Page 123 - DLIS407_INFORMATION AND LITERATURE SURVEY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Information and Literature Survey in Social Sciences

Notes y E-journals form a large part of the collection of a library for providing web based services.
Today many journals are available electronically some are full text and some contain only
bibliographic information with abstract.
y Reference information sources can be general or subject specific. For example, The Encyclopedia
Britannica is general while The Encyclopedia of Stem-Cell Research, The Encyclopedia of Pain,
and The Gale encyclopedia of Medicine are subject encyclopedias.
y Subject gateways are web sites that compile complete information on various resources
available on a particular subject.
y Virtual reference is now a hot topic in libraries and many libraries are moving their reference
service online.
y The Library of Congress started its Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) project
during this period to test provision of professional library quality reference service to users
anytime and anywhere (24/7 access), through an international digital network of libraries.
y A portal refers to a Web-based tool that provides a customisable interface to retrieve information
aggregated from a variety of sources.
y Library portals typically include an online catalogue of materials as well as gateways to
collections of digital resources accessible to the user.
y Search Engines are huge databases of web page files that have been assembled automatically
by machines where as the subject directories are human-compiled and maintained.

13.10 Keywords

Web-base Information Resources: Web-base information resources can be defined as resources that
include both documents and non-documents in electronic or e-format that provide information or a
pointer to the information and can be accessed via Internet.
Subject Gateway: A gateway is defined as a facility that allows easier access to network based resources
in a given subject area.
Portal: A portal refers to a Web-based tool that provides a customisable interface to retrieve information
aggregated from a variety of sources.

13.11 Review Questions
1. What are the different types of Web-based resources and services in social science?
2. Define e-journals and their role in social science disciplines.
3. State the difference between a portal and gateway.
4. Discuss the concept of virtual library.
5. Define subject gateway. Give some examples of important subject gateways worldwide.

Answers: Self Assessment

1. Web-base information resources 2. Reference
3. E-journals 4. Constantly updated
5. Subject specific 6. True
7. True 8. False
9. True 10. False
11. Online databases 12. Search engine

118 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY