Page 65 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes Introduction

The acute problem of increasing amount of literature felt by scientists and technologists (who
used scientific and technical libraries) on one hand and resource crunch to acquire at least all that
which is important for the core user group on the other hand has led librarians and information
scientists to devise ways and means of supporting R&D activities. In order to solve the problems
created by the growth of literature, information service acted in scientific and technical libraries.
The intention was to provide information service by one who can keep in touch with research
going on in laboratory. His primary function was to organize literature and he was to know all
the possible sources of information, which might be useful to the group of persons being served
by him. As mentioned earlier, information service was started first in scientific and technical
libraries because scientists and technologists were the first to feel the acute problem of increasing
amount of literature. However, many other types of libraries are also providing this kind of
service.
4.1 Information Services

Libraries are meant to provide information services to its clientele. Modern libraries provide
various library and information services to fulfil the information needs of the clientele.
Information revolution is responsible for increase in the variety and volume of information
services. Electronic delivery of information has become a necessity. Internet has opened new
vistas of information resources. Despite of all this, information services are still required and
this Unit will discuss a brief account of Information services and products.

4.1.1 Origin of Information Service

Information systems and services often develop from a conglomerate of loosely related events.
Coherent historical narratives documenting their development can be difficult to construct
because of the diversity of sources as well as the fundamental problem of finding logical
boundaries for the research. As a result, chroniclers of information systems tend to either take
an all-inclusive cursory approach, or conduct an incredibly detailed study of a particular system
or event that lacks appropriate context. In A History of Information Services, Charles Bourne
and Trudi Bellardo Hahn are able to split the difference and create a detailed narrative that
addresses key contextual developments while effectively holding the reader’s interest.
By focusing on the period from 1963 to 1976, the authors capture the emotion and revolutionary
nature of moving from a fundamentally print information service system, to one that is chiefly
based on online systems without getting lost in the expanse of the entire evolution from Vannevar
Bush to the networked web. Service, as opposed to system, is the key word in the book’s title. By
focusing on overall services rather than narrowing in on the systems themselves, the book
transcends its encyclopaedic narrative and somewhat numbing detail to present a balanced
focus on people, events, and products. This holistic approach enables the writers to interject
compelling biographical narratives of the key players who took developing online systems
from experimental to fundamental components of information service. The best example is
chapter five, where the long and winding development of DIALOG is bolstered by insights into
integral service developers such as Roger Summit and Van Wente. As the authors explain in
summing up the story of online information services, “It was not the available hardware, but
the pioneers’ visions of possibilities that pushed the frontier”.
Bourne and Bellardo Hahn fill a significant gap in the information science and computing
literature. Among the many efforts to chronicle development of online information systems
and services from infancy to mature industry, none has addressed this historical period in such

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