Skip to Main Content

Current Awareness 2023: September

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

National Institute for the Deaf

The Resource Hub at the NID website offers a range of free DIY videos, information videos, storybooks in South African Sign Language (SASL), digital interactive educational books, awareness material, posters and access to fee-based resources such as the SASL Dictionary and an online learner driver’s K-53 learner’s license manual, among other useful resources.

Further reading

Database of the Month

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law

One of the most trusted reference works in international law is the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, as well as the recently launched Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law. The two Encyclopedias can be searched and browsed together, or separately by using appropriate filters. This database also offers access to Oxford Historical Treaties, Oxford International Organizations, Oxford Reports on International Law, Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law and the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law.

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

Loading ...

Golden oldie

Meskell, Lynn. (2012). The nature of heritage: the new South Africa. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. PRETORIA OPEN COLLECTION 306.0968 MESK

"The Nature of Heritage: The New South Africa is unique in revealing the conflicts inherent in preserving both natural and cultural heritage, by examining the archaeological, ethnographic and economic evidence of a nation's attempts to master its past and its future.

  • Provides a classic example of how nations attempt to overcome a negative heritage through past mastering of their histories
  • Evaluates the continuing dominance of nature and conservation over concerns for cultural heritage
  • Employs ethnographic and archaeological methodologies to reveal how the past is processed into a new national heritage
  • Identifies heritage as therapy, exemplified in the strategy for repairing legacies of racial and ethnic difference in post-apartheid South Africa
  • Highlights the role of archaeological heritage sites, national parks and protected areas in economic development and social empowerment
  • Explores how nature trumps culture and the global implications of the new configurations of heritage". (Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service.)
     

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