SEARCHING AND

ACCESSING RELEVANT

DOCUMENTARY DATA G.W. KIYINGI

INTRODUCTION

• Information is a fundamental resource for social development and progress of society.

• The fundamental purpose of any library and information service is to provide access to the organized record of knowledge and ideas of society, whatever form it takes.

• World over, there is clear evidence researchers increasingly want to use digital material alongside traditional materials and want access from their desktop whenever they want and wherever they are. Libraries and information professionals are required to act as catalysts to guide the researchers who may not know all the information resources and research tools and how to access them.

• The needs and expectations of researchers as users of information and library services are growing more extensive and diverse.

• Technological change has made its impact on the ways through which researchers find and receive information. This scenario compels researchers to keep pace with the technology in the race.

• To cope with these trends, information professionals need to understand the dynamics of service delivery to users/researchers and make sincere attempts to provide access to information – print or electronic resources.

• Tools and resources which researchers search to access information in various stages are discussed in the presentation.

BARRIERS TO ACCESS

• Although access to information is a necessity, it may not always be possible to provide access; there are barriers or constraints in getting access to information which is relevant.

• Several barriers have to be overcome if access to information is to be achieved. A suitable source needs to be identified, after the source is identified it has to be made available.

Current offerings

• Information materials may be from primary or

secondary publishers or even from aggregators.

• Materials may be in print and/or electronic form;

formally and/or informally published; stored

locally, for access via an institution’s intranet or

remotely accessible via the Internet.

• Searching across repositories is the solution.

INFORMATION SEARCH

PROCESS

• Information literacy skills provide users different ways to search for information. The major points of access are keyword, subject, author and title. These may vary depending on whether the user uses a print or electronic resource.

• In a paper environment access to the information were via the printed catalogue, table of contents and the index

Information retrieval

Information retrieval systems offer tools that must

be used by searchers to achieve successful

searches.

Searchers aim to:

Retrieve sufficient relevant records and to avoid

• Retrieving irrelevant records

• Retrieving too many records

• Retrieving too few records

Document retrieval systems

A document retrieval system has two main

tasks:

• Finding relevant documents to user

queries;

• Evaluate the matching results and sort

them according to relevance.

• Are tools for searching and processing information in text files, databases and informational systems - Internet search engines are classical applications of document retrieval.

• There two main classes of indexing schemata for document retrieval systems: form based or Web-based and content based indexing.

• The document classification scheme in use determines the nature of document retrieval system

• Computer-based systems offer a wide

range of search facilities than manual

systems, and it is necessary for the user to

become acquainted with these facilities

and their potential if the user is to optimize

his/her use of the system.

Finding information on the

Internet

• A number of techniques and technologies with the potential for sizeable impact have been developed and are all part of the arsenal.

• The effective construction of a search strategy is a skill which requires knowledge of the subject, databases and literature being searched.

•

Skills

• Being efficient in finding information on the Internet and to retrieve it quickly is a necessary skill.

• Being skilled entails being versatile; able to traverse the Internet to locate the desired information rapidly and successfully.

• The Internet user therefore has not only to be familiar with the various tools available on the Internet for locating information; particularly search engines and directories. But also must be familiar with these tools to use them to their maximum potential.

• Deficiencies in searching skills become important as the Internet continues to grow in size. And that given the fluidity of the technologies, it essential for searchers to develop skills which should enable them to search for and access information irrespective of the technology.

Database systems, structure,

Organization, and Search• All types of information database and many of the products derived

from them may be maintained and produced either in-house or externally.

• In-house products are generated by the information staff and possibly other staff within an organisation for its own users.

• External services derive from databases that are marketed commercially and are usually available worldwide from database producers, publishers and hosts. Information professionals are likely to have contact with both external and in-house databases and their products, and the two can complement one another.

• Libraries and other groups with special interest profiles, as determined by an industry bias, or with special collections, are particularly likely to maintain local databases. Libraries and information agencies engage in access to external databases

Reference databases

• Contain representations of original sources of

data, information or knowledge. They refer the

searcher to more complete, printed information

sources. Records in reference databases are

distillations, created through analytical

processes, cataloguing, indexing and

abstracting and classifications intended to serve

information retrieval functions. Reference

databases comprise two classes: bibliographic

databases and referral or directory, databases.

Basic search features

• There are a number of features that are common to all information retrieval systems. An indexing language is the terms or codes that might be used as access points in an index. Options are natural, controlled and free indexing languages. Search logic is the means of specifying combinations of terms that must be matched for successful retrieval. Boolean search logic is used in most systems. An alternative is weighted-term search logic.

• The key search facilities are those supporting: selection of search terms; entry of search terms; combinations of search terms, specification of fields to be searched; truncation; uses of phrases, adjacency and proximity operators; range searching and limiting; display of records; search management; advanced display options; multi-file searching; multi-file searching; display of thesaurus; and hypertext.

Bibliographical databases

• –contain clues concerning the intellectual content and physical characteristics of pieces of the graphic (printed) record of humanity. Most bibliographical databases provide references to journal articles in areas of science and technology, and to a lesser extent in disciplines of the social science and humanities. But there are also bibliographic databases containing references to news, sports and other current affairs, law and government, business and economics and interdisciplinary fields.

• Bibliographic records comprise data fields

and sub fields representing an attribute or

characteristic of interest.

• The entities described in a bibliographic

database include:

• journal articles, books, newspapers,

stories, laws, theses and dissertations,

curriculum guides, editorials, technical

reports, and other published materials.

