|
Items in cart [0] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 189
-->
Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information
JIŘÍ SPIRIT and LADISLAV KOFNOVEC
At present, the increasing amount of scientific and technical literature renders it impossible for scientists and technical workers to follow up all the new literature related to their fields. In order to identify and obtain the most important documents, they inevitably need the assistance of information unit officers. These are in a position systematically to provide information about newly published documents by means of (abstracts) cards.
If an information unit is to work for only a small number of research and technical workers, the information officers will be able to store up in their memories the different items that may be of interest to individual scientists. If, however, the number of specialized scientists or research workers is large, the information unit must be provided with special accessories if a systematic information service is to be correctly performed. In what follows, one of the most important of these accessories, i.e., the thematical plan of the establishment or institution, will be described in detail.
Obviously, a scientist cannot wait until some report of some foreign experience happens to come to his knowledge. Therefore, the information officer must know in advance what the individual creative workers will need. He must also know how and where the necessary information can be acquired.
In order to survey the requirements of the individual scientific workers, information officers must constantly be in contact with the scientists and choose useful information on the basis of the thematical plan. That is to say, each
JIŘÍ SPIRIT and LADISLAV KOFNOVEC Research Institute for Materials and Technology, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
1
The paper by W.K.Lowry and J.C.Albrecht entitled “A Proposed Information Handling System for a Large Research Organization” (Area 5 of the Conference) also contains a discussion of methods for determining the information requirements of individual scientists served by an information service.
OCR for page 190
-->
year, prior to the beginning of work on research, development, and design problems, the information officers will note, in a most detailed and specified way, the requirements of the individual scientific workers. These requirements should be arranged from two different points of view: (1) from a personal one, by making for each of the creative workers separately a specification of his requirements, classified, for example, according to the UDC; (2) from a subject field point of view, by systematically arranging the specified items according to the UDC, together with the name of the workers interested in them, all classified into larger groups for easy survey. These two specifications, if necessary supplemented by an alphabetical index of the main groups, represent a year’s accessory tool for the information unit (or the technical library) and form the thematical plan which is the basis for providing foreign and domestic technical information.
The thematical plan is of the utmost importance in organizing a systematic information service, and is a significant component of any active information service. In order to gather the individual requirements of scientific and research workers, a special “Information requirement sheet,” of which a copy is appended, is filled in by the creative workers served by the information service.
On the information requirement sheet are shown the name of the scientific worker, his section and department, the number, designation and details of the research problem in question, and also the stage of its elaboration and the corresponding UDC number. It is most useful to indicate where best to search for information sources and during what period of time, and also to give characteristic details about the information required. Frequently a retrospective search is required, translations from various languages, etc. The back of the page provides space for entering data about accomplished searches or studies and translation work, and about the range of information services during the year. These “Information requirements sheets” are filed in the study department.
These “Information requirement sheets” are the basis for elaborating the establishment’s thematical plan. Great care is taken in indicating UDC numbers for the different items since they are fundamental to the information unit’s work for the coming year.
The first and basic part of the thematical plan is a systematic arrangement of all information requirements according to UDC, as for example,
Steam boiler
621.18
Steam boiler materials
Dr. Wild
621.18.004.6
Disturbances on steam power plants
Lindner
621.181.021
Steam boiler pipes
Dr. Wild
621.183
Steam boiler fittings
Dr. Wild
621.183.002.3
Materials for steam boiler fittings
dipl.Ing.Schmidt
OCR for page 191
-->
621.186.1/.4
Steam line welding
Landgraf
621.187
Steam boiler operation
Dr. Wild
UDC numbers are indicated in the left column, the second column gives short descriptions of the required information, and the right column indicates the names of the scientific or research workers who wish to get information on the topics listed.
The second part of the thematical plan is arranged by departments of the establishment or by individual research groups of the Institute, with the names of the research workers in alphabetical order. Under the name of each research worker are all his information requirements and the respective UDC numbers, as for example,
Dipl.Ing.Schmidt
539.3.19
Methods for measuring residual stresses
539.4.014
620.17
539.319
621.986
Stresses after cold forming
539.4.015
621.986
Influence of cold forming upon mechanical and physical properties of materials
620.18
Metallography, microscopy, apparatus for making polished sections
620.182
620.183.002.3
Materials for steam boiler fittings
When abstracting a book or another nonperiodical publication or some journal literature, the information officer states, with the aid of UDC numbers, which of the scientific workers are to be supplied with the respective information. Thus, the systematization of the information service is assured, every research worker mentioned in the thematical plan receiving, for his personal use, copies of abstract cards, prepared in the study department, pertaining to his field of interest.
In establishments where the information service is already in common use, supplying copies of abstract cards, as mentioned, will be sufficient. In establishments where such services have not yet been introduced or are only occasionally used, the abstracts may be written on special forms with explanatory text such as: “We call your attention to the following article…. The periodical in question is at your disposal in our library,” etc.
The thematical plan is designed to be used not only by workers of the information unit, but also by scientific and technical workers, since it provides them with a good survey of the problems under study and of those who are working on them and who are in a position to give advice in certain cases. This is especially advantageous in large establishments or institutes where it is quite difficult to get a clear picture of the activities of the individual workers.
OCR for page 192
-->
OCR for page 193
-->
OCR for page 194
-->
This page intentionally left blank.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
information service
