library workshops for researchers · sources of new and cutting edge research. phd students start...

Library Workshops for

Researchers

Keeping Current in your Field of

Research

Presented by: Josh Clark, Science Librarian

James Joyce Library

tel: 7167646

email: joshua.clark@ucd.ie

Keeping Current

• Keeping current with new ways of

keeping current is a big job!

• Now more than ever new(ish)

technologies, tools and services

exist to help you

Keeping Current

• Library resources can help, as well

as other online tools (blogs,

podcasts, email lists…)

• Alerting services, both by email

and RSS feeds, can keep you up-

to-date with research in your field

email alerts RSS feeds

Newspapers

Email discussion lists

Society/Association Websites

blogs

Podcasts

Subject Gateways

Theses/Dissertations

Conference proceedings

Social networking for researchers

twitter

Smartphone apps

Google+, etc etc!!

Case Studies

Lecturer in Sociology, UK “…I prefer to get information

about my work and research using

social media, twitter, blogs, Google, but

also working with colleagues, seminars,

conferences and the traditional methods.”

“I think social media made me a better researcher

because I find stuff out a lot quicker. I now have a

network of individuals I respect and am confident in

their work… the network discovers and filters and

discusses.”

PhD student, education

“…I prefer to discover information

about my work by using social media,

discussing with colleagues and online

resources.”

“I actually believe that social media have helped me

becoming a better researcher because I learnt to

organise myself in a better way, disseminate it more

and connect with other researchers. (Social media) is a

great resource for researchers in terms of public

engagement, getting new contacts and employability.”

Professor of Biology

“…When publishing my work I prefer to

use more traditional ways like

publishing in journals and presenting in

conferences, but also talking to people

for original stuff.”

“I usually use social media in my professional and

personal life. Specifically, I use blogging, micro

blogging, social citation, social/ professional

networking tools and aggregators and dashboards like

Netvibes and iGoogle.”

Taken from Research Information Network. Social Media: A Guide for Researchers (case

studies) at www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/case_studies_0.pdf (Feb 2011)

Today’s session

• Social tools –

• Social networking for researchers

• Other methods

• Alerts (email/ RSS feeds) – Google alerts

– Library tools for keeping current

– Publisher alerts – email & RSS

Social tools

blogs

Academic blogs can be interesting

sources of new and

cutting edge

research.

PhD students start

blogging to put their

thoughts out there –

bounce ideas off

others and invite

comments to further

enhance their

journey towards

their finished

dissertations.

http://www.socialscienceblog.org/

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/

In addition to individuals, there are blogs from respected

journals and practitioners….

http://blogs.nature.com/

Looking for blogs of interest? http://researchblogging.org/

http://www.ucd.ie/library/news_publicity/blogs/

In general…

• Communications are called “tweets”

• 140 characters or less!

• Subjects referred to by using a hashtag

“#”

• Refer to someone by using “@” before

their username

• Can “retweet” – send on tweets from

others to your followers

Twitter feeds can be useful for up to the minute

updates on topics of interest, INCLUDING real-time

conference updates!

Discover new publications in your field….

www.youtube.com/education

Social networks for

researchers

Social networks – useful or not?

• It’s about collaboration

• Managing & sharing publications

• Creating profiles

• Crowd sourcing

• Varying degrees of success

• It’s not the researchers that are

social – it’s the data!

ResearchGate Facts

The numbers:

• Started in May 2008

• 1.4 million members

• 10 million papers (45 M abstracts)

• Over 15,000 job listings

• Info on over 3500 conferences

• 300+ UCD researchers signed up

ResearchGate – follow subject areas

ResearchGate – find people doing

similar research

Periodic

emails are

sent to

update you

about new

activity

ResearchGate – follow people

Academia.edu 1,300+ UCD researchers signed up…

Other networks

• Nature network – life sciences

• UniPhy –physics, astrophysics

• VIVO – multidisciplinary

• figshare – science

• Epernicus - science

• LinkedIn – multidisciplinary (&

commercial)

• Facebook?

Other methods

Institutional repositories

IR’s register with ROAR – a good comprehensive

list of the repositories that are out there….

http://roar.eprints.org/

Discussion lists

preprints

Association websites

alerts

email alerts

• ubiquitous

• setup is usually simple

• available for new contents,

search histories, etc.

• sometimes requires you to sign

up first

www.google.com/alerts

What does the Library

offer?

