Now you know where to find (bibliographic) information in your field and how to search in the relevant databases. But how are you going to keep up to date? Are you going to remember the databases and repeat the searches in them time and time again to see whether new articles or books have been added? Or are you going to have a look at the books on the new acquisitions shelves in the library on a regular basis? Probably not?
A better option to keep up to date is to have the search you performed on a database saved, and have the database system repeat it for you on a regular basis (e.g. once a week). The new records that match your search are then emailed to you. This is called an alert.
Most bibliographic databases offer an alerting service. In Wageningen UR Digital Library you can set up alerts on the databases made by Wageningen UR Library via My Library. Scopus is another example of a substantive database that offers alerts. The databases that Wageningen UR Library offers on the OvidSP platform have an alerting service called AutoAlert (SDI). Finally, everyday information is added to the Web, some search engines such as Google offer alerts as well.