Keeping Up with Web Resources

One area I didn't cover in the RSQ article is how to find out about new web resources. There are several tools that you can use to learn about new web sites generally, in the form of newsletters and RSS feeds for subject gateways or directories. Here are some examples of each:

Awareness Watch Newsletter - http://www.awarenesswatch.com/
- Monthly listing with subject focus. RSS feed available for new issues.

DocuTicker - http://www.docuticker.com/
- Daily; this blog highlights selected resources and reports from government agencies and NGOs. RSS feed available for new postings. (Note: Because this blog generates a lot of daily postings, I opted to set up a page monitor to alert me to new additions just to the "immigration" section as an alternative to the RSS feed.)

InSITE - http://library2.lawschool.cornell.edu/insiteasp/default.asp
- Bi-weekly; focus is on legal resources. Both RSS feed and email alerts available.

Internet Resources Newsletter - http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn.html
- Monthly, with an academic bent. Subscribe to an RSS feed or email alert. (Note: The editor is also involved in a project to promote "journal current awareness." The companion blog provides updates on new developments.)

Intute: Social Sciences - http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/
- Gateway to web resources in the social sciences. Keep track of new resources added to the service by browsing the latest additions, subscribing to their RSS feed or monitoring their blog.

Scout Report - http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/Current/
- Weekly, with annotations of both academic and general interest resources. Distributed online or by email.

Alternatively, experiment with a search engine monitoring service, like Google Alerts. You can specify keywords that you wish to have monitored (e.g., >>protracted refugee situations<<, >>humanitarian AND "literature review"<<, etc.). When a match is made, you are sent an "alert" or email message with a description and link to the resource. For information on how to use this service, visit the Google Guide tutorial.