Page 77 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes novel, but conceptually this approach in not new. Village ‘Choupals’ have traditionally been the
instruments of communication. What is new is the application of the information technology
for giving wider reach to the participating communities, enabling them access to new markets
over Internet. Secondly, the contemporary ‘Choupal’ model has the involvement of facilitators
such as the ‘Non-Governmental Organizations’ playing their role as link between the village
community on one hand and government and private agencies in the marketplace on the other.
States like Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan have put this conceptual framework into
practice. (World Bank Report 2006).

Task Compare and contrast all the three models of collecting information.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
8. Information dissemination as such constitutes an important and critical factor for the
success of adult education and learning programs.
9. Information dissemination does not require systematic collection, organization, and storage
of information relevant to the needs of adult community.
10. Grey literature can be referred as non-conventional literature

11. Village ‘Choupals’ have traditionally been the instruments of communication.

4.7 Current Awareness Services (CAS)

Modem libraries and information centres offer a variety of new documentation and information
services to provide support to Research and Development, industrial productivity, management,
marketing and trade, all programmes of development of governments and institutions, etc.
There has been a tremendous increase in the volume and variety of publications coming out
from all corners of the world. This unprecedented growth of publications has posed serious
problems for those involved in these activities, to keep themselves abreast of current
developments. It has therefore, become necessary for libraries and information centres to design
and develop new and innovative information services. Two such services are Current Awareness
Services and Selective Dissemination of Information.
4.7.1 Types of CAS

Four types of Current Awareness Services (CAS) are described in this unit with their characteristic
features. These types of service are: Contents-by-journal, Documentation Bulletin, Research-in-
Progress Bulletin, and Newspaper Clippings Services.
Contents-by-Journal Service: This type of service is provided by the library or
documentation centre, by distributing a publication which contains copies of contents
pages of journals in a broad subject area, e.g. medical sciences. A very good example of a
Contents-by-Journal service is the publication called Current Contents published by the
Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Philadelphia (USA). The simplest way in which
this can be done is to duplicate the contents pages of journal issues and circulate them
individually or in a compiled form to .users. The Contents-by-Journal Service is perhaps
the cheapest and quickest way of providing a degree of current awareness.

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