Wish List: RSS Feeds for New Book Titles

In an earlier post, I noted that Kumarian Press did not provide notification services and therefore represented a good candidate for "watching" via a web page monitoring service. As it happens, Kumarian Press now offers an RSS feed to inform users of its news and activities. (For example, I learned about the new classroom guide developed for Larry Minear's book, The Humanitarian Enterprise, from the feed.) Unfortunately, the RSS feed does not include a new book listing. Or at least, not so far.

KP is not alone. This LLRX.com article laments the fact that very few legal publishers offer RSS feeds of new titles. And my previously-posted brief listing of forced migration publishers suggests a parallel tendency to offer email updates over RSS feeds. One notable exception is Brill/Martinus Nijhoff, which offers an RSS feed for its "Refugees and Human Rights" series, as well as feeds for both forthcoming and newly available titles in various subject areas, including "human rights and humanitarian law."

In the meantime, my personal solution for keeping up with new books is to generate customized feeds for various keyword searches undertaken in Amazon.com, the online bookseller. I explain in this post how I then display the titles in the "new books" feature I make available in my other blog, Forced Migration Current Awareness.

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.

2. New Titles

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.