How can current awareness services (CAS) be used in the world of library acquisitions?
| Pages | 183-195 |
| Date | 01 June 2003 |
| Published date | 01 June 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520310481409 |
| Author | Ina Fourie |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
How can current
awareness services
(CAS) be used in the
world of library
acquisitions?
Ina Fourie
Introduction
Acquisitions form an important link in the
cycle of publishing, selection, request and
provision of materials for use in libraries.
Acquisitions librarians are expected to acquire
material as quickly and as economically as
possible. At the same time they have to offer
an effective service:
... keeping abreast of current developments
within their own workplace is vital for staff, but
they must also keep up-to-date with the outside
world of publishers and suppliers ± and a good
deal is happening (Chapman, 2001).
Timely access to appropriate, quality
information is often associated with power,
progress and prosperity. This is essential in
a dynamic work environment faced with
rapid developments such as e-commerce,
micro payments, and digital certificates for
authentication. Changes in the publishing
world and new acquisition procedures also
have dramatic implications for acquisitions
librarians. Pat Ensor's words (as quoted by
Nesbeitt and Gordon, 2002) also apply to
acquisitions librarians:
... whereas before I might have thought of it as
``I don't have time to keep up'', I started to
realise I don't have time not to keep up!
The need for people to keep up with the
latest developments in their areas of interest
has long been recognised. Similarly the
threat of information overload has been
recognised. For a number of years library
and information services (LIS) have been
providing their users with current awareness
services (CAS) to help them keep track of
developments. Unlike retrospective search
services, which search backwards for
information published in a specific period,
CAS cover information as it is published
and then bring it to users' attention. In 1978
Martha Williams proclaimed the need for
libraries to offer CAS, while Luhn made his
first reference to the use of computers for
CAS as far back as 1958 (Fourie, 2001).
More recently, Martin and Metcalfe (2001)
have reinforced the importance of
librarians' continuing to embrace the model
The author
Ina Fourie is a Professor in the Department of
Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Keywords
Acquisitions, Librarians, Information services,
World Wide Web
Abstract
Acquisitions librarians operate in a dynamic environment
requiring constant alertness to new developments.
Current awareness services (CAS), especially those
available for free through the World Wide Web (WWW),
can help them to keep up with trends, publisher and
vendor-related information, developments in a particular
field of acquisitions, events important to professional
career development, new titles and conference
announcements. A number of WWW types of CAS are
discussed and examples are provided. These include table
of content services, automatic notification from tables of
contents, book alerting services, SDI or alerting services
available through aggregate services, e-newsletters,
newspaper filtering services, monitoring through
intelligent agents, Web site update notification services,
Web pages with newsworthy content, discussion groups
and electronic mailing lists, and personalised Web pages.
Electronic access
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm Refereed article received 15 October 2002
Approved for publication 25 March 2003
This article is based on a paper delivered at the
LIASA (Library and Information Association of
South Africa) Eastern Cape, 1-4 October 2002.
183
Online Information Review
Volume 27 .Number 3 .2003 .pp. 183-195
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520310481409
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