A STUDY OF CURRENT AWARENESS PUBLICATIONS IN THE NEUROSCIENCES

Mailed questionnaires were used to study the use of two printed current awareness devices in specialized areas of the neurosciences, one manually prepared and the other a product of MEDLARS. The study determined who uses each publication, how much, for what purpose, and with what degree of success. A major purpose was to discover how valuable the publications are to users and what impact they have had on their own research or professional practice as well as on their information seeking behaviour. Comparisons are made between the results for the two publications. Some conclusions are drawn on information seeking behaviour in the neuroscience community and on requirements for effective current awareness services in this field.