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Get the latest Virginia Tech News headlines delivered to your computer, cell phone or other devices via RSS feeds. The links below contain raw data that can be downloaded by news-aggregator software or online news readers such as Google Reader or My Yahoo!

To subscribe, follow the "Guide to RSS" steps listed at the right. If you'd like to read more about RSS, read our FAQ section below.

These RSS feeds also give website administrators the ability to load, parse, and display the same information that appears on the Virginia Tech News website. Administrators: Get more details below.

Have a suggestion for an RSS feed? Send it to VT News for consideration.

Our RSS Headline Feeds

Virginia Tech	Institute for Advanced Learning & Research
Virginia Tech News	Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Virginia Tech Daily E-mail	National Capital Region
Virginia Tech Campus Notices	Natural Resources
Agriculture and Life Sciences	Outreach
Alumni	Research
Architecture & Urban Studies	School of Architecture
Arts	School of Performing Arts & Cinema
Business	Science
Chemistry	Student Affairs
Development	University Unions & Student Activities
Distance Learning & Summer Sessions	Veterinary Medicine
Diversity	Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
Engineering	Virginia Cooperative Extension
Environment	Virginia Tech Carilion
Graduate Studies	Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets

For Website Administrators

The Virginia Tech News and Campus Notices feeds have four entries in the <item> tag that can be parsed and translated — the title (headline), the link (URL), the description, and the release date. The description is either the lead paragraph of the news story or the full campus notice. The output on a web page is dependent on how the data is parsed and formatted into HTML. An example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>VT Campus News</title>
<link>http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/</link>
<description>VT Campus News</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<managingEditor>vtnews@vt.edu</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webmaster@vt.edu</webMaster>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<item>
<title>Mahajan To Serve as Research Institute Director</title>
<link>http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=209</link>
<guid>http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=209</guid>
<description>Roop L. Mahajan, an internationally known researcher with expertise ranging from nanotechnology to bio micro-electro-mechanical systems (Bio-MEMS), will become the director of Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS), effective July 1.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Apr 2006 03:00:00 -0400</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

The production addresses for the feeds is http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/. The feeds are available for people to use to include the information in an active web page or via RSS feed-reading programs.

There are also available RSS headline feeds targeted to each college and other units (listed above), based on how each story is tagged when it is entered in the database. These feeds display stories pertaining to the college from the past 45 days (right now, although that is adjustable on a per-college basis). The RSS feed is updated every day 10:10 a.m., 2:10 p.m., and 5:10 p.m.. Note: These are arbitrary time settings that can be adjusted and/or increased in frequency.

Each college file is in the same format, with four entries in the <item> tag that need to be parsed and translated — title, the link for the full story, the date of the release, and the lead paragraph.

<item>
<title> [story headline] </title>
<link> http://www.unirel.vt.edu/vtnews/story.php?itemno=[story number] </link>
<guid> http://www.unirel.vt.edu/vtnews/story.php?itemno=[story number] </guid>
<description> [first paragraph of the story] </description>
<pubdate> [release date in this format: Tue, 5 May 2006 00:00:00 -0400] </pubdate>
</item>

• For more information about implementing Virginia Tech RSS feeds on your website, please contact our webmaster.

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Frequently asked questions about RSS

What is RSS?

The acronym "RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary". An RSS feed or news feed is an online file, not in hypertext like this page but formatted in XML for a range of devices.

What is a news feed reader?

News feed reader or news aggregator software combines in one place current links from many news sources.

Why use a news feed reader?

Feed readers allow you to quickly follow the topics you choose. Many feed readers are integrated into e-mail programs or web browsers, or will pop up a new window when a new article is available.

Where can I get an RSS feed reader?

There are many free and inexpensive readers and websites that display RSS feeds. Some of the most popular are listed at right.

What is web syndication?

Syndication on the web means that a section of a website is made available for other sites to use. The RSS feeds on this page are an example of syndication of Virginia Tech News. Readers "subscribe" to the feed simply by pasting the link into a news reader.

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