Getting Information to Come to You Penny Schenk, Bodleian Law Library Jane Rawson, Vere Harmsworth Library

Session structure • Information overload?

• Ways of keeping up to date • Database alerts • Journal alerts • Websites and blogs • Practical exercises

Information overload?

Information sources are increasingly varied…and vast

Ways of keeping up to date RSS feeds Email alerts

RSS feeds • RSS = Really Simple Syndication • Subscribe to updates from a variety of electronic resources – Keep up to date – Don’t miss out – Save time

RSS feed readers • Web-based, built-in to browsers or apps • Organise feeds using folders and tags http://www.google.com/reader/ http://www.bloglines.com/ Apps eg Reeder, gReader (search iTunes/Android store)

Managing information Type of publication?

How much time to spend?

Are duplicates OK?

Over what period of time?

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder Problem: 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.

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder Solution:

database alerting services

– Includes RSS feeds, email alerts and saved searches – Some databases require you to create a free account to access these services

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder 1. Create alerts to notify you of new material From e-journals databases such as

Business Source Complete

and

ProQuest

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder 2. Use SOLO to create an RSS feed of a search.

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder At bottom of column on left, option to create RSS feed or Save query:

RSS feed of query in Google Reader

Query saved with email alerts in SOLO

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder 3. Create alerts to notify you when a specific article is cited From abstracting and indexing databases such as

Web of Science

and

Scopus

Whittington, R. (1996) ‘Strategy as practice’

Planning

, 29(5), pp.731-735

Long Range

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder

Case study 1: Ms All Rounder

Case study 2 - Dr Organization I need to keep up to date with key journals in – but I haven’t got time to keep browsing in the library or on websites!

Solution: Table of Contents alerts • Listings of tables of contents in journals as they are published.

• Alerts via email or RSS • Two main sources: – ZETOC alerts http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk

– Journal publishers

ZETOC • Access to the British Library’s electronic table of contents of around 20,000 journals and 16,000 conference proceedings published each year.

• Offers email and RSS alerting service as well as search.

• Can set up search alerts for title keywords or authors (not RSS) http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk

RSS feed from zetoc in Google Reader

Publishers’ websites • Access via OU E-journals/OxLIP+ • Dependent on and different for each publisher platform – look for ‘my alerts’ or the RSS symbol • May need to sign up even for RSS

Case Study 3 – Professor Asset I need to keep up to date with the academic community – things move so fast!

Solution: Get other people to do the work for you!

• Websites, blogs, Twitter, social bookmarking and social citation sites • All offer RSS feeds and some email alerts • People-driven: what other people are talking about/recommending • More up-to-the minute than other methods as no publication schedule • Follow links!

Websites and Blogs • Use RSS! Websites/blogs of major organisations, prominent researchers. • Specialised blog search engines: – Google Blog Search ( http://blogsearch.google.com

) – Technorati ( http://technorati.com/ ) • Search blogs and individual posts • Subscribe to searches via email and RSS

Twitter • ‘Network of experts’ – follow people you trust and people they trust, RTing, linking • Twitter ‘directories’ and lists for experts – http://tweepml.org

, http://wefollow.com

• Archive sites eg http://twapperkeeper.com

• Various Twitter apps/clients available: – Tweetdeck, Echofon, Seesmic, Hootsuite • Search & hashtags for subjects and conferences • Incredibly up-to-the-minute!

Social bookmarking & social citation • Websites to save bookmarks/references • Social citation sites more academic (bibliographic/journals) and groups focused • Examples: – Bookmarking: Delicious, Diigo, Reddit – Citation: Connotea, Mendeley, CiteULike, Zotero • Subscribe to users and/or tags within site or via RSS • “Best of the web”

Finding tag pages (for RSS): a tip!

[base URL of site]/tag/[tag] • • • • eg: www.delicious.com/tag/civil_rights www.connotea.org/tag/civil_rights www.citeulike.org/tag/civil_rights www.diigo.com/tag/civil_rights

Oxford libraries on delicious • Alexander Library of Ornithology: zoolib • RSL Biochemistry: RSLbiochemistry • Education Library: EDLIBOxford • Bodleian Law Library: lawbod • History Faculty Library: HFLOxford • Language Centre Library: LanguageLibOxford • Nuffield College Library (Social Science): nuffieldcollegelibrary • Sainsbury Library (Said Business School): sainsburylibrary • Sherardian Library of Plant Taxonomy: sherardianlib • Vere Harmsworth Library (US Studies): vhllib • Wellcome Unit Library (History of Medicine): HSMTOxford

See delicious.com/help/feeds

Have a go!

• Set up an RSS reader and find and add some feeds • Run some searches and subscribe to alerts by email or RSS • Sign up for ZETOC • Any questions, just ask!