In the context of lexis-nexis, a Current Awareness Product (CAP) is an information product which provides concise, relevant data to a customer, related to a particular topic (or topics) of interest to that specific customer, or to customers within a broader market or industry group. This paper will discuss how Z39.50 is being used to deliver Current Awareness products to a variety of customers in a wide range of user environments. One essential objective of this delivery facility is to provide the necessary relevant information, proactively, to each customer in their own native environment, with minimal deviation from their standard methods for interacting with their groupware and/or individual workstation applications.
An assortment of Z39.50 services is used in this facility to provide a flexible delivery platform that supports such unconventional features as: information alerts, uploading record usage information for accounting and billing purposes, initiating subscriptions to specific Current Awareness products, establishing information filtering profiles, and providing access to (and delivery of) products consisting of `webs' of pre-fabricated, related result sets.