Current awareness services in health libraries

An iGoogle page of RSS feeds

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Introduction

See also Information technology topics & Medical podcasts & videocasts and Twitter

Current awareness services in health libraries is itself a part of providing library services, and is linked to outreach and the idea of keeping users as informed as possible. In fact, some health librarians put their current awareness services at the top of their priority lists in the delivery of library services. CA is also a mechanism for those working alone to feel more connected to what is happening in the world. Health librarians use CA services for professional development and staying current. Keeping current in medicine and with information technologies is a priority in the digital age. Simply put, the idea is that health librarians are seen to be more effective by keeping up-to-date with the trends and news in medicine. There are a number of methods to facilitate current awareness for ourselves and our users. We can use electronic and photocopied tables of contents; relevant mailing lists, newspapers and magazines; web sites, books and journals. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a means of organizing and simplifying current awareness, using feeds from a variety of sources along with aggregator software. The following list is a compilation of sites for medical news available on the web. The sites are limited to those that are open-access, and that direct the user immediately to top health stories, as opposed to requiring the use of a search feature. This list is not exhaustive; rather, it represents some of the more common news sources.

Some select health news outlets

See also Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

Canada

• CBC Health
• CTV Health
• Globe and Mail - Health
• Health Canada - News Releases

International

• MedWorm - RSS news aggregator
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) News
• New York Times - Health
• Reuters Health
• UManitoba RSS Feeds in Health

RSS Feeds in medicine

• PubMed.gov & Hubmed.org - information is pushed via RSS feed as research is published.
• Recent medical, clinical & research findings of importance.
  • BMJ
  • JAMA
  • Lancet
  • New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
  • Open Medicine
• BioMedCentral (BMC) - The Open Access Publisher
  • Peer-reviewed research journals across many areas of biology and medicine.
  • http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/rss/
• Nature Publishing - Medicine
  • Subscribe to Nature - many journals. Nature Podcast is a free weekly audio show.
  • http://www.nature.com/webfeeds/index.html
• Open Medicine - http://openmedicine.ca/feed/RSS2
• Science magazine
  • International weekly. Science news, commentary and research. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
  • http://www.sciencemag.org/rss
• CBC News - Health & Science
  • Read current Canadian and international health and science news updates.
  • http://www.cbc.ca/rss/
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Latest news and events from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • http://www.nih.gov/news/
• National Library of Medicine (NLM)
  • NIH Clinical Alerts and Advisories - Podcasts
  • http://www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/alerts/clinical_alerts.html
  • http://www.nlm.nih.gov/listserv/rss_podcasts.html
• Medscape (WebMD)
  • http://www.medscape.com/pages/public/rss
• National Library for Health (NLH)
  • http://www.library.nhs.uk/rss/
• World Health Organization (WHO)
  • http://www.who.int/about/licensing/rss/en/

References