There are two main ways to use library databases to stay current with your areas of research interest: by saving searches and setting up alerts. Many databases will allow you to save a search that you have done and run it again in order to see if new material has been added to the database that matches your search terms. Most databases will allow you to set up an alert to notify you automatically, through either an email alert or RSS feed, when new material has met your search criteria. They will also let you set up alerts when new issues of specific journals have been added to the database.
EBSCO Databases will let you save or set up alerts for almost anything in the database. On a search result page or on the Publication page for a specific journal, simply click the Alert / Save / Share link and use the tools in the drop down box.
You can also use this drop down box to obtain a Persistent link to almost anything in the database as well. This is an excellent way to share a specific group of items from a database with other people.
JSTOR allows you to set up alerts, via email or RSS Feed. To do this in JSTOR, go to the main page for the specific journal, then use the links in the Journal Tracking box to set up your alerts.
