A presentation, delivered as part of the library's Researcher KnowHow programme, on tools to combat information overload.

1. Tools to combat
information overload
– keeping up-to-date
and on top of things
2017-02-10
Martin Wolf
Research Support Lead

2. What we’ll cover today
Ways of keeping up-to-date and managing the
information you find, including:
• Tools for keeping up-to-date and getting
relevant alerts
• Tools for document storage, management and
use
• Techniques for effective file management

3. A word of warning …
• This is a war you cannot win!
• You have to decide for yourself how strict your
information filters should be
• On a practical level – different browsers
behave differently with some of these
resources

4. Ways of keeping up-to-date
RSS and portal sites
• RSS is a way of subscribing to online material that gets
updated
• Portal sites (or RSS readers) are ways of bringing lots of
different information sources together in one place
• There are web-based RSS readers, app-based RSS readers,
freemium, paid for – lots of options
• Examples:
– NetVibes – www.netvibes.com
– ProtoPage – www.protopage.com

5. Setting up RSS feeds
• Many web pages provide a simple button to get to the RSS
feed, usually looking like this:
• You can create custom feeds, for example search and/or
citation alerts from a database like Scopus or Web of Science
• There are aggregator services for journals content lists, such
as Zetoc and journaltocs – http://zetoc.jisc.ac.uk and
www.journaltocs.hw.ac.uk

6. Managing your information:
web pages
Social bookmarking tools
• Store your internet favourites in one place (no need to sync
across devices)
• Use keywords (aka tags) to organise and quickly find favourite
sites
• Share your links with others (or not – your choice)
• Follow (via RSS) the links posted by others
• Examples:
– Diigo – www.diigo.com
– Memosnag – www.memosnag.com
– Pinboard (social bookmarking for introverts) - https://pinboard.in/

7. Managing your information:
articles and other documents
Bibliographic software
• Provides a central place to store and organise bibliographic
information about, and full text of, articles and other outputs
• Many different types – web-based, desktop-based, browser-
based
• Examples:
– EndNote – http://endnote.com – on university applications
– RefWorks – www.refworks.com/refworks
– Mendeley – www.mendeley.com
– Zotero – www.zotero.org
• More information at
http://libguides.liverpool.ac.uk/referencing/packages

8. Reading and annotating
Some bib software and dedicated reader/note taking
software
• Can provide additional functionality for things like
highlighting, making notes, linking documents
• Could help in the production of rough initial drafts
• Examples:
– Mendeley – www.mendeley.com
– Qiqqa – www.qiqqa.com
– ReadCube – www.readcube.com
– Evernote – https://evernote.com

9. Techniques for managing
your own files
What can go wrong with managing your files?
• You could lose your work
• Your files could become corrupted
• You may be unable to find an important file or not
know which is the most up to date version
• You may be unable to back up your claims
• You may not be able to access your own data and
files in the future

10. Techniques for managing
your own files
•ALWAYS save your work on your M
drive – seek advice from CSD and
Records Management before
considering an alternative
•DON’T rely on portable media
•DON’T have all your work on one
device
•DO have a consistent way of naming
your files
•DO keep an explanation of your file
naming scheme
•DO keep earlier versions of files
•DO keep an explanation of the
structure of your data
•DO make use of the sources of
support around the University

11. Tools, tools, and more tools!
Beyond information overload – tools for
research productivity more generally
• Connected Researchers:
http://connectedresearchers.com/
• Innovations in Scholarly Communications:
https://101innovations.wordpress.com/

12. What resources would
you recommend

13. All the best