  We present new results of a spectroscopic survey of circumstellar HI in the
direction of evolved stars made with the Nancay Radiotelescope. The HI line at
21 cm has been detected in the circumstellar shells of a variety of evolved
stars: AGB stars, oxygen-rich and carbon-rich, Semi-Regular and Miras, and
Planetary Nebulae. The emissions are generally spatially resolved, i.e. larger
than 4', indicating shell sizes of the order of 1 pc which opens the
possibility to trace the history of mass loss over the past ~ 10^4-10^5 years.
The line-profiles are sometimes composite. The individual components have
generally a quasi-Gaussian shape; in particular they seldom show the
double-horn profile that would be expected from the spatially resolved
optically thin emission of a uniformly expanding shell. This probably implies
that the expansion velocity decreases outwards in the external shells (0.1-1
pc) of these evolved stars. The HI line-profiles do not necessarily match those
of the CO rotational lines. Furthermore, the centroid velocities do not always
agree with those measured in the CO lines and/or the stellar radial velocities.
The HI emissions may also be shifted in position with respect to the central
stars. Without excluding the possibility of asymmetric mass ejection, we
suggest that these two effects could also be related to a non-isotropic
interaction with the local interstellar medium. HI was detected in emission
towards several sources (rho Per, alpha Her, delta^2 Lyr, U CMi) that otherwise
have not been detected in any radio lines. Conversely it was not detected in
the two oxygen-rich stars with substantial mass-loss rate, NML Tau and WX Psc,
possibly because these sources are young with hydrogen in molecular form,
and/or because the temperature of the circumstellar HI gas is very low (< 5 K).
