Treffer: An Automatic Current Awareness Service: The Stout Experience.

This report describes a prototype current awareness service that was conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Stout from fall 1984 through 1985 and involved the selective dissemination of information through the use of online bibliographic databases and the routing of tables of contents from selected periodical holdings. A discussion of the planning and implementation of the service includes the selection of 33 faculty and staff member participants from a cross-section of academic disciplines, the design of participant profiles, and the development of staff and participant procedures. In addition, the results of the service are summarized; an evaluation of the project and the results of a survey of project participants are presented; and the databases used in the project are evaluated. It is concluded that the prototype project greatly enlarged access to comprehensive sources of information and extended awareness into the academic infrastructure, thereby showing the positive impacts such a service can have on the quality of teaching and research. The text is supplemented by 22 tables; 8 references are provided; and the project evaluation form, document evaluation form, referral instrument, and profile design form are appended. (KM)