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Draws together the various options for current awareness services and assesses the future for such services. Attention is focused on the services offered by text retrieval packages in support of current awareness services. Both microcomputer and minicomputer/mainframe packages are considered. A review of other options for current awareness services discusses services from online hosts, database producers and national libraries. The electronic journal, electronic documents and document delivery services are identified as factors which might influence the nature of future current awareness services.

THhe value of current awareness services has long been recognized, and the possible forms of such tools are well documented. However, little attempt has been made to study the role and exploitation of these techniques in libraries and information units. Questions such as: which current awareness services are most popular?, is the most appropriate dissemination method dependent on the sector of librarianship?, how significant a part of a libary's activities are current awareness services? and, how do they fit into the day‐to‐day routine of the library?, remain unanswered.

Information overload, and the importance/or information users of staying abreast of relevant information, has led to the development of current awareness services. Not only have advances in information technology and telecommunications led to an increased volume of information but they have also made it easier for agencies to produce competing electronic current awareness services. This paper will briefly define an effective electronic current awareness service and highlight some available products and services. It is important that the best products be selected for use by individuals and information services. Evaluation criteria for current awareness products will be identified in the light of specific user needs and requirements for a successful electronic current awareness service.

The clientele of industrial libraries have long enjoyed the library's assistance in keeping abreast of their subject field. Effective current awareness services minimize the time users spend in keeping up‐to‐date. In recent years remaining adequately informed has become increasingly more arduous. There have been increases in the total amount of information, together with an expansion of the number of documents with which an information user needs to be conversant. Wider scattering of information on any one subject over several sources aggravates the situation further. Such trends not only make comprehensive current awareness programmes more vital, but also make them more difficult to maintain. What has been the impact of such pressures on current awareness activities in industrial libraries?

In this paper the value of secondary information services is discussed from the viewpoints of service‐providers and a small group of scientists as users of current awareness services. A selection of earlier studies on the subject is briefly reviewed. The exchange value of secondary information services is demonstrated from the viewpoint of a service‐provider. Users usually see the services in the light of their value‐in‐use though the services often have exchange values as well. In conclusions the problem of assessing the value of secondary information is discussed.

Summarizes the findings of a research project carried out at Aston University. The research investigated the issues surrounding the provision and use of CASIAS current awareness services with individual article supply services and the impact of these services on users, libraries and service providers, with particular attention being paid to the needs and attitudes of users. Places the current awareness needs of users in the context of their other literature‐based activities, and explores the benefits and limitations of the available current awareness, article supply and full CASIAS services, in relation to meeting users’ needs. Concludes with a summary of users’ suggestions about what might constitute the ideal CASIAS service. Introduces the interests of libraries and service providers.

Mountbatten offers a vivid description of the current‐awareness function using the analogy of a very wide conveyor‐belt, representing the information publishers, on which books, periodicals and reports appear at random: ‘The searcher is on a platform just above the belt and as the information material passes underneath he can pick up and read anything that he thinks might be of interest to him. You can imagine his frustration as he realises that for every item he takes time to examine, hundreds of others of possible interest to him have passed by’. Personality and environment will determine whether the individual can find an intelligent compromise between the extremes of neurosis induced by worrying about the material he is missing, or complacency with any system which produces one or two interesting items.

The provision of current awareness to a community of customers is generally accepted as highly desirable. The service becomes even more valuable when it includes journals held within the customers’ own library. Describes a pilot programme conducted at the Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering at the University of Alabama, September 1995 to May 1996. An electronically‐accessed table of contents service was distributed to a group of faculty members in the Department of Chemistry. ContentsFirst database from OCLC was electronically accessed and delivered directly to the E‐mail address of target users. The objective was to examine how useful an electronic‐based current awareness service would be to faculty users and how the service might enhance the library’s overall role in facilitating the communication of information among researchers. The survey evaluation conducted at the end indicated that provision of table of contents electronically was a highly valuable library service.

The users of information services should be enabled to fully exploit current awareness services (CAS) on the Internet to their own benefit and also that of the larger organisation. Services available via the Internet have added to the importance of current awareness, the meaning of the concept of CAS and the purposes served by CAS. Empowerment requires commitment by both parties (information services and their users), a supportive environment, a clear idea of the outcomes to be achieved, and a new attitude to the training methods and opportunities to employ. The planning of CAS empowerment programmes within the familiar constraints on information services is considered. Aspects users should know about Internet CAS are identified, the role of the information specialist is considered and a few suggestions are made about the implementation of empowerment programmes. This article is based on a paper read at the Fifth Southern African Online Meeting, held on 9 June 1999, in Midrand, South Africa.

Before one looks at services intended to make one aware of current progress in science, one should look briefly at the structure of science and at how, and perhaps why, information is generated. It has long been an administrative convenience to divide science into a number of quite well‐defined fields such as biology, physics, chemistry, etc., and to further subdivide these, again largely for administrative reasons. Chemistry, for example, may be divided into inorganic, organic, physical, etc. branches.