Current Awareness Services
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. See Setting up RSS for more information.
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
Research & Web Librarian
- Sue O'Dell
Science Librarian
