Part of the Doctoral Development Programme at The University of Sheffield.

1. Library DDPKeeping up-to-date with RSS feeds Marion Tattersall Research Development Librarian University of Sheffield Library

2. Today’s 1 hour session Introductory talk What is RSS, why it is useful, How it works for different sources Hands-on practice with workbook at your own pace, staff to helpsuggested time 30 mins Information Skills Resource for researchersaccess via Library home page Feedback

3. What is RSS? RSS is a web feed to which you subscribe Useful for content which changes regularly Collects material from a wide variety of sources Databases of peer reviewed articleseg Scopus, Web of Science, Pubget Journal tables of contents Web pages, news alerts, blogs You still need a reference manager to store, manage and reformat any items you want to keep

4. Why use RSS? Alerts from different sources in 1 place – the feed reader Controls/tailors what you get – not overwhelming Clear format to scan Avoids losing or deleting important items Reduces risk of spam and frozen email inbox Can organise tags/folders to suit you Helps you share with colleagues RSS in 100 seconds video

5. RSS symbol for available feeds More frequently a standard icon is used Previously

6. Look for the symbol it may be small, at top, at bottom.....

7. How do I get started with RSS? 1 Choose a feed readerWe recommend www.google.com/readerBloglines is a popular alternative 2 Setup the reader Today 3 Organise it to suit you Laterfolders, display options

8. Advice on setting up Google reader www.google.com/reader Set up an account and follow the workbook instructions Follow our online interactive tutorialLibrary information skills resourceResearcher’s tab Keeping up to date, Watch a video on YouTube Getting Started with Google Readerabout 1 year old runs for 2 mins

9. Add some feeds 1: Databases Slightly older articles, but specific keywords, authors citations to follow influential papers Scopus & Web of Science - multi-disciplinary subject specific ones egPubMedfor Biomedicine, MLA for languages Keep your references current Extra benefit from previous searches

10. RSS feeds from Scopus Set up personal account Carry out specific search keywords, authors, combine terms...... test on short time period citation (cited reference) use a key paper, find by sorting other results in citation order Process details See workbook 1

11. Web of Science RSS feeds Also require a personal account Same search advice NB Must save to server. Form covers email too, must select RSS Process screencasts in Library ISR include citation alert workbook field tagged

12. Alerts: WoS or Scopus? All WoS journals are in Scopus - except Arts Scopus has expanded its Arts coverage Engineering and medicine – more in Scopus Test which works best– now & later Don’t be distracted by the interfaceit’s the results that count Use both? – sometimes/always You may also need a subject database

13. Add some feeds 2: Journal contents pages Latest articles, but not topic specific Useful once you know the key journals Use aggregator services ZetocBritish Library service > 20,000 journalseasy to use, good help and FAQ ticTOCS14,000 titles, some not in Zetoc. searching for possible titles differsexport to reader a little more complex

14. INFORMAL COMMUNICATION Personal communication Discussion boards Email lists Blogs/Wikis Immediate PEER REVIEWED Scholarly books – 12 mths Published theses – 3 mths Journal articles – 6 mths Scholarly Information Cycle Rough time scale to publication GREY LITERATURE Reports/Working Papers– 3-6 mths Posters/Conference papers – 3 mths News - Immediate Web pages - Immediate

15. Add some feeds: 3 News From news sites eg BBCNews sections of other sites eg learned societies, professional bodies From recommended websites Eg Library’s own list on next slide Using Google Alerts

16. Links to useful Internet resources can be found on the Library webpages: http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/useful

17. Google Alerts Google Reader is not the only feature that Google provide to keep you up to date Try Google Alerts monitoring a developing news story keeping current on a competitor or industry tracking medical or technological advances getting the latest on a celebrity or sports team searching for new videos that match a specific topic http://www.google.com/alerts Delivered by RSS feed into your Google Reader account

18. Add feeds: 4 Blogs informal IMMEDIATE info Web log = blog like a diary Chronological - most recent first Primary source of information about relevant people and research Internet publishing & reflective practice follow leaders, expand your network, build your reputation, get feedback..... University advice in setting up and using Evaluate carefully to avoid overload

20. INFORMAL COMMUNICATION Personal communication Discussion boards Email lists Blogs/Wikis Immediate PEER REVIEWED Scholarly books – 12 mths Published theses – 3 mths Journal articles – 6 mths Scholarly Information Cycle Rough time scale to publication GREY LITERATURE Reports/Working Papers– 3-6 mths Posters/Conference papers – 3 mths News - Immediate Web pages - Immediate

21. What next with Google Reader? Star items, add notes, share with your friends Find out how from Google Reader Help Explanatory pages eg organizing covers tags and folders Links to videos Help forum Feed into other services such as iGoogle, Netvibes, Pageflakes etc.

22. Summary RSS feeds help you to save time & effort save and organise items tap into formal and informal sources prioritise & share information

23. Find out more – try it out Workbook login to MUSE Library tab have another browser window open Library information skills resource slides, workbooks, interactive tutorials Record progress in your ePortfolio in uSpace training need met? How will you work differently? What do you need next?

24. Library contact details Library DDP Feedback – email us your comments join our evaluation project For subject specific help contact your Faculty Librarian All other Library stafflibrary@sheffield.ac.uk