Making Do With Less: Helpful Software For Current Awareness

Posted by: thewhaanga | Posted on: 12 Jul 11

Many of us produce library newsletters with articles and websites of interest to our clients. It can be time-consuming to keep finding interesting resources. Help is at hand. Here are some old favourites and maybe some that are new to you.

Where can I look?

          - Check out any blog rolls for others blogs of interest
          - Check Twitter to see who they follow and who follows them.

How do I know when something new appears on a website?

  • RSS feeds appear on websites and display newly added resources. Subject searches in databases like Ebsco and Gale can also be saved as RSS feeds to capture any additions. All the additions to the websites and searches can be viewed in one place in an RSS reader like Google reader. There are YouTube videos showing you how to set up Google Reader and add feeds.

  • WatchThatPage will send you one e-mail a day with the new material from all the requested websites listed one after the other. Set up instructions are on the website.

How do I know what people want to read?

Sites which shorten urls provide statistics on the number of people who clicked on the link. This can be used to identify subjects which always draw a crowd and buzz words to use in your abstracts. DigBig is a site which you can use.

How can I keep track of resources until I need them?

  • All your feeds will remain in Google Reader

  • You could save all your WatchThatPage e-mails

  • I prefer to use Diigo. Diigo is web-based so you don’t need to load any software onto your PC. I have the Diigolet link saved on my internet bar. I skim read interesting pages from RSS feeds or WatchThatPage links and bookmark the webpage in Diigo; tag it with our newsletter and some subjects and highlight important bits. Now I have a library of webpages I can pick and choose from when I create the web section of our newsletter.

    Claire
    Claire.stent@stats.govt.nz