Utilize email alerts, social media, and RSS feeds to keep you up to date with new content. Alerts & notifications allow you to keep current on recent publications and websites by sending notifications directly to your email when changes are made. Your subject librarian can recommend good sources and strategies for your alerts & notifications.
Database Alerts
Many databases provided by the UW Libraries offer alert services that automatically send you an email notification for new citations or table of contents that match your interests. You can choose to save specific queries (words or phrases you specify when searching). This query will automatically run periodically, and new results will be sent to you at scheduled times.
For example, when you search in UW Libraries Search, you can save that query and run it again at a later time. You can also set up an email alert based on that query so that the system periodically emails you with new results that match the query.
Using the “Save Query” feature will trigger an alert on screen to let you know your search has been saved to your favorites list. You can also turn on a notification for this query.
Turning on notifications will trigger another window that asks for your email address. You will be emailed notifications when there is an update to the query.
View saved queries and alerts by clicking on the pushpin icon 
known as “My Favorites” on your screen. You must log-in with your UW NetID in order to save and view these lists and items. If you do not log in, they will not be there the next time you use UW Libraries Search.
- To learn more about using queries and alerts in UW Libraries Search, visit the UW Libraries Search: Queries and Alerts Research Guide.
- You can also learn more about alert services available through specific disciplinary databases.
Journal Alerts
You can also set notifications for specific journals, so when new content is published you’ll receive a table of contents by email or RSS feed. This is typically set up on the journal publisher’s website. Look for an option such as “Alerts and Feeds” or “Stay Connected” as shown in this example.
Google Scholar Alerts
To watch for new scholarly publications relating to your research, you can set up a Google Scholar alert. When you do a keyword search in Google Scholar, you’ll see an option to “Create Alert.” Once you set it up, you’ll receive an email when new articles match your search criteria. Google offers additional information on setting up Google Scholar Alerts, including tracking your own publications.
Google Alerts
A Google alert is an ongoing Google Search that updates you by email or RSS feed when new results matching your search terms are available. Google alerts are best for monitoring new web content or news.
Setting up a Google Alert is easy and the settings are very customizable; you can choose how often you receive notifications, the types of sites you’ll see, or the part of the world you want info from.
RSS and Feedly
RSS, or “Really Simple Syndication,” is a very popular way of distributing new information from a website. Notably, online news publications and blogs utilize RSS feeds to automatically alert subscribers of news articles or posts.
Once you are subscribed to an RSS feed, you need a tool to read the news and updates that will be pushed to you. One particular tool we recommend is Feedly. It provides you with a single place for all of your news feeds, allows you to organize, read, save, share, and search for news articles and posts in your collection, and is integrated with other popular tools such as OneNote 365. Feedly also has a free smartphone app available on iOS and Android.
Setting up an RSS is especially useful if you are searching many different kinds of sources and content. For example, journal articles, current newspaper articles, blogs and websites.
UW Libraries News and Social Media
The UW Libraries also likes to keep you updated with the latest news and information about current Libraries-related announcements and events. Our News page is constantly updated with current ongoing exhibits, upcoming special events, announcements, and more.
We also have a vibrant presence on social media and you can find many of our branch libraries and staff online in the UW Libraries Social Media Directory.
And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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