Page 257 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes 3. An ...................................... periodical gives the information content of the primary documents
in a condensed form.

13.2 Functions of Indexing and Abstracting Periodicals

The functions of indexing and abstracting periodicals are many. Some of the important functions
are listed below:

To keep scholars and information users abreast of current literature in their fields of
interest. They can be benefited from scanning the issues of indexing and abstracting
periodicals.

To find information on the literature of the subject fields as and when need arises. The
indexing and abstracting periodicals are key tools to librarians and information workers
for day-to-day reference and bibliographical work, though research scholars also use
them extensively.
To provide bibliographical control of literature output either by country or by subject or
by kind of materials, if the aim of the indexing and abstracting services is exhaustive
coverage.

To obtain correct and complete bibliographical details of particular items of literature,
when there is any doubt.

To help users to get information this is otherwise scattered in other sources.
13.3 Need and Purpose of I & A periodicals

The I & A periodicals are convenient tools to provide scholars a bird’s eye view of literature of
their specific interest easily and quickly. They cover information from vast volume of primary
literature scattered in a numerous sources in fewer pages. The abstracting periodicals help users
in further reducing the effort of scanning by giving an idea of the information content of
documents and its relevance to the purpose. The I & A periodicals also fulfil the requirements of
scholar who needs to scan information from the earlier literature on the subject for a problem
undertaken from study or research.

The library to fulfil the demand of users subscribes to a representative collection of I & A
periodicals in various disciplines. These periodicals are used for identifying documents that
contain specific information needed to answer numerous enquiries of users and for developing
a state-of-art review compiling a bibliography on a specific topic. Libraries and information
centres generate many information services and products based on the materials contained in
the I & A periodicals.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
4. I & A periodicals obtain correct and complete .......................... details of particular items of
literature, when there is any doubt.
5. .......................... fulfil the requirements of scholar who needs to scan information from the
earlier literature on the subject for a problem undertaken from study or research.

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