Building a personalized ToC service for the Library of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to share the experiences gained while developing an electronically accessible personalized and categorized current awareness service (CAS) for the Fellows of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin – Institute for Advanced Study. The paper also aims to communicate the design and technology behind the development of this service.

Design/methodology/approach

A list of journals of interest was compiled. The respective RSS feed links were handpicked from journal web pages. The service was configured to automatically fetch and classify the tables of contents (ToCs) according to the Fellows' interest. The same was presented in a user‐friendly interface.

Findings

RSS feeds from electronic journals can be used as a CAS tool to serve frequently updated information to the desk of the users.

Practical implications

The paper can be used as a starting point by practicing librarians to start similar services in small special libraries to strengthen the library's publicity and outreach activities.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates how personalized current content service can be provided using open source tools.

Citation

Kumar, V., Madalli, D.P. and Raj M., M. (2012), "Building a personalized ToC service for the Library of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 339-350. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211241627