Last week the Library released a new version of our intranet site and search facility. One of the new features of this release is an Alerts service to help Library clients stay up-to-date on topics of interest.
Since the development of the new Library site three years ago, we have been relying on RSS feeds to help our clients keep current on different legislative topics, but for a number of reasons this wasn’t as successful as we had hoped: the Parliament doesn’t support a standard RSS feed reader, clients didn’t easily understand how to use the RSS feed widgets on the Library home page (or even what they were), and the service wasn’t compelling enough to make our users return to the Library site on a regular basis. Plus clients kept asking to have lists of new books, articles and reports on a topic sent directly to their email inbox. So we have launched the Alerts service using good old-fashioned email as the technology to “push” new materials to our clients.
The new service isn’t that different from other kinds of alerts (think Google or Factiva), or for that matter from SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information) systems that have been used by libraries and documentation centres for at least fifty years. We match new information the Library has received against a profile and send the results to the subscribed client. The information can include books or articles added to our catalogue, electronic reports, policy-related blog posts or some of the 1.5 million news articles we process in a year.
The one innovative aspect of the service is that we treat alerts created by Library staff to which many clients can subscribe as a Library “product” much like our briefings or information guides. This means that the alerts can be searched for and retrieved as part of any Library search. For example a client searching on “capitals of culture” will turn up references to books, e-books, articles and briefings on the subject, but also a reference to the alert on the topic created by one of our information specialists. Clients have only to click on the “Subscribe to this alert” link and indicate how often they want to receive the alert, and new information on this topic will be delivered on a regular basis to their email inbox.
How successful will this new service be? We’re optimistic, based on the enthusiastic feedback we’ve had so far, but as with any new product, we’ll have to see in practice how the market reacts. So expect an update posting here in about four or five months’ time.
If you are curious and connected to the EP’s intranet while you are reading this, check out our growing collection of Library alerts or see our video tutorial below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO_t3wxGpfQ]
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