Page 109 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes improved bibliographical control of documents. The generation of machine readable records
has become most useful as databases, enabling the users to get access to the required information
at a faster rate.

Full Text Databases

The latest being creation and generation of full text databases which is proving to be of great
value to the users. As end users cannot only get the requisite reference with or without abstract
but can also access the complete document, if he/she desires.

Online Searching

Online searching has further buttressed the literature search and access to requisite data/
information. This process has made it possible to carry out the search in real time situation
where with continuous interaction with the database, the search query can be modified until the
relevance factor achieved is high.

Successful Database Searching

It may be appropriate here to discuss about database searching, as most of the literature search
is being carried out using electronic databases.
Databases are collections of references, which can be searched in a variety of ways, and are the
most common method used to locate journal articles on a specific topic. Databases may be
scanned regularly to keep you updated on a specific subject or can be searched to find information
for a specific project or job.
Before searching a database you will need to do some preparation. You will need to think in
some detail about what you are actually searching for, for example.
What terms can be used to describe the subject?
Are there differences in spelling or terminology for the subject you are looking up?

How do you combine the keywords together to get what you want?
Are there any limits you wish to apply (for instance A not B)?
How you would use this preparation to plan a literature search?
These queries would help you to formulate effective search strategy that is expected to yield
most relevant hits.

5.5.8 Document Delivery Services

Document Delivery Services are an important component of the Library’s inter library loan
activity by which users’ are facilitated not only to obtain information about the location of a
document but the document itself as well. Almost all libraries provide document delivery
services, though the scope of such services may vary. For instance a library may facilitate its
users by providing document delivery service using its own resources, while some may procure
documents for users from other libraries as well. Yet there are few institutions which operate on
a much larger scale. Examples include NISCAIR, New Delhi (earlier INSDOC) which procure
documents from different parts of the world as well for its country wide users. The largest of all
is the British Library Document Supply Centre, UK that we shall be discussing in detail. Besides,
there are several such initiatives being made available on the WWW that facilitate document
delivery services in online mode that were earlier handled by the traditional manual means.

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