RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Websites with an RSS logo allow you to receive news from websites without continually having to visit that website.

RSS Feeds can be inputted into Feed Readers, so that you can store all of your news feeds in one place.

You can also use Start Pages (such as Netvibes, which also has an inbuilt Feed Reader) to store all of your news feeds, bookmarked webpages; as well To Do Lists and Calendars. Start Pages enable you to keep your information organised and can be accessed via the internet wherever you are.

When you run a search on a database, it can be useful to set up an alert for that search. This means that you are regularly emailed a list of articles that have recently been added to that database that match your search criteria.

You can set up your own journal alerts, by going to the publisher’s website for your chosen journal. You will need to fill in your details in the alerts section and these alerts will be sent to you as soon as a new issue is published. Some journals also have RSS feeds, which you can view in your feed reader.

Another way of keeping up to date is to join relevant mailing lists such as Jiscmail or set up/join professional groups on social networking sites such as Facebook. Joining mailing lists/ social networking groups enable you to discuss current issues with your peers.