• Bibliographic databases differ widely in the data fields that they include. Fields conveying information can include titles, subject headings, descriptors, classification codes, abstracts, full texts, identifiers and others. Besides communicating the subjects or topics treated in the source document, data fields describe other aspects of the publication as well.

• It may also be necessary to consult

several service documentation. Of

particular importance are lists of special

codes and other terminology constituting

controlled vocabularies, parsing rules for

each data field, and how to properly use

the system command language to invoke

each action that can be performed.

Bibliographic databases

• Agriculture

• Business and economics

• Chemistry

• Current affairs

• Education

• Medicine and biological science

• Multidisciplinary

• Science and technology

• Social science and humanities

• Etc

E-Journals

• Electronic journals come in a variety of

styles and formats much like their print

counterparts. Early e-journals were

primitive with unattractive layouts and

were difficult to print and down load.

• Franks (1993) describes e-journals as

database model and software model

• ‘

First - generation journals

• ASCII-text files

• Simply file structure (one file equals one article)

• Published by individuals or groups of scholars

• Disseminated by e-mail and the complied

audience is the individual subscriber

• Copyright restrictions are usually waived to the

extent that proper attribution is made

Second – generation journals

• HTML-based or use the Web to

disseminate

• Include graphics, multimedia or links to

other Internet resource

• File structures are less hierarchical and

less uniformity in structure

• Users are notified by e-mail to retrieve

from server

Database model and software

mode

• Under the database model, articles reside in

centralized database maintained by the

publisher and subscribers are given permission

to access the database and use software on the

central computer to locate and download

articles.

• With software model subscribers get a piece of

software which runs on an internet connected

computer and connect to the database of the

journal’s computer

Referral databases

• Referral databases - lead to information

sources other than print materials, such as

person, organizations, research projects,

and forms of non-print media

Information access process

• There is a paradigm shift both from the approaches of the users as well as in their access facilities resulting to libraries crumbling because of extensive use of electronic media and on-line databases.

• Access to information resources, whether traditional or electronic needs to be considered from different perspectives- users, subject, information providers and available technical infrastructure.

• In this context, users will demand access from different locations, such as the office, the library, laboratory or home using different hardware and software platforms.

Search and retrieval software

• Provide intelligent, powerful, user friendly

search interface

• Offers links from citations and abstracts to

the full text

• Can search several databases

simultaneously or choose one

Full-Text E-journals

Scholarly journals remain an important means of distributing knowledge.

• E-journals are the digital equivalent of their print counterparts

• Libraries can subscribe to e-journals from publishers or through a second party (e.g. vendors) just like they subscribe to print journals

• Some companies create collections of entire journals and sell access to their collections –examples of second party electronic journal databases include: JSTOR

Second party electronic journal

databases

• JSTOR –specializes in making back issues of a wide variety of humanities and social science journals

• Ingeta – facilitates users to read, print and email articles from 4,500 electronic journals from 140 publishers, website for the search and delivery of articles and offers access to summaries fro publications

• Catch Word

• J-Gate

• Etc

Aggregators

• Aggregators buy the copyright of journals in bulk and provide access to journals through a single interface.

• Provides a way of locating and accessing exactly the publications required, from whichever online site they are located

Examples include:

• EBSCO

• PROQUEST

• NIPAD

There are advantages as well as drawbacks in each case

Advantage –the user may have access the journals direct

Disadvantage – in e-journal services, search facilities are kept at a low profile, low priority for content layout, get up etc

Local administration of access

• Access to e-journals could be arranged from the respective agents against UserID/Password or through authentication.

• Users need not have to bother about the UserID and Password every time.

• Can provide the UserID/password in the library’s portal

• Unlimited access is provided to Table of Contents, article abstracts, chapter summaries and websites for other Electronic Products

Standards for exchange

bibliographic data

• Bibliographic Standards facilitates exchange of bibliographic data

• Important bibliographic standards include: International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD);

• MARC formats (Formats for Machine Readable Catalogue);

• International Format for Bibliographic Information Exchange (ISO 2709);

• Common Communication Format

Consortia

• Optimum utilisation of the resources, and

to minimise expenditure by consortia

based subscriptions to the commonly

subscribed databases and journals

Open Access (OA)

• With the advent of widespread internet use, the Open Access movement to make scholarly research articles freely available to all via the web is increasingly supported, and OA to scholarly research offers real benefits to society, particularly least developed countries, where paid access is charged in foreign currencies.

•

• Murray and Crampton (2007) examined challenges relating to dissemination of African research output noted that. African research relies heavily on information derived from Europe and America, which, although important, is not always relevant or appropriate. And that although access to global information resources is essential; equally important and essential is access to the local research output from Africa. Africa research output needs to be better represented in subject specific databases and there is need for bibliographic databases which reflect the region as a whole, as a whole along with an online digital repository of Africa-published journals. Africa needs access to its own research publications

Concluding remarks

• Bibliographic databases are a powerful tool for the location of relevant full text articles pertaining to a particular information need

• Bibliographic databases can be used to locate and access publications required from whichever online site they are located

• The database record will indicate as far as possible whether articles are only available in print, and locality or whether they are to be found freely on the Internet or in a journal aggregation where subscription payment is required

• Information professionals act as catalysts to guide researchers to the relevant source of information at the shortest time possible. In doing so, we would be the inevitable guides to their successful research

• I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION