Current Awareness
Many databases and journal publishers have services that help you to stay up to date in your fields of interest. Some common services are:
- Saved searches - stay apprised of new research as it is published - many databases allow you to save search strategies that you can re-run whenever you choose;
- Search alerts - saved searches that are automatically re-run at pre-determined intervals with results emailed to you;
- New issue alerts - delivered to you when a new issue of a journal is published;
- Cited article alerts - notification when new works cite a particular article;
- RSS feeds - RSS provides automatic notification when new content is added to a website. Feeds vary depending on the source or publisher. For example, an RSS feed can tell you the moment new articles are posted at a journal's website, or can send you daily headlines for a particluar newspaper. All of the alerts mentioned above can be set up via RSS, depending on the database or provider..
These services vary in name between databases and publishers; look for options such as "Create Profile," "My Account," "Alerts." Sometimes the option to set up an alert doesn't occur until you execute a search or until you browse a journal issue. RSS feeds are indicated by any one of these symbols: or
Please note: be sure to read the privacy policy of each service.
We're happy to assist you in setting up these services. Call or e-mail:
- Mike McDermott
Library Information Technology Specialist
- Carr Ross
Web Technologies Librarian
- Sue O'Dell
Science Librarian