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What are current awareness services?
Current Awareness Services (CAS) are any service that allows you to keep up with developments in your area of interest. They can include:

• Journal abstracting and indexing services
• News updates
• Database ‘saved search’ alerts
• Journal tables of contents
• Website update alerts
• Blogs – weblogs or vlogs (videologs) – originally a kind of web-based diary, but now used for spreading all sorts of news from all kinds of websites.

What are the benefits of CA services?
They take the hard work out of keeping up-to-date. You only need to register your interests with a service provider once – no need to do a new search each time you want information. Information can be delivered to your desktop.

How are CA services delivered?
Many CA services used to be delivered on paper by post. For example, photocopies of journal tables of contents sent out by the library. Now you can register on a website and check for content updates. The information comes to you via:

• email, or
• an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) newsfeed. To receive alerts using RSS, you set up an account with a ‘newsreader’. They enable you to view content updates from websites, which that you have subscribed to, that produce RSS feeds. For more information on RSS feeds read the tab below.

• Knowledge & Library Hub – After searching you need to save the current search in order to create the search alert. You can get results weekly, fortnightly or monthly emailed to you.

• Google Scholar – no account or registration is needed for search alerts. After conducting your search click on Create Alert, complete the brief box. A verification email will be sent to confirm you wish to receive alert.
• EbscoHost Databases (Health Business Elite, CINAHL Complete, Medline Compete) – Athens account is needed to sign in, after completing your search select search history, click “Save searches/ Alerts” and fill in details as needed.
• Ovid Databases (AMED, Embase, HMIC, Medine) – Athens account needed and you also need to set up a personal account within the database. Select Search history and click “Create auto-alert” – fill in details and save.
• Proquest Databases (PsychInfo, BNI, Medline) – Athens account needed. After completing search click “Save search/ alert” and select “Create alert” and fill in form and select save.
• BMJ Best Practice – Institute login via Athens, scroll down and select “Sign up for e-mail alerts” fill in form and save.
• ClinicalKey – Athens account needed and then set up personal account, then searches can be saved and re-run.

Download Current Awareness 1. Setting up Search Alerts

Journal Table of Contents

These are alerts that you can set up to inform you when a new issue of a particular journal title, either electronic or paper, is available. There are a number of ways in which you can source these. You could register separately with a variety of academic journal publishers or direct to established journal websites such as The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, BMJ.

• JournalTOCs – Alternatively you could register with a stand alone service such as JournalTOCs. This is a fully searchable collection of almost 25,000 academic journals with new articles notified directly from the publishers as soon they are published online. It is for researchers, healthcare staff, students and anyone who is looking for current papers, published in their chosen field of interest, including international coverage. Provided by Heriot-Watt University, JournalTOCs is a national service, free of charge to individual users.

• CASH – Current Awareness Service for Health – CASH aims to keep health professionals up-to-date with new developments for the benefit of patient care and improved decision making. It is a collaborative service provided by librarians from around England who monitor and capture content from across 3 broad sectors – Primary Care, Secondary Care and Mental Health

Download Current Awareness 2. Creating Journal Table of Contents (TOCs)

For further guidance in setting up journal TOCs please click the guidelines below or access the presentation at the bottom of this page.

The internet is simply too large to keep track of everything that is available, let alone new content on your favourite websites.

Website alerts are the best way to keep up to date with new content. They are usually RSS feeds – Really Simple Syndication, which put simply means an internet protocol to easily transfer data.

Look for these symbols on websites:

If they are visible you can get RSS alerts. RSS feeds tend to be available on announcement and news pages. RSS feeds are provided to you via a News Feeder or Aggregator. These can be desk top based, usually via your browser e.g., Explorer, Firefox or Chrome. Alternatively they can be web based.

• Desk top based – With a desk top feed no subscription/registration is required and they are simple to organise. However they can only work on the machine they were set up on and generally cannot be transferred to follow you around.
• Web based – These feeds offer greater adaptability and content. In addition, with many, they can be accessed wherever you are using the internet including your smartphone. However they require registration and some may require a small one off or annual fee. Access a list of current web based feeds. Please note: 1) these may change over time, and 2) some may not be accessible from Trust computers; if you set them up at home you may not be able to access them from our network.

For further guidance on website alerts and RSS feeds please click the guidelines below or access the presentation at the bottom of this page.

Download Current Awareness 3. Website Alerts (RSS Feeds)