Internet‐accessed CAS at the Rodgers Library: a pilot programme

Abstract

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 (CAS) 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.