M.A. / The dissemination of relevant information is of critical importance to the success of any organisation that aims at realising its corporate objectives and meeting the requirements of its stakeholders. The emergence of information and communication technologies (ITCs) has had a far-reaching impact on the relationship and power structure between organisations and their audiences, stakeholders and the media. It has become extremely difficult for organisations to define and segment these audiences as, for example, Internet audiences are widely spread across geographical, cultural and economic boundaries. This makes the packaging and dissemination of information a near Herculean task, as information needs to be generic enough to be commonly understood and accessed, yet personalised and customised in such a way that it still addresses the various audience segmentations effectively. The identification and profiling of target audiences, however, are critical for successful information dissemination too, as the information thus gained will guide communicators within organisations to compile relevant (to the specific target audiences) content and to package the information in such a way that it be best suited to the needs and resources of their target groups. Extensive market research should, therefore, be an integrated organisational activity that is performed on an ongoing basis and in a structured manner. The principal aim of this research project is to determine the extent to which information and communication technologies could enable the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg (as a newly merged institution) to disseminate information to its alumni effectively. This target audience consists mainly of the merged partners’ alumni groups, namely the RAU and TWR alumni, but also makes provision for the establishment of a third alumni affinity group in the foreseeable future, namely the alumni of the University of Johannesburg. The research consists of an in-depth literature review, followed by an empirical component. The purpose of the literature review is to create a theoretical framework in order to lay a solid foundation from which to conduct the empirical research. The various components of the research problem are discussed, as well as the variables that could possibly influence the outcome of the research. Next, the possible challenges facing the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg are investigated, with special emphasis on RAU and TWR alumni, as these two groups would (at least initially) form the basis of the alumni target audience of the University of Johannesburg. The various information and communication technologies that could be employed as information-dissemination tools by the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg in order to build and maintain valuable relationships with the alumni target audience are also explored. Following, the so-called “digital divide” is investigated, with an overview of the factors influencing this divide in South Africa, as well as the impact it may have on disseminating and sharing information to and with alumni of the University of Johannesburg. For the empirical study, the sample population for answering the quantitative, close-ended questionnaire by means of telephonic surveys was selected by means of stratified sampling from the RAU and TWR alumni databases respectively. Three hundred RAU alumni and three hundred TWR alumni were sampled from the total target-group population, of which 25% were males older than 35 years, 25% males 35 years and younger, 25% females older than 35 and 25% females 35 years and younger. The research results indicate that information and communication technologies could, to a large extent, enable the Alumni Office of the University of Johannesburg to disseminate information to its alumni effectively. In addition, it indicates that a total of 92.80% of respondents feel that contact between them and the Alumni Office would inspire greater loyalty towards the University. A majority of alumni (86.80%) indicated that they would like to receive information about the benefits to be derived from joining the Alumni Association of the University. A strong correlation exists between the establishment of an alumni benefits programme and the level of alumni involvement with the University. The research findings could provide the Alumni Office with valuable guidelines to plan and implement an interactive information-communication strategy by means of effective information dissemination, which could be to the mutual benefit of both the University and its alumni.

M. Inf. / It has become increasingly difficult for end-users to locate, select and organise information published via the World Wide Web. This is largely due to the scattered nature of the Web and its ever-increasing use as publishing infrastructure. More scholarly information is also being published in multimedia format through the Web. Throughout the years, current awareness services and later Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) have provided the means for scholars to keep abreast of the literature in print sources. Today such information is also published via the Web, hence scholars need to have a mechanism to keep abreast of the information published in digital format. Research was conducted to investigate guidelines scholars could use to stay abreast of new Web content. The investigation employed both a literature survey and an empirical method of collecting research data. The literature survey was conducted to establish trends in current awareness services and SDI, the use of the Web for disseminating and retrieving digital information, the impact of the Web on the scholarly communication process and current methods for keeping up to date with Web content. Empirical research in the form of structured interviews was executed to establish the needs of scholars regarding the spectrum of current awareness services that provide Web-based sources. The findings obtained from structured interviews and by means of the literature survey were used to develop a set of guidelines scholars could use to stay abreast of information published via the Web.

M.Bibl. (Information Studies) / Traditionally it is part of the library or information service to provide clients with access to current and relevant information through current awareness services. It is part of the information professional's task to apply new technology and necessary services to the advantage of the clients. The purpose of this study was to establish, by means of empirical research, the effectiveness of CoMIC - an abstracting journal service currently provided to the mining industry. Other institutions providing a similar abstracting journal service should be able to use this methodology as a basis when evaluating their own service. Both a literature survey (to gain basic information about current awareness services in general and more specifically abstracting journals) and a postal questionnaire (to establish clients' opinions about the CoMIC service) were used during the study. From the literature survey it was established that the use of an effective current awareness service holds a variety of advantages. There are however also a few problems associated with the provision of current awareness services. These problems are surpassable providing the necessary precautions are taken in time. The criteria to which abstracting journals are to adhere were established. The purpose of the questionnaire was to give clients the oportunity to express their personal views with regard to the CoMIC service. The most important information extrapolated from the questionnaire was that respondents were satisfied with most aspects of the service. Recommendations with regard to alleviating a few minor problems were provided. After an analysis of the research results, it was concluded that CoMIC should be classified as an effective abstracting journal service.