INS3707
OCT/NOV PORTFOLIO Semester 2 2026
Unique number:
Due date: 23 October 2026
SECTION A
QUESTION 1
1.1 Alerting service
An alerting service is a current awareness service that informs a person when new
information related to a chosen subject becomes available. Instead of doing the
same search every day, the user identifies relevant interests, selects reliable
information sources and receives notices when those sources are updated. These
notices may arrive through email, a web feed or another monitoring tool. The
purpose is to help a person keep up with recent research, events and publications
without repeatedly searching from the beginning (INS3707 Study guide, 2020, p. 63).
Alerting services are useful because information changes regularly. For example, a
, SECTION A
QUESTION 1
1.1 Alerting service
An alerting service is a current awareness service that informs a person when new
information related to a chosen subject becomes available. Instead of doing the
same search every day, the user identifies relevant interests, selects reliable
information sources and receives notices when those sources are updated. These
notices may arrive through email, a web feed or another monitoring tool. The
purpose is to help a person keep up with recent research, events and publications
without repeatedly searching from the beginning (INS3707 Study guide, 2020, p. 63).
Alerting services are useful because information changes regularly. For example, a
South African student researching public libraries can receive notices about new
journal articles on library services, while a librarian can follow newly published books
or reports. Current awareness can therefore support studying, professional work and
decision making. The service works best when the search terms and chosen sources
are relevant to the user’s needs (Fourie, 2003).
1.2 Three types of alerting services
An RSS feed is an alerting service that brings updates from selected websites into
one feed reader. When a website publishes a new item, the feed reader collects the
notice and displays it with updates from other subscribed sources. This makes it
possible to follow many websites without opening each one separately. For example,
a student can subscribe to an RSS feed from a journal publisher to follow recently
published research about information retrieval. RSS feeds can provide general
updates or keyword-based notices, depending on the service. They are particularly
useful when the student wants to check updates at a convenient time rather than
receive many emails (INS3707 Study guide, 2020, pp. 66–68).
A page monitoring service checks a selected webpage for changes and alerts the
user when an update has been found. This works well when the website does not
provide an RSS feed. For example, a South African student can monitor the page
OCT/NOV PORTFOLIO Semester 2 2026
Unique number:
Due date: 23 October 2026
SECTION A
QUESTION 1
1.1 Alerting service
An alerting service is a current awareness service that informs a person when new
information related to a chosen subject becomes available. Instead of doing the
same search every day, the user identifies relevant interests, selects reliable
information sources and receives notices when those sources are updated. These
notices may arrive through email, a web feed or another monitoring tool. The
purpose is to help a person keep up with recent research, events and publications
without repeatedly searching from the beginning (INS3707 Study guide, 2020, p. 63).
Alerting services are useful because information changes regularly. For example, a
, SECTION A
QUESTION 1
1.1 Alerting service
An alerting service is a current awareness service that informs a person when new
information related to a chosen subject becomes available. Instead of doing the
same search every day, the user identifies relevant interests, selects reliable
information sources and receives notices when those sources are updated. These
notices may arrive through email, a web feed or another monitoring tool. The
purpose is to help a person keep up with recent research, events and publications
without repeatedly searching from the beginning (INS3707 Study guide, 2020, p. 63).
Alerting services are useful because information changes regularly. For example, a
South African student researching public libraries can receive notices about new
journal articles on library services, while a librarian can follow newly published books
or reports. Current awareness can therefore support studying, professional work and
decision making. The service works best when the search terms and chosen sources
are relevant to the user’s needs (Fourie, 2003).
1.2 Three types of alerting services
An RSS feed is an alerting service that brings updates from selected websites into
one feed reader. When a website publishes a new item, the feed reader collects the
notice and displays it with updates from other subscribed sources. This makes it
possible to follow many websites without opening each one separately. For example,
a student can subscribe to an RSS feed from a journal publisher to follow recently
published research about information retrieval. RSS feeds can provide general
updates or keyword-based notices, depending on the service. They are particularly
useful when the student wants to check updates at a convenient time rather than
receive many emails (INS3707 Study guide, 2020, pp. 66–68).
A page monitoring service checks a selected webpage for changes and alerts the
user when an update has been found. This works well when the website does not
provide an RSS feed. For example, a South African student can monitor the page
