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Keeping up to date
This document provides guidance on using RSS feeds and email alerts to stay up to date with new research materials. It discusses setting up feeds from sources like library catalogs, journal publishers, and news sites to receive automatic updates on new books, articles, or other relevant information. Instructions are included on creating feeds for specific resources and filtering feeds to only receive the most essential updates.
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Keeping up to date
- 1. Keeping up todate with new research James Bisset Liaison Librarian (Researcher Support)
- 2. Format of thesession • How? Part 1 – email vs RSS • What? – Books – Journal articles – Journal Table of Contents (ToCs) – Mailing lists, Blogs, Research news & funding opportunities • How? Part 2 – Filtering your feeds
- 3. How? Automated alerts either: •Email • RSS (Really Simple Syndication) – Feeds – Feed readers • Browser • Online
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- 7. Feeds 1. Durham UniversityNews: http://www.dur.ac.uk/news/ – http://www.dur.ac.uk/feeds/news/?section=1 2. BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ – http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml
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- 9. Feed Readers • Feedreaders: – Google Reader – NetVibes – Bloglines
- 10. Task One • Setup a RSS feed reader. Use Internet Explorer or register for an online reader such as Google Reader • Subscribe to a generic feed e.g.. – Durham University central news – Durham University Library news – BBC news
- 11. What? Books: • Library Catalogue •New items purchased by the library • Other catalogues • Publisher sites Keeping up to date for researchers web page
- 12. Task Two • Createa RSS feed or an email alert for a book from one or more of the following: – Library Catalogue (email) – New items purchased by the library (RSS) – Copac (RSS) – A publisher site (email/RSS)
- 13. What? Journal Articles: • Webof Science • Google Scholar Keeping up to date for researchers web page
- 14. Task Three • Createa RSS feed or an email alert for a journal from one or more of the following: – Web of Science (RSS and email) – Google Scholar (email)
- 15. What? Journal Table ofContents: • Zetoc • JournalTOCs Keeping up to date for researchers web page
- 16. Task Four • Createa RSS feed or an email alert for a journal table of contents from one or more of the following: – Zetoc (RSS and email) – JournalTOCs (RSS)
- 17. What? • Mailing Lists: – JISC Mail • Blogs: – Google Blogs • Web Page Alerts • Research news & funding opportunities • Twitter (http://twitter.com/search/ ) Keeping up to date for researchers web page
- 18. Journal article covering relatedresearch and discussion Newspaper coverage on related topic Video clip from presentation
- 19. Task Five • Spendsome time having a look at some of the resources: – JISC Mail – Blogs – Web Page Alerts – Research news & funding opportunities – Twitter
- 20. RSS filters • Seeonly relevant information from your feed • Define keywords • Filter services – Feed sifter – Pipes
- 21. Task Six • Setup a filter using Feedsifter • Subscribe to your filtered feed
- 22. More information – James Bisset – e-mail: james.bisset@durham.ac.uk – telephone: 0191 334 1586 • Liaison Librarians – www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/subject/ • Web page – www.dur.ac.uk/library/research/keepuptodate/
Editor's Notes
- #2 2 hour sessionBefore session rememberto:Log in to: Google Reader; JISC Mail; WoS; ZetocExplain the format of the session – presentation & handout with chance for hands on.Assumption already familiar with using catalogues and databases. What this is about is to help you manage the sheer volume of research being published all the time. Techniques can help you when:-You don’t have time to be sat at a computer searching for literature – i.e. when you’re out in the field / involved in collecting other forms of data such as primary research. Keeping up to date for meetings with your supervisor / colleagues / fellow researchers - discussion about evolving knowledge in your discipline or area of interest (refer back to Critical Evaluation session)Not just about subject knowledge, but different research methodologies which may have a bearing on your own research, or give you ideas on how to further your own research.Literature is constantly being updated and research is developing at a fast rate so you need to keep up to date .Remember not every resource has an alert function. Some that do use different methods to alert you. When we look at the resources – if you sign up to any alerts/emails, they will start to come once new things are added – it’s not about finding what information there already is on there (saving searches etc is in FMI).
