Stay Alert! Keeping Your Humanities Research Up-to-Date

12/8/2009Stay Alert! Keeping Your Humanities Research Up-to-DatePresented by Karen Reiman-SendiUniversity Library Technology Workshop November 2009Stay Alert "One of the effects of living with electronic information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There's always more than you can cope with." -Marshall McLuhanThe Best of Ideas, CBC Radio, 1967Stay Alert Workshop Outline What are research alerts Alert examples using library databases and Google What is RSS  RSS example using Bloglines reader Q & A112/8/2009Stay Alert What are research alerts? Can be notification of new journal articles or journal issue table of contents Can be notification of new database (or search engine) citation alerts, based on a search profile you create Alerts are emailedStay Alert Mirlyn saved search example http://mirlyn-classic.lib.umich.edu/ Stay Alert Examples of database or search engine results alerts CSA (MLA Int’l Bib) EBSCO (America: History & Life) Google212/8/2009Stay Alert “Setting up a good suite of feeds can transform inefficient, slow and frustrating research into a powerfully different experience.” – Marshall Kirkpatrick (http://marshallk.com/introduction-to-rss-syndication/)Stay Alert What is RSS? Really Simply Syndication (or Rich Site Summary) Standard protocol that allows syndication, that allows content to be aggregated from multiple sources Will bring content to you Aggregator (Wikipedia); List of readersStay Alert RSS in plain English312/8/2009Stay Alert How do I read RSS feeds? AggregatorsCan be web-basedCan be browser widgets or pluginsCan be email applicationsStay Alert Popular RSS feed readers Bloglines.com Google Reader NewsGator FeedDemonStay Alert Examples New Books University News Service UM Press New Books Duke University Library catalog412/8/2009Stay Alert Some databases have RSS feature (like Short Story Index or Philosopher’s Index); be sure to read the database Help content Some search engines have RSS feature such as Yahoo & Microsoft BingStay Alert Some journal web sites have new article RSS feeds Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality Arts & Humanities in Higher Education Journal of the History of Collections Project MUSE journalsStay Alert Look at your professional association web sites for feeds American Academy of Religion: http://www.aarweb.org/ U.S. Government NEH: http://neh.gov/ RSS Library: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/RSS_Library.shtml512/8/2009Stay Alert News sites typically have RSS feeds http://www.cnn.comand http://www.nytimes.com/Stay AlertBlogs have RSS feedshttp://mblog.lib.umich.eduand American Historical Association blog (http://blog.historians.org/)Stay Alert Questions? Contact me: Email: karsendi@umich.edu IM (AIM, MSN, Yahoo): karsendi@umich.edu Facebook: Karen Reiman-Sendi Phone: 734/615-39586