Current awareness is the term used to describe staying informed by keeping up to date with the latest publications, research and news in your field.
The perspective of current awareness is the present and the forthcoming, as opposed to the retrospective.
Current awareness ranges from looking for information on specific topics on a regular basis (and this usually involves the assistance of your Personal Librarian to help you set up a search profile matched to your research interests) to embracing a wider, more general, and cross-disciplinary view that brings an element of serendipity into your search for the latest information.
Informally, researchers remain alert in all contexts for useful information and insights that will inform their daily practice, their research, and spark off innovative and creative ideas for new avenues of research.
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For May 2015, we have two websites of the month, chosen in light of Unisa's support for Open Education Resources (OER):
1. Open Educational Content Tutorial
2. Find OER
The year is marked with many special days, weeks, and months dedicated and devoted to raising awareness about important issues.
This monthly post, compiled by the Information Search Librarians Team, will note special dates and themes, and draw your attention to possibly interesting cross-disciplinary topical references intended to inform and to inspire ideas for research.
Selected Noteworthy Days in May 2015:
1 May: Workers' Day ( South Africa)
3 May: World Press Freedom Day
5-11 May: UN Global Road Safety Week
8 May: World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
10 May: World Move for Health Day
12 May: World Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Day
12 May: International Nurses' Day
15 May: International Day of Families
17 May: World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
18 May: International Museum Day
21 May: World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
22 May: International Day for Biological Diversity
25 May: Africa Day
28 May: International Day of Action for Women's Health
PricewaterhouseCoopers have published a country by country comparison of anti-money laundering measures that includes South Africa: Know Your Customer: Quick Reference Guide (January 2015).
In response to growing awareness that Big Data can reshape the world and save lives, The Hague Declaration on Knowledge Discovery in the Digital Age was officially launched on 6 May 2015.
The European Parliament commissioned an in-depth analysis of the potential impacts and policy implications of the top ten technologies most likely to change our lives.
The UK-based Save the Children charity has published a report on how reading can unlock every child’s potential: see The Power of Reading.
British Elections 2015: See Stone, Jon (2015) ‘There’s going to be an independent inquiry into why the pre-election polls were so inaccurate’ The Independent, 8 May.
BusinessTech, 13 April 2015. See What are South Africans earning, on average, per sector in 2015?
BBC News, 13 May 2015. See Why is South Africa still so unequal?
The New York Times, 13 May 2015. See Facebook Begins Testing Instant Articles From News Publishers.
Should you wish to look back and find something you remember being posted here, visit the Archive to find what you are looking for. Note that Dec 2014/ Jan 2015 were archived together. The months from February 2015 onward will remain here until they are archived at the end of the year.
Do not hesitate to contact us at lib-search@unisa.ac.za if you cannot find what you are looking for.
If you are looking for 2015's forthcoming conferences, the following websites are helpful:
ALVESSON, Mats and SANDBERG, Jorgen (2014) ‘Habitat and habitus: Boxed-in versus box-breaking research’ Organization Studies, vol 35, no 7, pp 967-987, available at: http://oss.sagepub.com/content/35/7/967.full.pdf+html. Access to this article is password controlled, so Unisa staff members will use their Network username and password, and registered Unisa students will use their student number and myUnisa password to view the article.
See also
HARTLEY, James (2012) ‘New ways of making academic articles easier to read’ International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, vol 12, no 1, pp 143-160, available at: http://www.aepc.es/ijchp/articulos_pdf/ijchp-405.pdf. Access to this article is password controlled, so Unisa staff members will use their Network username and password, and registered Unisa students will use their student number and myUnisa password to view the article.