You can find all you need to know, and more, about RSS in the wikipedia.
It will tell you that you can access RSS feeds using Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox but these have problems. Worse - neither will automatically check for new material - you have to start up a browser and check yourself. This seems to negate the whole point of feeds!
I've found a reader that can be configured to run at start-up and automatically check your selected feeds. It is called "RssReader" and can be downloaded for free from http://www.rssreader.com/download.htm.
Once you have installed the reader and started it, you can select Tools, then Options; and then ensure these two options are checked - "Start RssReader when Windows starts" and "Check for new headlines at startup". The reader will now run and check for new material every time you start your PC.
You now need to add VKBarnet as a feed. Copy the url on the next line by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-c
http://www.psib.org.uk/vkbarnet/vk-rss.xml
Then, in RssReader, click the Add button and, as if by magic, you will see this url in the address box. Click the next and OK buttons until they all go away; and you are set.
Martin