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Library Workshops for
Researchers
Keeping Current in your Field of
Research
Presented by: Josh Clark, Science Librarian
James Joyce Library
tel: 7167646
email: [email protected]
Keeping Current
• Keeping current with new ways of
keeping current is a big job!
• Now more than ever new(ish)
technologies, tools and services
exist to help you
Keeping Current
• Library resources can help, as well
as other online tools (blogs,
podcasts, email lists…)
• Alerting services, both by email
and RSS feeds, can keep you up-
to-date with research in your field
email alerts RSS feeds
Newspapers
Email discussion lists
Society/Association Websites
blogs
Podcasts
Subject Gateways
Theses/Dissertations
Conference proceedings
Social networking for researchers
Smartphone apps
Google+, etc etc!!
Case Studies
Lecturer in Sociology, UK “…I prefer to get information
about my work and research using
social media, twitter, blogs, Google, but
also working with colleagues, seminars,
conferences and the traditional methods.”
“I think social media made me a better researcher
because I find stuff out a lot quicker. I now have a
network of individuals I respect and am confident in
their work… the network discovers and filters and
discusses.”
PhD student, education
“…I prefer to discover information
about my work by using social media,
discussing with colleagues and online
resources.”
“I actually believe that social media have helped me
becoming a better researcher because I learnt to
organise myself in a better way, disseminate it more
and connect with other researchers. (Social media) is a
great resource for researchers in terms of public
engagement, getting new contacts and employability.”
Professor of Biology
“…When publishing my work I prefer to
use more traditional ways like
publishing in journals and presenting in
conferences, but also talking to people
for original stuff.”
“I usually use social media in my professional and
personal life. Specifically, I use blogging, micro
blogging, social citation, social/ professional
networking tools and aggregators and dashboards like
Netvibes and iGoogle.”
Taken from Research Information Network. Social Media: A Guide for Researchers (case
studies) at www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/case_studies_0.pdf (Feb 2011)
Today’s session
• Social tools –
• Social networking for researchers
• Other methods
• Alerts (email/ RSS feeds) – Google alerts
– Library tools for keeping current
– Publisher alerts – email & RSS
Social tools
blogs
Academic blogs can be interesting
sources of new and
cutting edge
research.
PhD students start
blogging to put their
thoughts out there –
bounce ideas off
others and invite
comments to further
enhance their
journey towards
their finished
dissertations.
http://www.socialscienceblog.org/
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/
In addition to individuals, there are blogs from respected
journals and practitioners….
http://blogs.nature.com/
Looking for blogs of interest? http://researchblogging.org/
http://www.ucd.ie/library/news_publicity/blogs/
In general…
• Communications are called “tweets”
• 140 characters or less!
• Subjects referred to by using a hashtag
“#”
• Refer to someone by using “@” before
their username
• Can “retweet” – send on tweets from
others to your followers
Twitter feeds can be useful for up to the minute
updates on topics of interest, INCLUDING real-time
conference updates!
Discover new publications in your field….
Social networks for
researchers
Social networks – useful or not?
• It’s about collaboration
• Managing & sharing publications
• Creating profiles
• Crowd sourcing
• Varying degrees of success
• It’s not the researchers that are
social – it’s the data!
ResearchGate Facts
The numbers:
• Started in May 2008
• 1.4 million members
• 10 million papers (45 M abstracts)
• Over 15,000 job listings
• Info on over 3500 conferences
• 300+ UCD researchers signed up
ResearchGate – follow subject areas
ResearchGate – find people doing
similar research
Periodic
emails are
sent to
update you
about new
activity
ResearchGate – follow people
Other networks
• Nature network – life sciences
• UniPhy –physics, astrophysics
• VIVO – multidisciplinary
• figshare – science
• Epernicus - science
• LinkedIn – multidisciplinary (&
commercial)
• Facebook?
Other methods
Institutional repositories
IR’s register with ROAR – a good comprehensive
list of the repositories that are out there….
http://roar.eprints.org/
Discussion lists
preprints
Association websites
alerts
email alerts
• ubiquitous
• setup is usually simple
• available for new contents,
search histories, etc.
• sometimes requires you to sign
up first
www.google.com/alerts
What does the Library
offer?
