Describe in detail usefulness of CAS in libraries?
Current Awareness Service has been important means for keeping the users up-to-date in their areas of interest. A current awareness service may be as simple as copy of table of contents or a bulletin containing bibliographic records, of articles selected from the current issues of journals and other material, and usually organized by subjects. Libraries now compile current awareness bulletins using predefined search strategy and running on the database either on CD-ROM or online periodically and getting the desired output. Subject to copyrights, the output can also be stored on a local system, and disseminated online (Internet, Intranet) and offline (print, CD-ROM, e-mail). Table of Contents (TOC) of most journals are available free from the publisher’s sites. Some publishers even offer free e-mail update of table of contents. Internet has enabled a lot of innovations in contents, methods of production and distribution of current awareness products. Tools such as Blister, Web log, Webz
