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

2. Session structure Information overload? Ways of keeping up to date
Database alerts
Journal alerts
Websites and blogs
Practical exercises

3. Information overload? Information sources are increasingly varied…
…and vast

4. Ways of keeping up to date
RSS feeds
alerts

5. 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

6. RSS feed readers Organise feeds using folders and tags
Share single items, entire feeds or bundles of feeds

7. Managing information Publication type Duplicates Period of interest
Work time

8. 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.

9. Case study 1: Ms All Rounder
Solution: database alerting services
Includes RSS feeds, alerts and saved searches
Some databases require you to create a free account to access these services

10. Case study 1: Ms All Rounder
Create alerts to notify you of new material
From e-journals databases such as Business Source Complete and ProQuest

11. Case study 1: Ms All Rounder
2. 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’ Long Range Planning, 29(5), pp

12. Case study 1: Ms All Rounder

13. Case study 1: Ms All Rounder

14. 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!

15. Solution: Table of Contents alerts
Listings of tables of contents in journals as they are published.
Alerts via or RSS
Two main sources:
ZETOC alerts
Journal publishers

16. 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 and RSS alerting service as well as search.
Can set up search alerts for title keywords or authors (not RSS)

24. 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

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

27. Solution: Get other people to do the work for you!
Websites, blogs, Twitter, social bookmarking sites
All offer RSS feeds and some alerts
People-driven: what other people are talking about/recommending
More up-to-the minute than other methods as no publication schedule
Follow links!

28. Websites and Blogs
Use RSS! Websites/blogs of major organisations, prominent researchers.
Specialised blog search engines:
Technorati (
Google Blog Search (
Search blogs and individual posts
Subscribe to searches via and RSS

31. Twitter
RSS reader of the future? (But not full text, easier to miss things, can’t save etc)
‘Network of experts’ – follow people you trust and people they trust, RTing, linking
Twitter ‘directories’ and lists for experts
Search & hashtags for subjects and conferences
Incredibly up-to-the-minute!

34. Social bookmarking
Online lists of bookmarks/favourites in chronological order. Save individual articles as well as whole sites.
Examples: delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg
RSS feeds for users and for tags
Subscribe to new links from trusted users or specific tags/tag combinations

37. Have a go! Set up an RSS reader and find and add some feeds
Run some searches and subscribe to alerts by or RSS
Sign up for ZETOC
Any questions, just ask!