Google Alerts

I have posted in the past on strategies for keeping up with web-based resources. One strategy I mentioned was using Google Alerts to monitor online developments for you. If you have a Google account, you can set up an alert to look for designated keywords in news articles, blog posts, web pages, videos, Google groups, or a combination of news, blogs, and web pages. Results (or matches to your search terms) can be delivered in the form of an email or an RSS feed.

I use a series of alerts to check for literature reviews and bibliographies to include in my forced migration research guide. I've found that while Google often finds resources I'm already aware of or that are already in my guide, every now and then, it will locate something a bit more obscure.

For more information, check out this FAQ.

23 Things: Blog Search Engines

Following on from my post on blog directories, here is a useful overview of four different blog search engines. It looks at the main features of Google Blog Search, Technorati, Blog Pulse, and Bloglines.

New Technologies and Humanitarian Response

Bloggers, Buzz and Sound Bites: Innovative Media Approaches to Humanitarian Response(Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Nov. 2007)
- Summary of discussions during a seminar that focused on how humanitarian organizations and media outlets are using new technologies to raise awareness and mobilize humanitarian response.

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.