Make FreePint Your Source for Sources
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

Keeping on top of additions and deletions in databases, new articles, reports and information nuggets published, and tracking new sources and developments in source functionality is a tough call. FreePint’s focus on “source awareness” aims to address this need and - combined with the recently-introduced Alerts feature - should ensure you stay on top of the sources and content essential to your organisation.

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It used to be that information was like gold: if you hoarded it, it became more valuable. Today it's more like milk: wait too long, and it goes "off".

That's because business decisions and a competitive edge rely on having the freshest information available. And if you can access information your competitors don't have, so much the better.

Monitoring sources to glean relevant information would be challenging enough. But more sources are introduced all the time, and the access point for those sources also changes regularly.

One of the key benefits of a FreePint Subscription is its ability to keep you informed about changes in sources. In fact, "source awareness" is one of the five core topics driving editorial development at FreePint.

FreePint for Source Awareness

Here are a few of the ways we've contributed to source awareness in the past two weeks:

• Anne Jordan's latest Source Update covers changes in EBSCO's collection, noting relevant publications that have been added to their databases, for example. This is an aggregator we don't cover as frequently as we do Factiva and Nexis, but one that is still very important to readers, based on the spike in views that followed the article's publication.

• Aileen Marshall introduces another useful source collection, with her review of ReportLinker. ReportLinker harnesses semantic technology to aggregate reports from all over the web and make them available to researchers through one search point. "Clean and easy user interface - and a budget-friendly source" summarise her findings.

• Some sources get eaten up by others: the recently announced acquisition of upstart Mendeley by establishment Elsevier is analysed by both Victor Camlek and Penny Crossland - complementary perspectives that can help you sort out for yourself how you feel about this development and what actions you might consider taking.

FreePint Alerts - New Way to Keep Up With New Content

We hope that FreePint is one of your useful sources, and we're always looking for ways to make it easier to get to the articles and reports you find useful. To that end, we've recently added a direct link to Google Alerts, which can turn your FreePint site searches into active Alerts when new content matching your terms has been published. This article provides guidance on setting up a content alert.

Are there other features you'd suggest we add to the FreePint site? Sources or types of sources that are essential to you? Articles you'd like to read? Contact me at robin.neidorf@freepint.com and let us know.

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