- #3 Structure of the session is in 3 sections – How we stay up to date Part 1 – RSS and Email / What we keep up to date with / How Part 2 – How we manage all the information we get - filtersAlerts are a research support tool to help you stay informed about the most recently published research or current research activities. They exist to save you time. You may have mastered how to conduct an effective search on a database but as soon as it is complete new material could be published that meets your criteria but which you may not find until you return to do another literature review. Using alerts means that you don’t have to be continually searching databases and reduces the risk of missing something key to your research.Ask:Who knows what RSS feeds are?Who uses RSS feeds regularly? If there is anyone – there might be some repetition in the first part of this course
- #4 Organisation is the key – as these methods can provide you with a lot of information! Today is an opportunity to try different methods – see what works for you.Both RSS feeds and email alerts allow you to organise results, whether that’s with a familiar folder structure in your email inbox or using tags or favorites.Some of the resources which we will look at today only offer RSS feeds and some only offer email alerts – however some will offer both.Can be overwhelming to receive all the alerts (particularly from news feeds which can be updated by the minute) so will need to choose carefully what you would like to be notified about and we’ll look at filters laterEmailIf you are offered an email option you can often choose whether to receive the emails periodically (daily, weekly, monthly) – you can check them whenever you can check your emails. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds can be things like news headlines, new postings on a blog, abstracts of new books and journal articles, table of contents of journals/books. Sometimes with links to check for the full text. Feed readers offer a way for you to view your feeds either via your web browser or online. Browser = You can either save the feeds like you save your favourites – in the web browser. However, viewing them like this, restricts them to that specific PC. Online = There are online feed readers which allow more flexibility – as you can access them anywhere – e.g. Google reader. You can also use tagging and ranking particular to highlight particular items. We are going to look at some of these methods today. We’re going to look at Google Reader but there are other options - Netvibes; Newsgator; Bloglines etc.You need to make sure you check your email and/or feed reader regularly for updates – your responsibility.
- #5 If you do all of your research at one pc, or always on your laptop, then saving your RSS feeds to your browser will work fine for you…… unless of course your drop your laptop in the bath, leave it on a train or it simply reaches the end of its natural life a little bit earlier than you expected it would.
- #6 Using a Reader you can save your RSS feeds into the cloud, where you can access them anywhere you have access to the web…… and can remember your password for whichever reader you have opted to use.
- #7 Desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone
- #8 Examples of feedsDEMO how to set up a feed into favourites (browser):how to find the RSS icon and subscribe using IE Favourites optionNB, at this point show how to display RSS subscription icon in IE9, and point out different browser options in handout.REMEMBER NOT EVERY URL IS AN RSS FEEDRSS symbol is on the Windows Explorer tool bar or on web pages themselves (if symbol is highlighted)- go to Durham News events http://www.dur.ac.uk/ > News, Events and Opportunities > News (subscribe option is at the bottom of the page) go to the bbc news page to show the 2nd option for subscribing to an RSS feed- in tool bar (symbol may look different in Firefox) - Click on Subscribe to list to add it to IE favourites – favourites are displayed by clicking on the Star Icon at the top left of the tool bar on the computer in the pc classroom!
- #10 Alternative is to us a Feed reader to store your feeds – means you can access the feeds anywhere - Copy and paste URL to add it to an online reader - Think about what you are subscribing too – don’t overwhelm yourselfDEMO how to subscribe to a feed using Google Reader - Google Reader – Red Subscribe button to add a new subscription - copy and paste URL (don’t need to click on ‘subscribe to this feed’ button on feed page) - As opposed to emails RSS feeds rely on you choosing and highlighting what you want rather than what you don’tCan add stars, tags etc. to individual items in a feed so that they stand out Can search your feeds in Google reader too (demo search for Cathedral) Drop down arrow next to ‘Subscriptions’ allows you to ‘Manage subscriptions’ - allows you to add feeds to specific foldersadding feeds to a folder adds a tag to all items in that feed Or you can edit feed settings for specific feeds
- #11 Approx20 minutes into session10 minutes hands on time Deal with any queriesSome people may need to register with Google Reader in this time
- #12 Approx 30 minutes into sessionPart 2 - What can you keep up to date with?For full details, go to keeping up to date page for researchers www.dur.ac.uk/library/research/keepuptodate/ - where all the links for this part of the session will be held. DEMO:For Books:Catalogue – email alertLog in to patron record and search for research* and PhD as keywordsClick on ‘Save this search button’ – only shows when you are logged inCheck boxes for ‘Mark for Email’ and click on ‘update list’You will be emailed about anything that is added and catalogued under those keywordsNew items purchased by the library – RSS feedSubscribe to the new items feed via the links on the keeping up to date page/subject information pageStock in other libraries – Copac RSS feed - Link to Finding Information session…Search Copac for information literacy – RSS feed appears next to your search terms at the top of the screen on the results pageRSS feed shows links to items added to Copac in the last 2 weeks. Will be updated every time something new is added.Publisher sites – new books emailJust mention this is possible and show links on page
- #13 Hands on – Approx 40 mins into session. Allow 7 minutes hands on time.Deal with any queriesPick resources relevant for your research
