What can you do if an information service of interest does not offer e-mail alerts or RSS feeds? How can you keep track of updates to that service? Web page monitors represent a third current awareness alternative. These tools monitor web pages for you. When changes are detected, they notify you accordingly. They are particularly useful for monitoring content that does not change very frequently.
There are web-based monitors as well as downloadable ones. Some are free, some require a subscription. You can read more about the different products at "Current awareness tools" and "Monitoring changes to web pages." There is also a chapter on page monitors in a recently published book called Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web, which is quite helpful.
Which pages might be worth monitoring? Here are a few examples:
Journal of Migration and Refugee Issues
- The publisher of this journal does not offer e-mail alerts or RSS feeds; issues are published three times per year, so the content is relatively infrequent.
Kumarian Press
- This press publishes a number of humanitarian titles, but does not provide specific notification services for its new or forthcoming titles.
These web pages would also be worth monitoring but raise technical issues for monitors that must be considered:
New Issues in Refugee Research
- Working paper series from UNHCR; all pages on the UNHCR web site include a daily updated "today's date;" this element will trigger most page monitors to notify you of a change. However, there might be some products that allow you to exclude certain details from being monitored.
RSC Working Papers
- Another working paper series, provided by the Refugee Studies Centre. Although the RSC web site is frames-based, it is still possible to identify the unique URL for monitoring purposes.
Dag Hammarskjöld Library
- The library maintains a new acquisitions page, with an entry for "humanitarian aid and relief" under "social affairs." Clicking on this link takes users to a list of the latest additions to the library catalogue. However, the URL indicated is a temporary one, created "on the fly" when the link was selected; as such, it cannot be monitored.
01 September 2007
Page Monitors
Research News Updates
The following resources compile information gathered from various research sources and provide e-mail alerts/RSS feeds to visitors accordingly.
Monitoring Research Reports
Many if not most organizations within the forced migration research community have established some kind of presence online. And they often provide notification services in order to apprise visitors of their activities and publication updates. For example, the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement maintains a listserv, the Feinstein International Center offers an RSS feed, Forced Migration Online has set up a blog, and the Refugee Women's Resource Project circulates an electronic newsletter.
To find other research institutes online and their respective mechanisms for keeping the public informed, search in Forced Migration Online's directory or ReliefWeb's directory.
In addition, take advantage of the e-mail alerts and RSS feeds provided by the following report/grey literature repositories:
ecoi.net
- Country of origin information database.
Eldis
- Development information gateway, with resource guides on "Conflict and Security" and "Aid."
Human Security Gateway
- "Refugees and internally displaced people" is an option in the topic menu.
Refworld
- UNHCR's collection of country reports, policy documents, and legal information.
ReliefWeb
- Humanitarian information hub, with a "Policy and Issues" documents library.
Monitoring New Books through Amazon
Amazon.com is one of the largest online booksellers. It used to offer a helpful e-mail alert service based on keywords that would notify you when new books became available. While this seems to have been discontinued, other services have filled the gap. Here are two examples:
Amazon RSS Feed Generator
- Enter a search term or terms and create your own custom RSS feed for any Amazon store item (the default is books). Copy and paste the feed into your newsreader, where book titles will update as new matches to your terms are made.
Amazon Feed Generator
- A similar service, although this one lets you use Amazon's power search syntax to build a more precise query.
Forced Migration Book Publishers
The companies listed below regularly publish forced migration-related titles. Notification services that they offer are also indicated.
Berghahn Books
- Publishes the Studies in Forced Migration series edited by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC). Sign up for their mailing list and select "refugee studies" as your area of interest to receive information about new titles.
Brookings Institution Press
- Publishes books produced by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, among others. Sign up for their weekly e-mail newsletter for book news.
Kumarian Press
- Publishes humanitarian titles including the World Disasters Report series. Their RSS feed provides news about recent developments and activities.
Lexington Books
- Publishes the Program on Migration and Refugee Studies series, advisors for which are based at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM). E-mail notification of new titles is available by broad subject category.
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
- Publishes the Refugees and Human Rights series. Subscribe to their "human rights and humanitarian law" RSS feeds for forthcoming titles or new books.
Oxford University Press
- Publishes The State of the World's Refugees series for UNHCR as well as editions of The Refugee in International Law. New books are announced in monthly subject-based e-mail newsletters.
Routledge
- Publishes the Global Institutions series, which includes titles on UNHCR, ICRC and other humanitarian organizations. Sign up for eUpdates by subject.
Monitoring New Additions to Library Collections
Libraries keep researchers informed of new additions to their collections either through accessions (or new acquisitions) lists or through "new titles" features in their library catalogues. This post lists several resources to help keep track of new books.
1. Accessions Lists (all the ones listed below can also be e-mailed to you upon request)
- British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) offers BLDS Updates every 2-4 weeks; see especially the one for "conflict, disasters, refugees."
- Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) Documentation Centre provides new acquisitions lists.
- Refugee Studies Centre Library compiles a quarterly list.
- UEL Refugee Council Archive puts together a bi-monthly list.
- UNHCR Library produces its Library Highlights list 3-4 times per year.
ECLAS: European Commission Union Catalogue
- First, search the catalogue. With registration, users can then set up e-mail alerts for updated search results; visit the help section for more information about bibliographic alerts.
ICRC: International Committee of the Red Cross Library & Research Service
- View new additions to the catalogue by clicking on the "Nouveautés" option.
Peace Palace Library
- View new titles when you select one of the many international law topics listed. Or sign up to receive e-mail alerts for a specific topic.
Tufts University Libraries
- View new acquisitions by library, broad subject, or keyword search; RSS feeds are available for all search types.
UN Geneva Library
- Select "New books and articles by subjects" to display subject options available for review; "Humanitarian Aid and Relief" is available as a category.
Monitoring Journal-reported Research
Researchers can monitor the scholarly journal literature in the databases below by taking advantage of one or more of the following notification services: requesting topic, author, citation, or search term alerts; generating custom RSS feeds; or receiving updated results from saved searches.
FindArticles (multidisciplinary)
- An article database that lets you generate a keyword-based RSS feed; you can do so by scrolling down to the search box at the bottom of the RSS site map page.
HighBeam Research (multidisciplinary)
- Another database that allows you to build a custom RSS feed based on your search terms; this page explains how.
HighWire Press (life sciences emphasis, but covers social sciences as well)
- Through the CiteTrack service, you can request e-mail alerts for keywords, authors or citations that appear in new journal articles. Alerts also can be created immediately after you conduct a search. For more information, visit the CiteTrack page.
PILOTS Database (mental health literature)
- Registration allows you to save a search, and then be notified by e-mail when new results matching your search criteria appear; more information about alerts are available here.
PubMed (medical and health sciences)
- You can generate RSS feeds after a search with no registration; steps to do so are provided here. Creating a free NCBI account allows you to save a search and then be notified by e-mail when those search results are updated.
Note: These databases provide complimentary access to bibliographic citations and abstracts for journal articles. Accessing full-text content generally requires payment (premium service), although one can often find free articles within the collections as well.
Monitoring Other Journals
What if you want to monitor other journals besides those listed in the previous post? These resources can help you identify the notification services available for particular journal titles.
Multidisciplinary
Informaworld
- Browse for an individual journal title and its RSS feed; register in order to sign up for e-mail alerts.
IngentaConnect
- Browse or search to find an individual journal title and its RSS feed; request free e-mail alerts for up to five titles.
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
- Scroll down through this listing of over 5000 journal titles and their corresponding RSS feeds.
University of Saskatchewan Library
- Browse this alphabetical listing of journals with RSS feeds.
Health/Medical Sciences
HighWire Press
- Browse or search to find an individual journal title and request an e-mail alert.
Law
Current Law Journal Content
- Browse through the list of legal journals to locate a feed.
Monitoring Forced Migration Journals
Here is a listing of periodicals that regularly publish articles relating to forced migration and/or humanitarian assistance. I've indicated the notification services for each title, i.e., e-mail alerts and/or RSS feeds. You will need to register with the publisher to receive e-mail alerts; the links I've provided direct you to the appropriate page to do so.
Development in Practice
Published by Routledge
E-mail alerts through Informaworld
RSS feed for contents of current issue (RSS icon located in upper right corner)
Disasters: The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management
Published by Blackwell
E-mail alerts
RSS feed for contents of current issue (RSS icon located in left navigation menu)
European Journal of Migration and Law
Published by Brill
E-mail alerts through IngentaConnect
RSS feed for contents of current issue (note: you can't view this feed, but you can copy and paste it into your newsreader)
Forced Migration Review
Published by the Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), in English, Arabic, French and Spanish
E-mail alerts
Humanitarian Exchange
Published by the Humanitarian Practice Network
E-mail alerts (receive copies of the magazine as a Network member; free registration)
International Journal of Refugee Law
Published by Oxford University Press (OUP)
E-mail alerts
RSS feeds for contents of current issue, contents of recent issues, advance access articles
International Migration
Published by Blackwell
E-mail alerts
RSS feed for contents of current issue (RSS icon located in left navigation menu)
International Migration Review
Published by Blackwell
E-mail alerts
RSS feed for contents of current issue (RSS icon located in left navigation menu)
International Review of the Red Cross
Published by Cambridge University Press (as of issue no. 861)
E-mail alerts
RSS feeds: CUP requires users to register before they can access their desired RSS feed.
Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (JHA)
Published by the Feinstein International Center (as of 2007)
E-mail alerts
RSS feed for new content
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Published by Routledge
E-mail alerts through Informaworld
RSS feed for contents of current issue (RSS icon located in upper right corner)
Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies
Published by Haworth Press
E-mail alerts
RSS feed for contents of latest issue
Journal of Refugee Studies
Published by Oxford University Press (OUP)
E-mail alerts
RSS feeds for contents of current issue, contents of recent issues, advance access articles
Refugee Survey Quarterly
Published by Oxford University Press (OUP)
E-mail alerts
RSS feeds for contents of current issue, contents of recent issues, advance access articles
E-mail Alerts
Content providers have long offered e-mail alerts to notify interested users about the availability of new resources. Examples of information you might receive by e-mail include:
- tables of contents for refugee journals like OUP's Refugee Survey Quarterly
- newsletters from organizations like the Refugee Council that describe their activities and new publications
- postings to electronic discussion lists like forced-migration
- new book titles from publishers like Berghahn Books
The downside of e-mail alerts is the effort required to manage them and keep them organized.
All about RSS
Once upon a time, researchers who wanted to keep up with frequently updated information on the web (news, publication titles, research developments, etc.) had to remember to regularly visit bookmarked sites of interest or register for e-mail alerts or newsletters (if these were available). Today, an XML file format called RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") simplifies this process dramatically by delivering "headlines" to you directly so that you can peruse news and information in one central location. Content is distributed via RSS in the form of a feed that must be read by an application called a newsreader or news aggregator (more about this below).
Increasingly, content providers all across the web are beginning to offer RSS feeds of one kind or another. To determine whether or not a web site has RSS feeds, just look for a reference to "site feed," "syndicated content," or an orange icon that either says RSS or XML on it or that looks like this: 
. Also, if you use Internet Explorer v.7 or Mozilla's Firefox as your browser, this icon appears in a toolbar at the top of the browser. It is normally gray, but if you visit a site that offers RSS, it will turn orange, indicating that a feed is available. (NB: I use IE7 and to be honest, the icon is not 100% effective; but it's worth keeping an eye on.)
So who in the forced migration information community offers RSS feeds? Here are a few examples:
- News services such as IRIN
- Blogs such as RI's WorldBridge
- Information hubs like ReliefWeb
As noted above, you need to have a newsreader or aggregator to be able to view RSS content delivered via a feed. You can choose between a client-side reader (i.e., an application you download onto your computer) or a web-based reader. Some are free and some require payment. This site offers a fairly complete listing of the various options. Bloglines is one of the more popular free web-based readers. Often, newsreaders are made available through personalized portal providers like My Yahoo! or Google.
To begin reading RSS content, simply copy and paste the URL for the RSS feed into the reader program you choose. I experimented briefly with Bloglines, but I found that at times certain feeds were not updating even though new headlines were available. In addition, I could not always re-display feeds after I had read them (although this was probably a temporary glitch). I decided to try Google Reader instead, and so far, so good! Both Bloglines and Google Reader allow you to create folders, which is important if you want to be able to keep your feeds organized.
What is a blog?
From my personal perspective, a blog simply represents an easy means of establishing a web presence. So it is first and foremost a web site. It also happens to have a certain structure: entries presented in reverse chronological order, monthly archives, comment function, keyword labels, etc. And because it employs a journal-style format, it has been predominantly used by individuals as a vehicle for recording personal thoughts, reporting news, providing commentary, and sharing information.
This article in the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance makes a case for using blogs to more quickly share information in humanitarian emergencies.
For more definitions, see these entries in Wikipedia and Wiktionary. Lengthier introductions are available from:
- ODI, "Blogs," Knowledge and Learning Online Toolkit
- RSF, Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents
- Techsoup (technology resource for nonprofits), Introduction to Weblogs and Ready to Start Blogging?
Why I created this blog...
A proposal for an article of mine was recently accepted by the editors of a special issue of Refugee Survey Quarterly. The theme is "Researching Refugees" and the editors called for articles to fall under one of three topical areas: Historical Overview of Refugee Studies, Methodological and Ethical Aspects of Refugee Research, and New Approaches to Refugee Research.
My article will address the following:
So I will be exploring a number of web services in order to make recommendations, and I thought a blog would be a useful way to not only keep track of my experimentation but also provide an online supplement to the final article.Refugee studies is an interdisciplinary field of study with a strong policy and practice orientation. As a result, the pool of potentially relevant research literature is diffuse and challenging to monitor. This article will review resources and strategies for keeping current with research and publication developments. The focus will be on Internet-based services that any researcher can utilize, regardless of the type of institution within which s/he is based. Resource types that will be highlighted in the article include weblogs, discussion lists, and current awareness services. Relevant tools such as RSS feeds, e-mail alerts, and news readers will also be described in practical terms.
