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
February's websites of the month are:
TB Alliance
http://www.tballiance.org/TB Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of better, faster-acting, and affordable tuberculosis drugs that are available to those who need them.
The following information on Leap Year is available on the Infoplease website:
Leap years are needed to keep our modern day Gregorian calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun.
It takes the Earth approximately 365.242189 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds – to circle once around the Sun. This is called a tropical year.
However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn't add a leap day on February 29 nearly every four years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by around 24 days!
World Health Organisation
Our primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations’ system.
These are our main areas of work:
Health systems
Promoting health through the life-course
Noncommunicable diseases
Communicable diseases
Corporate services
Preparedness, surveillance and response.
|
2 Mar |
During World War II in the Pacific, a Japanese convoy was attacked by 137 American bombers as the Battle of Bismarck Sea began. The convoy included eight destroyers and eight transports carrying 7,000 Japanese soldiers heading toward New Guinea. Four destroyers and all eight transports were sunk, resulting in 3,500 Japanese drowned, ending Japanese efforts to send reinforcements to New Guinea. |
|
3 Mar |
A woman’s suffrage march in Washington D. C was attacked by angry onlookers while police stood by. The march occurred the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Many of the 5,000 women participating were spat upon and struck in the face as a near riot ensued. Secretary of War Henry Stimson then ordered soldiers from Fort Myer to restore order. |
|
13 Mar |
A plot to kill Hitler by German army officers failed as a bomb planted aboard his plane failed to explode due to a faulty detonator in 1943. |
|
21 Mar |
Sharpville Masacre Early on the 21st the local PAC leaders first gathered in a field not far from the Sharpeville police station, when a sizable crowd of people had joined them they proceeded to the police station - chanting freedom songs and calling out the campaign slogans "Izwe lethu" (Our land); "Awaphele amapasti" (Down with passes); "Sobukwe Sikhokhele" (Lead us Sobukwe); "Forward to Independence,Tomorrow the United States of Africa." |
|
30 Mar |
The Langa March On 30 March 1960, Philip Kgosana led a Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) march of between 30.000-50.000 protestors from Langa and Nyanga to the police headquarters in Caledon Square. The protesters offered themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passes. Police were temporarily paralyzed with indecision. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 March:
Tuberculosis Profiles by Country
Global plan to end TB: the paradigm shift 2016-2020
SADC Council of Ministers meets in Botswana
The CSIR showcases its work at the inaugural South African Business Incubation Conference
US succeeds in cracking iPhone
Every organisation needs a 2016 technology vision
Digital eye strain, a growing concern
Global and US Leaders Unite to End TB in Washington ahead of World TB Day
Ending TB Starts with Those Most Vulnerable: Migrants and Refugees
Should you wish to read Current Awareness guides of previous years, visit the Archive.
If you are looking for 2015's forthcoming conferences, the following websites are helpful:
This month's golden oldies articles of choice are:
Rhona Smith
Professor of International Human Rights, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
Edition: AHRLJ Volume 14 No 2 2014
Pages: 346 - 367
Citation: (2014) 2 AHRLJ 346-367
Summary
Abebe titled his article on the first session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Universal Periodic Review ‘Of shaming and bargaining: African states and the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council’. As the title suggests, he argues that African states ‘deftly manipulated’ the system, evolving from their traditionally-perceived role as ‘”subjects” of a condemnatory system’ to ‘conscious bargainers and participants in a much more co-operative forum’. With the benefit of hindsight, the first complete cycle of review having been concluded, and aided by qualitative and quantitative data, this article will seek to analyse the extent to which the African regional grouping has demonstrated solidarity inter se and extra se during the review process. It will be demonstrated that African states have proven more engaged with the review process when commenting on other African states than external states. In the spirit of universal application of human rights, it is to be hoped that this will change in the second cycle. African states have also been more positive towards other African states’ progress in human rights than states from other regions. Overall, African states adopted a soft, supportive approach in their comments during the interactive dialogues, although this may yet prove to be successful. Whilst some African states have embraced the opportunity to participate in the review process, a more substantive participation in the second cycle would help the process better achieve its objectives.
