What does a little orange (usually) button mean?

XML is a means of providing web content without all the packaging, so that web page words can be imported into different pages altogether. A common way of doing this is called RSS (really simple syndication).

An orange XML (or RSS or waves or something else) button means you can subscribe to that particular web log or news source. You can then read any new material in your RSS aggregator, and you don't need to keep returning to an actual web site to see if anything new has been posted. This can save an enormous amount of time while keeping you informed.

Need an aggregator?
One possibiligy is to get a free Bloglines or Google Reader subscription. You can then access your aggregator from any computer. You can even read your mailing list e-mail from inside your Bloglines aggregator.
 
An easy alternative, if you use Firefox, is to use the live bookmark tool. IE 7 now has a similar feature, and Opera has had this capability for years. And there are many other possibilities.

Is this too confusing and you just want to get all the content e-mailed to you? Okay, though the idea here is to free up your e-mail box from all the automatic mail-list clog, some people are just bewildered by feed readers and live booksmarks, or use WebTV where it is difficult to use aggregators. First check your current e-mail service. Some will automatically double as rss collectors, if you wish. Operamail has long had this capability and more recently Yahoo mail has announced this service. Or you can use an outside service such as RSSFwd to get blog posts automatically sent to your existing e-mail address.
 
Here are City pages with RSS feeds

• Main City Page xml version | html version
• Police Bulletins and Blotters xml version | html version
• Library Children's Room xml version | html version
• Books xml version | html version
• Library Staff Notes xml version | html version
• Library Teen Buzz xml version | html version
• Tree Permits (and anything else the arborist wants to blog) xml version | html version

Using various services you can even subscribe with your IM client, though if it is turned off you will miss posts. Or via you cell phone's text messaging service. Look at the possibilities at ZapTXT.

A further note on getting rss notices as e-mail: We linked to r-mail on the various library blogs, but it was recently sold to NBC and became unwieldy. You now need to respond to two different verification e-mails, and then create a fresh subscription using the xml address (above) We will change these links as soon as possible. The police page links to rssmail which still seems to be working as expected. And rssmail will usually accept a plain html page address, as long as that page also has a corresponding xml version.