances between cities.

+ From the Health and Life Sciences: Veterinary gateway feed –
RSPCA : pets get slim (UK)

The ‘Pets Get Slim’ website is provided by the RSPCA and it supports the campaign to tackle the problem of overweight and obese pets. The RSPCA have teamed up with TV vet Joe Inglis and this website provides detailed information and guidance on how to help your pet lose weight. Features available include diet tips and exercise suggestions, a pet weight checker, and a search facility to find vets who run pet weight clinics. Pet owners can upload photographs and personal stories of their pets and share their pet’s weight loss experiences with other pet owners (through the forum). News items and information on the national roadshows is provided.

+ From the Science, Engineering and Technology: Geography gateway feed –
WISE (Netherlands)

The World Information Service on Energy (WISE) is an “information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear energy, radioactive waste, radiation, and related issues.” It focuses on promoting political and social changes, as well as researching for change through various outlets. The website provides newsletters, links and an archive of articles.

+ From the Social Sciences: Hospitality and Catering gateway feed –
Chocolate & zucchini (France)

This is a blog written by Clotilde Dusoulier, Parisian woman and cookbook author. In her blog, Dusoulier shares her passion for food and everything related to food, including thoughts, recipes, musings, cookbook acquisitions, products, tools, restaurant experiences, ideas, and inspirations. Additional features include a recipe index, a picture gallery, and a guide to restaurants in Paris.

In addition to the subject-specific feeds, there are more general group feeds (e.g., Arts and Humanities; Health and Life Sciences; Science, Engineering and Technology; Social Sciences), feeds for Intute news (including a feed for new tutorials added to the site’s excellent Virtual Training Suite section, and feeds for academic and professional conferences and events in a number of disciplines.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 and is filed under Databases, Directories, and Guides, RSS, Resource of the Week, Source File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.