Dynix is the first ILS vendor to vendor to announce RSS feeds, which is cool because the VPL catalogue is Dynix based. I can think of several possible uses for such things - I'd love to be able to subscribe to a feed for an author or subject I'm interested in to be alerted to new acquisitions.
Update: Make that "the second": Koha is an open source ILS that has been doing RSS feeds for quite a while. (And hey, according to their faq, a BC school district is one of the libraries using it.)
Now if Pollstar would just listen to my request for feeds. (Alternatively, all the bands I like could pay attention to this article and offer RSS feeds for news/tour info.)
Actually, Koha announced their rss capabilities in May of 2003 ... take a look at www.koha.org for a good look at what this innovative, free software ILS is doing.
-pate
I have a LazyWeb request pending for concert RSS feeds as well at http://www.nobodyloop.com/lazyweb/concert-listings-rss-feeds but I did come across http://www.libraryelf.com/ which evidently (I haven't tried yet) does RSS feeds for multiple libraries in North America, including VPL.
Since I'm at a Horizon library but didn't recall seeing any announcement of this functionality from Dynix, I did some further checking on this, in the interest of credit being given where it is due. Credit for this should *not* go to Dynix -- although the next version of their Horizon Information Portal will allow patrons to add external RSS feeds to their personal portals, it does *not* enable libraries to create RSS feeds for their patrons as described in the SPL press release. Credit should instead go to the systems librarians at SPL, who have created this solution on their own -- and have been very good about offering it to other Horizon libraries who are interested. Luke