With so much work being published in so many different forums in today’s world, it is hard to know when relevant research is published. 

Enter a match made in heaven: RAMBI feeds and Google Reader!

RAMBI, discussed earlier here, is a catalog of articles and chapters in the field of Jewish Studies.  RAMBI allows scholars to select an RSS feed from a choice of 17 topics straight to your feed reader.  In this way, you can be informed of cutting edge research as it is being published (or shortly thereafter).

As an example: Columbia University Libraries contains a tremendous collection of rare materials relating to the Jews of Corfu, and thus I am very interested in anything that is published about this community of Jews.  Naturally, I have Modern History as one of my feeds from RAMBI.  It was thus that I noticed a new article, "Privileges, legality and prejudice : the Jews of Corfu on the way to isolation," published in an Italian book ("Interstizi"; culture ebraico-cristiane a Venezia e nei suoi domini dal Medioevo all’età moderna), which I otherwise may not have seen.  And, of course, since it is shelved in Butler, I can go pick it up at my leisure.

Highly recommended for those interested in finding out the latest research in your fields! 

Hat Tip: Menachem Butler and the Talmud Blog