- #14 Approx 47 minutes into sessionContinuing Part 2 - What can you keep up to date with?DEMO:Examples for Journals Articles:2@teapotsWeb of Science – need to log in, then you can email results, save searches, and set up search alerts Search in databases using as many keywords as you need to refine the search – don’t want to be emailed with too many resultsOnce you have done the search: e.g.. “cranial trauma” AND medieval OR “Middle Ages” in WoS– go to search history and select save history/create alert (need to be in Web of Science – not available in the whole web of knowledge)Give the search a name and description Choose if you want to save the search or be alerted about it by email (once alert is created you can also subscribe to the feed by clicking on the XML button)Alerts will be sent at whatever time period you specifyIf you save searches you can also go back into the database and re-run them / refine themYou can set up citation alerts to individual papers – can help form connections between the papers you are consulting – need to go into item record to create theseNot all databases allow thisGoogle Scholar – indexes lots of journals, theses, conference papers so may provide too much information. You will need to be specific with your search. - Refer back to Google Scholar sessionLog in – will already be logged in via Google Reader – search for “cranial trauma” AND “medieval OR “Middle Ages” 2 options – can click on the ‘Create email alert’ envelope icon OR can set up a citation alert by clicking on the ‘Cited by’ link and then clicking on ‘create email alert’ icon
- #15 Hands on – Approx 57 minutes into session. Allow 8 minutes hands on time.Deal with any queriesPick resources relevant for your research
- #16 Approx 1 hour 5 minutes into sessionContinuing Part 2 - What can you keep up to date with?DEMO:For Table of Contents:Zetoc – British Library’s table of contents service – searches for ToCs of journals and conference proceedings. Receive alerts via email.Need to log in, even when you’re on campusZetoc Alert – email alert for keywords/journal ToCsZetoc RSS – rssfeed for table of contents of journals (not for keywords)Alerts expire after 1 year but you get plenty of warning about thisGo to Zetoc Alert > type in email and list name > Add searches: Keyword search looks for those terms within the titles of all the journal articles in the BL or Author search looks for authors of articles within the journals. Might need to set up lots of different keyword searches as can’t use synonyms within Zetoc. Don’t just put an author’s surname in as you will get too many results. Journal search – allows you to keep up to date with the ToCs of key journals in your field – watching briefOther ToC services are available – e.g.JournalTOCs - http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/ (can have a look at this in your own time)
- #17 Hands on – Approx 1 hour 15 minutes into session. Allow 5 minutes hands on time.Deal with any queriesPick resources relevant for your research
- #18 Continuing Part 2 - What can you keep up to date with?News and web pages – focus on JISC mailMailing Lists (demo)JISC Mail – could ask colleagues for any useful lists or can search the site for descriptions of lists – demo search: Groups > Advanced Search > Archaeology‘Subscribers corner’ lists all the lists you have subscribed toAllows you to monitor the activity in your disciplinePrimarily sent as an email but you can also use RSS feedsBlogs (demo)Google Blog contains a lot of options – search for University, Research and your specific subject area will retrieve many options. Can also look at the suggestions on the Keeping up to date pages for other academic blogs. Not all will have RSS feeds or email alerts but some do. - University Research Psychology - University Research Human GeographyWeb Page Alerts (no need to demo)Allows you to set up an alert so that you are notified when a page changes. Particularly useful for conferences/presentations which may not be published.Research news and funding opportunities (no need to demo)Just mention these alertsTwitter (discuss)BIALL twitter account?Twitter search – BMA’s ARMLive event (assisted dying, education and training, public health) - Finch report (Open access – not just link to original report, but active discussion plus links to individuals and organisations responses, criticism etc.)Approx 1 hr 25 minutes into session.
- #19 James notes – new slideAs well as using Twitter to identify fellow researchers, keep track of academic or professional discussions, can also use to share information related to discussion or from conferences you are unable to attend.
- #20 Allow 5-10 mins hands on time. Have a look at JISC Mail or another area of interest. Approx 1 hr 35 mins into session
- #21 Approx 1hr 35 minutes into session.Filtering a feed. RSS feeds are great but quite addictive and you’ll soon find that you have lots of unread feeds unless you are very selective about what you subscribe to. Filters are one way to make sure that you just get the information you need. Feedsifter basic as you can easily filter a feed work by creating a new feed that you can subscribe to – means you can still receive the original but also have a cut down version. Have to use Firefox to filter Zetoc RSS feeds as it doesn’t work in Internet Explorer for Zetoc (e.g. Zetoc Journal feeds can come as RSS feeds) Make sure it’s the FEED URL you type in Multiple keywords per one search are comma separated (AND operator) on the same line – no space after the comma Can expand a search by using words on different lines (OR operator)DEMO one of the news feeds searched earlier – i.e. Durham library or BBCfilter using a couple of keywords on each line – will bring back more results – use one word on each line filter using two words on the same line(s) - to bring back less results - use a comma to separate words (no space after the comma)Mention Pipes (Yahoo) but don’t demo - more info on the handout: looks more daunting but ok to use and very flexible. Can be more sophisticated with your filter than with Feedsifter. you can bring together lots of feeds, sort them, filter them by author or descriptor and then create a new RSS feed from that to read in your usual reader.
- #22 Approx 1hr 45mins into session. Allow 10 minutes hands on time.Hand out feedback forms during this activity
- #23 Approx 1hr 55 minutes into sessionThere is a lot of information to take in. Good if you can have a play about with the resources and get to know how they work in depth.