Keeping Current
It is vital to keep up to date with the latest trends and developments in your research area. This task has been made easier by the introduction of new communication technologies, and the increasing availability of journal alerting services from many publishers and database providers.
Deakin University Library provides access to a number of services to help you keep up to date:
My online journals (via the Library Channel on the University Portal)
Access updated headlines, stories and articles from the latest issues of a wide range of online journals and news sources in the Library Channel on the University Portal.
- Journals are included from a range of publishers, including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Nature
- Look for the link to customise the display of journals to suit your needs
- Use the available option to request that your favourite, or additional journals be added to the Library Channel (for journals available in RSS feed format).
- The updates are generated using RSS web feeds. RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' or alternatively 'Rich Site Summary'. This is a simple way of disseminating information and providing an instant summary of new content appearing in a web site or blog.
New acquisitions lists
Check the weekly lists of new additions to the library's collection, arranged by subject. They can be accessed from the library homepage under the New books heading.
http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/acq/
Alerting services
Take advantage of the journal alerting services that are provided by publishers of a number of major journals and databases. They enable you to:
- receive the Table of Contents (TOC) of the latest issue of your selected journals as they are published
- create and save your search strategies to re-run at a later date
- set up search alerts that will automatically run your searches and send you regular emails of the results
http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/search/alerts/alertingservices.php
You can also use the internet generally to access:
- the Table of Contents of many individual electronic journal titles
- free and subscriber based services that allow you to keep up to date with changes to your favourite web sites. For example Google Reader, Google Alert, Yahoo! Alerts and InfoMinder.
- discussion lists, RSS feeds and blogs relevant to your research.
