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Current Awareness 2023: March

Keeping you up to date with news and events in South Africa

Request a Literature Search

Need sources for your literature review? Struggling to find sources for your assignment, research proposal or thesis?

The Library can assist with a literature search, which is a systematic and comprehensive search for published, academic material on your specific subject/topic. How do you request one? Simply go to Request a literature search .

If you are experiencing problems accessing the form, please use this link

What is current awareness

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.

Website of the month

World Wildlife Fund South Africa

This website is useful to a number of fields and has a diverse array of downloadable publications (available under "Our Research"), see for example Food Loss and Waste in Farming: Insights from South African Farmers, or, Bees, Gum Trees and Regulations: A Guide for Landowners, or, Oceans of Change: Weathering Storms, among many others.

Further reading

Database of the Month

JSTOR

JSTOR is a growing full-text collection of core social science, humanities and science journals. Some backfiles date back to the early 1800s. Subject fields include anthropology, ecology, economics, education, finance, mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology, literature, and biology.

Unisa Open

The following sites on Unisa Open contains useful information for Unisa staff.

About the monthly awareness page

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.

In the media

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Golden oldie

Berger, John … [et al.] (1973) Ways of seeing. London, England: British Broadcasting Corporation; Penguin Books.

First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures."”

Looking for upcoming conferences?

If you are looking for forthcoming conferences, the following websites are helpful:

Archive

Should you wish to read Current Awareness guides of previous years, please visit the archive:

2014-2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022