By Heather Cameron

With the abundance of information available these days and with time becoming ever more valuable, finding the information you need when you need it can be an arduous task.

Whether you are interested in a particular topic in general or need to be kept abreast of latest developments, having tailored information sent to you at times that suit you is invaluable.

This is something the Idox Information Service can help with. As highlighted in our previous blog showcasing the service, current awareness services are a large part of our offering.

Current awareness tools

In addition to our weekly bulletin providing a selection of the latest policy, research and comment added to our database, and our more subject-specific fortnightly topic updates which include 29 topics to choose from, we also offer the option of information alerts that allow for an even greater degree of personalisation.

With the Idox Information Service’s email alert service, our users can create a customisable schedule of alerts on topics of specific interest. So if co-housing is an area of particular relevance but you don’t want to receive items covering the wider topic of housing (which you can find in our housing topic update) then an alert on co-housing will pinpoint only those items of interest.

Setting up an alert

If you are a member of the Information Service, all you have to do to set up an email alert is log in, run a search as normal and click on the ‘Save as alert’ link at the top of your results: 

This will then provide options for saving your search as an alert so that you receive an email update whenever any new content that matches your search criteria is added to the database. You can choose a name for your alert and decide how often you would like to receive it. Alerts can be sent to you either weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Alternatively you can run the saved search whenever you choose from the My alerts page:

If you have selected a daily, weekly, monthly or fortnightly alert, you will receive emails with a list of records that match your search as below:

If there are no items in the selected time period that match your results, you will not receive any emails. And if you are going on holiday, you can also suspend the alert while you are away and reactivate it on your return – no need to worry about your inbox being clogged up!

Editing your alerts

These tailored updates allow you to receive focused information on the specific subjects that you need for your work, and you can adapt your search criteria to reflect your changing information needs as often as you like.

For example, if you think you receive too many or too few records, changing your search terms in order to broaden or narrow your search may help.

To do this, click on the ‘Edit’ link on the relevant alert on the My Alerts page which will take you to the ‘Edit Alert Schedule’ page. Then simply click on ‘Edit Terms’ and you will be taken back to the main search box, where you can change your terms. To update your alert, run the search with the edited terms, click on ‘Save as Alert’, then use the ‘Update Existing Alert Schedule’ option:

Meeting changing information needs

We cover a variety of topics on our database ranging from economic development, regeneration and planning, to social care and health. Some recent alerts that have been set up include:

• Local welfare
• Disguised compliance
• Children and families social work
• Child poverty
• Safeguarding adults
• Youth crime
• Scottish tourism
• Poverty and social justice
• Benefit cap
• Business and development
• Land value tax
• Community engagement
• Community safety/involvement
• Sustainable development

Our information alerts provide an efficient way for users to receive the tailored information they need and expect. Hopefully this article has shown how easy they are to set up.

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If you’d like to find out more about our email alerts, or any other aspect of the Idox Information Service, you can contact us.