The Library’s one stop shop for all electronic

information… • e-Journals

• Databases

• Reference resources

findit @UCD Library

Save search

histories & set up

email alerts that run

at specific times

(your choice)

Try it!

• Go to findit and log in

• Do a search using Subject Search

and save your query

• Go to My Research – History and

set up an alert for that search query

We also have information on

finding…

• conference proceedings

• theses/dissertations

• standards

• UCD digital collections

• specialist search engines…

publisher alerts

publisher alerts - twitter

Keeping Current Using RSS

• What is RSS?

• How does it work?

• How can it help me?

RSS - What is It?

• Really Simple Syndication

• Allows web content to be syndicated

Bottom line:

• You don’t have to visit a website in

order to view its content

RSS – How Does It Work?

• An RSS document, or “feed”, contains

a summary of content from a website –

title, description and a link to the actual

content wherever it resides on the Web

RSS feed readers

Popular readers include:

• Netvibes

• Bloglines

• Google Reader

BUT there are hundreds of readers out there!

Copy this URL

Within Science

Direct you can set

up RSS feeds for:

•Search results

•Topic alerts

•New articles/

content recently

added to a journal

or book (TOC

alerts)

Sometimes you get this…

Sometimes you get this…

Or this…

Copy the URL (web address)

and paste into your RSS

feed reader

RSS – What’s in it for Me?

Advantages

• Save time

• Convenience – have all your updates

come to one portal

• Keep updates separate from email

(spam, blocked messages, etc.)

• Don’t have to give out personal details

(well, not always at least)

RSS – What’s in it for Me?

• Many publishers are now offering some kind

of RSS option for keeping up to date with

articles, citations, searches…

Links

UCD Library links:

Library homepage: http://www.ucd.ie/library

findit @UCD Library: http://librarysearch.ucd.ie (log in with UCD Connect details)

Our Collections (theses, conference papers, standards, etc.):

http://www.ucd.ie/library/finding_information/our_collections/

Library guides (in PDF): http://www.ucd.ie/library/supporting_you/guides/

UCD Researcher Support: http://www.ucd.ie/library/supporting_you/research_support/

Newspapers: http://www.ucd.ie/library/finding_information/our_collections/newspapers/

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

Theses/dissertations:

EThOS (British Library service): http://ethos.bl.uk

DART-Europe E-theses portal: http://www.dart-europe.eu/ (available via findit)

Proquest Dissertations & Theses database (available via findit)

Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations: http://www.ndltd.org/

Conference Proceedings:

Proquest COS Conference Papers Index: (access via findit)

Links

Conference Proceedings:

ACM Digital Library (computer science): (access via findit)

Proquest Entrepreneurship (business): (access via findit)

ISI Proceedings (Web of Science): (access via findit)

Social Networks for Researchers:

ResearchGate (general science): http://www.researchgate.net/

Academia.edu (multidisciplinary): http://www.academia.edu

Nature Network (life sciences): http://network.nature.com/

AIP UniPHY (physics): http://www.aipuniphy.org

Mendeley (reference manager & collaborative space): http://www.mendeley.com/

Research Information Network (RIN): Social Media: A Guide for Researchers:

http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-

guide-researchers

Blogs:

UCD Library blogs: http://www.ucd.ie/library/news_publicity/blogs/

Links

Blogs:

BMJ blogs (medicine): http://blogs.bmj.com/

Research Blogging (academic blog directory): http://www.researchblogging.org/post-

list/list/date/all

Blog Examples:

http://mediterraneanworld.typepad.com/

http://emergency-room-nurse.blogspot.com/

http://phdblog.net/me/

Institutional Repositories:

UCD Repository (research_online@UCD): http://irserver.ucd.ie/dspace/

ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories): http://roar.eprints.org/

Rian.ie (Irish IR directory/search engine): http://rian.ie

Repository 66: Repository Maps: http://maps.repository66.org/

Email discussion lists:

JISCMail (UK): http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/

LISTSERV directory (US, Canada): http://www.lsoft.com/catalist.html

Links

Preprints:

Arxiv (physics, computer science): http://arxiv.org/

RSS services:

http://www.scifeeds.com/

http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/

http://www.techxtra.ac.uk/techtocs/

http://ebling.library.wisc.edu/rss/

Some websites for keeping current (from 2009!):

http://hwlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/10-websites-to-help-you-

keep-up-to-date-with-scholarly-journal-contents/