LibGuides: A to Z Databases: Alert Services

Glossary

Alert
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Alerts are tools for keeping up to date. They automatically notify their creators, by email or RSS feed, of new results for predefined queries.
Field
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A field is the elementary information in a database, a computer file, or in fact in any computer resource in which terms have been indexed.
Indexing
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Selecting words to describe documents in an information system. Indexing can be automatic and be based on any of the words in the indexed documents. Indexing can also be done manually by documentalists, who select or add words to documents based on a reference list, a thesaurus or a classification system. The indexing words are sorted into queryable indexes (title, author, topic, etc.).
Keeping up to date / Current awareness
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Current awareness techniques allow you to keep up to date with precise fields of knowledge in constant evolution. They enable you stay informed of current developments and foresee changes. Keeping up to date using current awareness services is different from documentation. The latter is intended to report the state of the art regarding a particular issue.
Metadata
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In the digital environment, metadata refers to a set of data used to describe a digital resource. The metadata is found within the resource itself and provides information on the resource’s content, its physical elements and statements relevant to intellectual property. Metadata is also used to facilitate information searching, better manage resources and access to the latter, facilitate the sharing and reuse of data, and promote the sustainability of digital resources.
Noise
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A literature query generates noise when it returns irrelevant documents. Running a basic query in a search engine will always generate noise.
RSS feed
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An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is an XML file that is used within an RSS reader (also called a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, or simply aggregator) to automatically display a website’s latest news. The RSS feed is thus one of the two basic tools for keeping up to date using the Internet (the email address being the other).
Search operator
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"A search operator is a word or symbol used to specify links between two terms in a query. There are several types of search operators: arithmetic, boolean, proximity, truncation, inclusive/exclusive, ranking and sorting operators." [Translated from the documentation glossary of the ADBS ]
Silence
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This refers to the case when a query returns no results. This can be the case, for example when the query isn’t properly phrased or contains an error, or due to misuse of the querying system.
Truncation
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A truncation operator is a symbol (often an asterisk) used to "truncate" search terms and find words starting or ending with a given character string. Truncation allows you to find variants of a term based on its root by replacing one or more characters, either on the right (e.g. transport*), on the left (*ethane) or in the middle of a word. For instance, applying right truncation to the term "transport" could return search results containing "transports", "transporter", "transporters", "transportable", etc. Applying left truncation to the search string "ethane" could return search results containing "fluoroethane", "chloroethane", "methane", etc.

Web Services Librarian

Email Me

Contact:

Lizah Ismail, Director of the Library/Professor
Limestone University Library, Limestone College, 1115 College Drive, Gaffney, SC 29340

864-488-4610

Subjects: Library Help and Services

Automatically collecting information using an alert

Alerts are current awareness tools.

They automatically notify you, by email or RSS feed, when new information is released online.

Most databases, websites, search engines, journals or journal aggregators, library catalogs or publishers’ catalogs provide alert services to which you can subscribe.

An alert can be created for an author, a journal’s table of contents (ToC), a topic, key words, an organization, the name of a company and in fact for any field that can be queried within an information system.

Examples of databases that provide an alert service:

Necessary precautions

An alert can generate noise as notification is systematic.

Various methods can be used to reduce this noise:

Combining several key words in the query.
Using less common or more specific terms.
Selecting a dedicated search tool rather than a wide-ranging one. For example, you can choose to use one of the databases to which your organisation has subscribed, or choose the Google Scholar search engine rather than Google.

For email alerts, you may want to use your email client’s filter system to sort messages into dedicated folders according to their sources.

A to Z Databases: Alert Services

Glossary

Web Services Librarian

Automatically collecting information using an alert

Necessary precautions

If you are experiencing problems with our guides contact the Library at library@limestone.edu.