Did you know that there is a way to view all of your news sources and law journal Tables of Contents in one place? All it takes is a free news reader and a few easy steps!

To go to the Table of Contents Service instructions, click here: http://www.uwindsor.ca/units/law/PaulMartin.nsf/inToc/AE28E7C4348175DA8525715B00585EC5

News Readers

New! Did you know that you can use Sakai (the new U Windsor electronic course management system) to monitor and share live news with your class?

Sakai site: http://lms2.uwindsor.ca
Login using your UWIN userid and password.
Sakai support: http://www.uwindsor.ca/sakai

The following news readers are all available on the web as a free subscription.

NewsGator
http://www.newsgator.com

Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com

Gritwire
http://www.gritwire.com

I use NewsGator because it has quite a few nice features and it is easy to use if you follow these steps:

Visit the NewsGator website and click "Create Account"

Create a username and password, and enter your first name, last name and email address.

Choose the "NewsGator Online Free" option.

Choose from the list of NewsGator's preset news topics, or skip this step.

Be sure to write down your username and password for safekeeping.

Now that you have a subscription to the news reader, you are ready to start adding news feeds!

Adding News Feeds
A news feed (also known as an RSS feed) is a link to the news content you wish to monitor.

Once you have signed in to NewsGator, click "Add Feeds" in the top left corner. There are many different ways to add news feeds. For example:

Under the "Find Feeds" tab, you have two options:

Browse the categories (for example "Law") to see what feeds NewsGator has already indexed; or

Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter a few keywords to search the feeds that NewsGator has indexed.

If you are interested in any of the feeds listed, click "Add Feed".

You can also click the "Smart Feeds" tab, and enter a keyword that you would like to monitor. NewsGator will then monitor all of the feeds that it indexes and show you any news items which include your keyword.

Remember that NewsGator does not have all RSS feeds indexed. There are plenty other RSS feeds available on the web. Any RSS feed can be imported into NewGator. To do this, choose the "URL & Import" tab, and paste any RSS URL in the "Feed URL" box.

Finding RSS Feeds
Have you ever seen the little orange XML button at the bottom of the CNN or New York Times website? The button looks like this: When you see this button on a site that you wish to monitor, right click on it, and "Copy Shortcut". You can then paste the shortcut into the "Feed URL" box in NewsGator (see number 3 above). You can add any RSS feed to NewsGator using this method.

Now that you know what to look for, you will start to notice that many websites, most news sources, professional journals, wires, blogs, NGO press releases, IGO press releases, governments and more are all using RSS feeds to keep their users informed about new content. In particular, most law journals Tables of Contents also have a news feed that you can subscribe to.

To view law journal Tables of Contents using your news reader, visit this website:
http://law.wlu.edu/library/CLJC/index.asp
Search for journals you would like to monitor by using the alphabetical list provided, or use the drop-down menu to display law journals from a specific country. When you have found a law journal that you would like to monitor, right click on the "feed" link to the right of the journal name, and copy shortcut. You can then paste the shortcut into your news reader and, as new Tables of Contents are generated for the journals you've chosen, they will be displayed on your news reader.

Alternatively, if you are interested in seeing all new Tables of Contents, or all new Canadian Tables of Contents, you can click on "Subscribe via an RSS Feed" at the top of the page and follow the instructions provided.

News Feeds for Law

NEW! Bill tracking via RSS feed. From LegisInfo at the Library of Parliament. http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=E

RSS Feeds for Law Journal Tables of Contents (Washington & Lee Law School)
http://law.wlu.edu/library/CLJC/index.asp

Slaw.ca (list of Canadian Law Journals RSS feeds)
http://www.slaw.ca/resources/journals-list

Virtual Chase (various links to RSS feeds for law)
http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/legal_alerts.html

Blawg (search for law and law related weblogs)
http://www.blawg.org/

Government of Canada
http://news.gc.ca

Government of Ontario News Feeds (choose your language, then click "Top News", then from the right menu choose "Receive Government of Ontario news to your desktop using our new RSS feature. Get started.")
http://www.gov.on.ca

Statistics Canada - The Daily
http://www.statscan.com

FirstGov - U.S. Government RSS Library
http://www.firstgov.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml

GPO Access
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/rss/


Search Engines for Finding News Feeds

Find that Feed (searches over 55,000 feeds)
http://grumet.net/syo/findThatFeed

Moreover (Moreover provides access to online news articles and business information from more than 14,000 online news and information sources collected across 155 countries in 40 languages. Feeds are grouped by topic).
http://w.moreover.com/site/products/ind/rss_feeds.html

News is Free (click on "Sources by Category" then browse the list. Click "Information" to view the RSS feed link)
http://www.newsisfree.com/

Syndic8 (searches over 30,000 feeds)
http://www.syndic8.com/


Subscription News Sources
As you have probably noticed, sometimes websites such as the New York Times require a subscription in order for you to be able to view the full-text of their news articles. If you are interested in monitoring a source to which you subscribe (paid or free subscription) follow these steps:

Make sure you have subscribed to the news source. Note the username and password that you've created.

Find the RSS feed or the orange XML button on the news page.

Right click on the feed link and copy shortcut.

Click "Add Feed" in the top right corner of NewsGator. Choose the "URL & Import" Tab.

Paste the shortcut into the "Feed URL" box.

Under Step 2 on the "URL & Import" page, choose "Custom Credentials".

Enter your username and password for the news subscription.

Now, each time you click on a news headline to read the full-text of an article from your subscription news source, NewsGator will automatically provide your subscription information to the news website so that you can seamlessly click to the full text of the article.

Organize Your Feeds
To organize your feeds on NewsGator into folders that make sense for you:

Click "My Settings" in the top right corner

Click the "Organize Folders" tab

Here you can create new folders, move your feeds into folders, delete folders and more.

Viewing Your News
Once your news feeds are added and organized into folders, you are now ready to read the news! Just click "Web Reader" in the top left corner of NewsGator. Along the left of the page are the folders you've created. Click the + sign to open the folder, then click on the feed name to view the news in the main frame. Click on a headline to jump to the full-text of the article. Below each headline you are given four options:

"Mark post as read." Click here to tell NewsGator that you no longer wish to display this headline.

"Add to Clippings." Click here to tell NewsGator to save this article in your clipping file. Your clipping file is the first folder listed on the left menu. Your Clipping File can also be organized into folders using the "My Settings" page.

"Forward Post via Email." Click here to forward this article to someone as an email.

You can also rank this article for other readers by clicking on the number of stars you would give it.

Once you are finished reading the articles on the page, you can click "Mark all posts on this page as read" at the top or bottom of the page to clear all the headlines.

Special Features
Note that with a paid subscription to NewsGator, you have the option of reading your news articles via a mobile device, or via email. On the "My Settings" page, choose the "Edit Locations" tab to set up these options.

With your free subscription, you can also use the "Edit Locations" functionality to send live headlines to your own website. An example of a website which uses NewsGator to generate live headlines is this website I created at Harvard. International Law News: http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/services/research/guides/international/web_resources/news.php

Note that NewsGator automatically generates an RSS feed for your Clippings File, which can then be easily shared with your class so that they can see the news items you've flagged for them.

If you are interested in setting up a newsreader for your own comprehensive current awareness coverage, please contact me at any time to discuss your needs. I can easily set up a news reader for you, or we can work together to create online tools to support any classroom or research needs that you may have.

For further help please call Annette at extension 2976, or email ademers@uwindsor.ca.