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