The Library’s one stop shop for all electronic
information… • e-Journals
• Databases
• Reference resources
findit @UCD Library
Save search
histories & set up
email alerts that run
at specific times
(your choice)
Try it!
• Go to findit and log in
• Do a search using Subject Search
and save your query
• Go to My Research – History and
set up an alert for that search query
We also have information on
finding…
• conference proceedings
• theses/dissertations
• standards
• UCD digital collections
• specialist search engines…
publisher alerts
Keeping Current Using RSS
• What is RSS?
• How does it work?
• How can it help me?
RSS - What is It?
• Really Simple Syndication
• Allows web content to be syndicated
Bottom line:
• You don’t have to visit a website in
order to view its content
RSS – How Does It Work?
• An RSS document, or “feed”, contains
a summary of content from a website –
title, description and a link to the actual
content wherever it resides on the Web
RSS feed readers
Popular readers include:
• Netvibes
• Bloglines
• Google Reader
BUT there are hundreds of readers out there!
Copy this URL
Within Science
Direct you can set
up RSS feeds for:
•Search results
•Topic alerts
•New articles/
content recently
added to a journal
or book (TOC
alerts)
Sometimes you get this…
Sometimes you get this…
Or this…
Copy the URL (web address)
and paste into your RSS
feed reader
RSS – What’s in it for Me?
Advantages
• Save time
• Convenience – have all your updates
come to one portal
• Keep updates separate from email
(spam, blocked messages, etc.)
• Don’t have to give out personal details
(well, not always at least)
RSS – What’s in it for Me?
• Many publishers are now offering some kind
of RSS option for keeping up to date with
articles, citations, searches…
Links
UCD Library links:
Library homepage: http://www.ucd.ie/library
findit @UCD Library: http://librarysearch.ucd.ie (log in with UCD Connect details)
Our Collections (theses, conference papers, standards, etc.):
http://www.ucd.ie/library/finding_information/our_collections/
Library guides (in PDF): http://www.ucd.ie/library/supporting_you/guides/
UCD Researcher Support: http://www.ucd.ie/library/supporting_you/research_support/
Newspapers: http://www.ucd.ie/library/finding_information/our_collections/newspapers/
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/
Theses/dissertations:
EThOS (British Library service): http://ethos.bl.uk
DART-Europe E-theses portal: http://www.dart-europe.eu/ (available via findit)
Proquest Dissertations & Theses database (available via findit)
Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations: http://www.ndltd.org/
Conference Proceedings:
Proquest COS Conference Papers Index: (access via findit)
Links
Conference Proceedings:
ACM Digital Library (computer science): (access via findit)
Proquest Entrepreneurship (business): (access via findit)
ISI Proceedings (Web of Science): (access via findit)
Social Networks for Researchers:
ResearchGate (general science): http://www.researchgate.net/
Academia.edu (multidisciplinary): http://www.academia.edu
Nature Network (life sciences): http://network.nature.com/
AIP UniPHY (physics): http://www.aipuniphy.org
Mendeley (reference manager & collaborative space): http://www.mendeley.com/
Research Information Network (RIN): Social Media: A Guide for Researchers:
http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-
guide-researchers
Blogs:
UCD Library blogs: http://www.ucd.ie/library/news_publicity/blogs/
Links
Blogs:
BMJ blogs (medicine): http://blogs.bmj.com/
Research Blogging (academic blog directory): http://www.researchblogging.org/post-
list/list/date/all
Blog Examples:
http://mediterraneanworld.typepad.com/
http://emergency-room-nurse.blogspot.com/
http://phdblog.net/me/
Institutional Repositories:
UCD Repository (research_online@UCD): http://irserver.ucd.ie/dspace/
ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories): http://roar.eprints.org/
Rian.ie (Irish IR directory/search engine): http://rian.ie
Repository 66: Repository Maps: http://maps.repository66.org/
Email discussion lists:
JISCMail (UK): http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
LISTSERV directory (US, Canada): http://www.lsoft.com/catalist.html
Links
Preprints:
Arxiv (physics, computer science): http://arxiv.org/
RSS services:
http://www.scifeeds.com/
http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/
http://www.techxtra.ac.uk/techtocs/
http://ebling.library.wisc.edu/rss/
Some websites for keeping current (from 2009!):
http://hwlibrary.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/10-websites-to-help-you-
keep-up-to-date-with-scholarly-journal-contents/
