Keeping Current: Summary of Survey Results

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Current Awareness Survey which was organised by members of Level 4 Library Staff. The results have given us a clearer picture of how you prefer to keep up to date with research. This will help inform the recommendations we make and the content of training sessions.

Our survey focused on alerts that individuals set up via databases or publisher websites. To set these up, individuals can identify individual journal titles in order to receive the latest tables of contents (TOC). Alternatively, they can identify an author, citation or set of keywords in order to receive references from a wide range of journals. Here's a summary of the results:

• The most popular alerts: Web of Science and those set up directly from publisher website are most widely used although both received mixed reviews for intuitiveness and quality. Pub Med and Zetoc were amongst services that received the most positive feedback. Researchers are using a huge range of individual journal alerts as well as broader one-stop-shop alerts from databases.
  
• Perceived benefit of alerts: 80% of respondents were positive. They perceived alerts as being quick and easy to set up, providing relevant results and a useful overview of a topic. They also enable serendipity in searching and sometimes provide links.
  
• Perceived problems of alerts: they're slow, complex and irrelevant, lacking both breadth and throughness. They also create information overload & were difficult for staff to fit into their workload.
  
• Waiting... The average user is prepared to wait up for to two weeks post-publication to receive an alert (and is prepared for 5% of alerts never to arrive). However, this average disguises a wide range of opinion.
  
• Other results: 76% would prefer to receive alerts as emails rather than via a feed reader. The most popular alternatives for keeping up-to-date were conferences and review articles.
  
• Comments: Where there were comments on the Library’s online resources, most were positive, although some respondents were unaware that the Library were responsible for providing these resources.
  
• Our own data suggests... Ultimately, getting alerts direct from each publisher provides the fastest, most reliable source, but this is more labour-intensive to set up and monitor than using a one-stop database. Of the databases, Zetoc or Web of Science may prove a better choice if you're more interested in thorough coverage and less concerned about speed, If you want to receive alerts quickly and aren't concerned about the occational alert not arriving, you may prefer to use ELIN.

If you would like to see a full report, please contact me P.G.Bradley@bath.ac.uk