WISER: Is IT all a bit much?Getting information

to come to youClare JarvisAcquisitions Librarian,

Bodleian Law Library

&

Katherine MellingSenior Information Officer,

Saïd Business School

Keeping up to date – the challenge

Information resources are increasingly

varied...

…and vast

• What methods do you currently use to find out about new information in your subject area?

• How effective do you think they are?

…and solutions…

• Tools and services to highlight new publications:– Journal/Table Of Contents (TOC) alerts

• e.g. ZETOC– Citation alerts from Web of Science– Saving and re-running database searches

• e.g. FirstSearch, CSA Illumina– Mailing lists

• e.g. JiscMail– Newsfeeds, blogs and podcasts

Remember…

• The idea is to manage information• Think first!

– What kind of publication and information is most useful to you?

– How much time will you have to digest and act on the alerts?

– Will a new alert duplicate information you

already receive from elsewhere?– What is the “life expectancy” of your interest

in a particular topic?

RSS feeds

• RSS Really Simple Syndication• Subscribe to updates from favourite websites and

other e-resources• First you need a “reader” - software that checks RSS

feeds and lets you read new articles that have been added to them

• Free web readers – e.g. Google Reader, Bloglines, My Yahoo!

• RSS is available when you see this logo in a website or database:

Case study 1 - Dr Organization

I need to keep up to date with key journals in management – but I

haven’t got time to keep browsing in the library or

on websites!

Solution – journal alerts e.g.

• ZETOC is the British Library’s electronic tables of contents service

• Covers 20,000 journals and 16,000 conference proceedings a year

• You can set up email alerts and RSS feeds for particular journals, or for keywords or author names

• Available through OxLip, ATHENS password needed for remote access

Case Study 2 – Ms All Rounder

My DPhil topic is really interdisciplinary. I need to keep up to date with

several topics, but I don’t want the hassle of

checking databases all the time.

Solution – Database alerting services

• Receive an email when there is new material in your subject area

• RSS or Alerts (sometimes both available)• Some databases use different terms:

– “Alerts”, “Updates”, “SDI” (selective dissemination of information), “Save search”

• You can set up multiple alerts– Tip: name your alerts meaningfully

Types of alerts

• Tables of contents of journals and conference proceedings

• Journal articles, book chapters, book reviews– Use databases to receive alerts about new articles

relating to specified subjects/authors/other keywords

– Search as usual, then make your search into an alert by clicking “Alert” or by choosing it from your “Search history”

• Receive alerts about new material on broad or narrow subject areas

• Receive alerts whenever a particular article is cited by someone else

Citation alerts from Web of Knowledge

• Citation alerts let you know whenever a particular article is cited by someone else

• This can help you keep up to date in several ways:– You can track how important a particular article is– You can find new articles on a similar topic– You can monitor how well received your own work

is!

Click here to set up citation alert

Click here to see and save Search history

Citation alerts fromSocial Science Citation Index (SSCI)in Web of Science, in Web of Knowledge

• To receive alerts if anyone cites a particular article, click on the article title to select full display

• Click on Citation alert• You will be prompted to log-in or to register. You can

set whatever account email and password you like• The default alert is email. To set up RSS feed

instead, right click on the XML icon, choose “Copy shortcut”, open your RSS reader and choose “Add”

WOS: Managing My Cited Articles

• To go to “My Cited Articles List”, click on “My Citation Alerts”, at the top of the page

• To change the email alert settings, click on “My Citation Alerts” (at the top of every page), and click the "Modify Settings" button. You can cancel particular alerts, or change the format of the emails

• Your RSS reader will automatically report new citing articles. You do not need to renew the alert, and should use your RSS reader to cancel the feed

Search History in Web of Science

• You can save a search either so you can run it again later or so you can be alerted to new records which match the search when they are entered in the database

• Do a search e.g. “global warming”• Click on “Search History” at the top of the page• Click on “Save History/Create Alert”• “Open Saved History” lets you see your saved

histories• You will then see the XML button that you can use to

set up the RSS feed• You can turn the alerting off or delete the search

history• Choose “Open” to run the search again

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts

• Choice of:– RSS– email alerts– Save search histories

• Need to register for search history and alert functions• Search as usual, then choose “Alert me” on the

results screen (towards top)• New screen opens: log in• Choose delivery method

– Note “Feature Summary” tips

• Click “Save”• To delete alerts, go to “Manage Searches & Alerts”

Saving and re-running searches: Firstsearch

• FirstSearch does not offer alerts• However, you can save and re-run searches

manually in FirstSearch to find new publications related to your search terms

• Use “My Account” to set up a FirstSearch account• Perform a search, then click “Save Search” (bottom

right)• To re-run your saved search, click on “Previous

Searches” on the FirstSearch home page, and enter your account user name and password

• Re-run saved searches from your list by clicking “Select Terms” and “Search/Combine”

• Or combine two previous searches using AND/OR/NOT

Case Study 3 – Professor Asset

I need to keep up to date with the academic

community in the field of economics – things move

so fast!

Solution - Mailing lists, feeds, blogs & podcasts

• Mailing lists, e.g. from publishers, special interest groups– www.jiscmail.ac.uk for hundreds of scholarly mailing lists

• RSS feeds from webpages wherever you see the icon, e.g.– http://www.intute.ac.uk/rss.html– http://www.ox.ac.uk/– http://www.thes.co.uk/rss/

• Blogs - online diaries: subscribe to RSS feeds– e.g. for forthcoming conferences in your subject

• Podcasts – news feeds with audio or video files

Finding feeds, blogs and podcasts

• Directories– Intute http://www.intute.ac.uk

• Browse or search for your subject, then “Filter by” Blogs

• Many other directories available, e.g.– Quacktrack http://quacktrack.com

• Many subjects, not just Social Sciences

– Podcasting news http://www.podcastingnews.com– Podscope http://www.podscope.com

Finding feeds, blogs and podcasts

• Search engines– Feedster http://www.feedster.com

• To find individual news items, blogs, podcasts• Can use Boolean searching• Can make your search into an RSS feed

– Technorati http://technorati.com• Searches blogs• Use “Advanced Search”• Can make your search into an RSS feed

SummaryKeep up to date • To avoid information overload• To avoid missing important information• Using databases, blogs and mailing lists for e-mail

alerts and RSS feeds

Need subject specific advice? Ask your subject consultant http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/collections/librarians

Presenters also happy to help – contact katherine.melling@ouls.ox.ac.uk or clare.jarvis@ouls.ox.ac.uk