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
The website of the month is The Conversation Africa. The company that created the Africa site in May 2015 is based in Johannesburg and describes the site as a free, open access, "independent source of news and views from the academic research community, delivered direct to the public." The site is searchable. Click on the link below to explore the latest articles. The site also links through to a range of topical articles in French and in Spanish.
THE CONVERSATION (Edition: Africa) > if you wish to explore additional information, click on Edition and select a country or Global Perspectives from the drop-down menu, e.g. Africa, Australia, Canada, etc.
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.
[ Image from: Women's Month 2019 ]
Why does the United Nations observe certain months, weeks and days?
7 August IPCC releases draft special report: Climate Change and Land
9 August Women's Day
9 August United Nations International Day of the World's Indigenous People
12 August United Nations International Youth Day - 2019 Theme: Transforming Education
19 August United Nations World Humanitarian Day honours aid workers
27 August Policy Paper on how to transform SA economy released for public comment
If you are looking for 2018's forthcoming conferences, the following websites are helpful:
The first of these three golden oldies is written by John Berger, and others, and deals with how we look at paintings, the second is a collection of poems written by award winning South African poet (not the only string to her bow) Phillippa Yaa De Villiers and the third is a book of practical advice for organisations and individuals from Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world:
BERGER, John ... [et al.] (1973) Ways of Seeing. London, England: British Broadcasting Corporation: Penguin Books. Available in the Pretoria Open Collection at 701.18 WAYS on the 5th floor
DE VILLIERS, Phillippa Yaa (2010) The Everyday Wife. Athlone, South Africa: Modjaji Books. Available in the Pretoria Open Collection at 821.92 DEVI on the 5th floor
DALIO, Ray (2017) Principles. New York: Simon and Schuster. Available in the Pretoria Open Collection at 650.1 DALI on the 6th floor