Page 256 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 13: Indexing Services and Abstracting (I&A) Periodicals

Introduction Notes

Indexing and abstracting sources are called secondary publications. They are the access tools to
already published primary documents such as, articles/papers in newspapers and periodicals,
research papers, reports, patents, conference proceedings and so on. They are also referred to as
indexing and abstracting services as they are used to provide information services.
Because of growing increase in the volume of literature, published specially in periodicals, the
indexing and abstracting periodicals have proliferated. Consequently, the need to have
bibliographical control and easy access to the ever-growing universe of information and
knowledge is also increasing. The number of indexing and abstracting periodicals is continuously
on the increase; so is the number of articles and the documents covered by these periodicals.
In order to bring out the indexing and abstracting periodicals, a large volume of literature is
collected, processed, organized and stored in a machine-readable form. Such stored information
is now days commonly known as databases, which are used for search and retrieval of
information. They are available in different media and physical formats such as floppy discs,
microforms, CD-ROMS, Digital Versatile Discs (DVDS) and are accessible via Internet as well.
It may be pointed out here that, often you might find reference in different sources indicating
Indexing and abstracting (I&A) periodicals in place of I&A sources , which may primarily be
attributed to the fact that contains of most of the I&A sources are based on primary sources with
special reference to periodicals.,
Broadly we shall be discussing here what of indexing and abstracting (I & A) sources along with
their scope, utility. Besides, we would also attempt to enumerate different types of I & A services.

13.1 Definition of Indexing and Abstracting

The word “index” is derived from the Latin word ‘indicare’ meaning ‘to point out’ or ‘to show’.
An indexing periodical is an access tool to a systematically arranged list of periodical literature
providing complete bibliographical references of already published individual items of primary
documents, which are published at regular intervals. It is organized in a convenient manner to
search the location of entries. An Index can be alphabetical, classified, chronological, geographical
or numerical. They are access tools to identify and locate the required information, which
appeared in a particular periodical.
An “abstract” according to ALA Glossary (1983) is “an abbreviated, accurate representation of a
work, usually without added interpretation or criticism, accompanied by a bibliographical
reference to the original work when appearing separately from it.” An abstracting periodical, in
addition to having the above-mentioned features of an indexing periodical, gives the information
content of the primary documents in a condensed form.

Did u know? The major difference between indexing and abstracting services lies in the
form and content.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Indexing and abstracting sources are called ............................ publications.
2. ....................................... periodical is organized in a convenient manner to search the location
of entries.

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