UNIT

ALERTING- SERVICES

Structure
11.0 Objectives
1 1 . I Illtroductioil
1 1 -2. Current Awareness Services (CAS)
1 1.2.1

Detinitions of CAS

I 1.2.2 Characteristics of CAS

1 1.2.3 Components of CAS
1 1.2.4 Modes of Providing CAS
1 1.2.5

Evaluation of CAS

1 1.2.6 New Directions for CAS

1 1.3 Selective Dissemination of Infoilnation (SDI) Service

1 1 2.1

Definitions of SDl

1 1.3.2

Co~nponentsof SDl System

1 1.3.3 Operational Aspects of SDI

11.3.4

CD-ROM based Sill Semces

1 1 .4 Electronic Clipping Services

1 1 - 5 Suminary
1 I -6 Answers to Self Cl~eckExercises
1 1 .7 Key Words
11 . 8 References and Further Reading
1 1 - 9 Appendices

1 1.0 OBJECTIVES
In Bloclcs 1, 2 and 3 of the Course NIL1 - 002, you have accluired sdficielit
l a ~ o w l e d g eabout the automation of in-house activities of a library and an
information center. You Iiave also learnt about the various standards and
f o r m a t s used in auitomation and ~elrospectivecollversio~lof bibliographic
r e c o r d s of a libray. In the previous block you have become fsmiilias with the
v a r i o u s l~ouselceepingoperations i.e., acquisition, circulation control, serials
col~tl-01,techilical processing and auloination of these f~~functions.
A f t e r reading this Unit, you will be able to:
provide various lcinds of sllertiilg services like current awareness services,
selective disse~ninalionof i~lformationservices, electrollic clipping services,
etc;
a

understai~dvarious lnocles of providing CAS and their characteristics;

identiijl the various operational aspects of the SDI services and techniques
that can be used in searchii~ginformation;

identify various kinds of coininercial CAS, SDI and electroilic clipping

services available worldwide; and

know future scenario of these services.

Compltterised Information
Services

While discussing various aspects of these services, emphasis has been given
on practical exa~nplesand how to provide these services in an organization.
]I1.1

INTRODUCTION

Today's human society is undergoing a sea change due to phenomenal growth of

illforimation. At evely nloment of our perso~ldand professional life, we are idonnation
dependent. We malcc use of illforination in the course of our daily lives as the
cons~u~~ptionhse
of So~~nation
increasedso also has the rate of generationof informatio~l
increased. This exponential growth of infoinlation has been ternled as 'information
explosion'. More and more generation of information has caused two major problems.
The first one is related to its proper storage and organizatioil ancl the second one is
related to effective and eEcient retrievaland quick dissemination to infonnationseekers
in al~propriatemailner. Emergence of infomation techriology has given solution to
these problems.From the point of view ofthe infor~nationseeker, eveiy one w a ~ tto
s
get right infbl~natiotl
at the sight time, in a right manner without inucll effort.

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Researchers or inforinzitionseekers are busy in conducting experiments, attendingmeetings, seminars, sywposia, etc. Tlzey have little lime left for scannillg of
docu~llentsatld mal~iagthemselves up-to-date in their areas of resczch. Therefore,
a need was felt that there should be some rnechanisln to collect, select, store,
retrieve and disseilli~latecurrent infonnation relevant to the infornzation seekers.
This will save their time and efforts which they can apply to give pace in their
reseasch work. Keeping these points in view, library and inforl~latio~l
sciel~ce
professionals have designed various lcinds of services ltnown as alerting services
to llelp the researchers and other infosn~ationseekers. Some of the illlportont
alerting services i.e. current awareness service, selective disse~llinationof
infonllation service, etc. are described in the following sections. Elnphosis has
been given to practical aspects of these services provided through comp~~ter
and
con~municationtechnologies.

131.2 CURRENT AWARENESS SERVICES (CAS)

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11.2.1 Definitions of GAS

Current awareness service has been defined by a number of library and

information science professionals but none seeins to be universally accepted,
Strauss and others have defined it as:

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"the establishme~ltof a systeln for reviewing publications inlmediately upon i

receipt, selecting information pertinent to the program of t11e orga~~ization
served, and recording individual items to be brought to the attention of
those persons whose work they are related. It involves a combination of i
processes including the selection of pertinent inlbrmation from periodicals, j
books, pamphlets, patents and, reports, infact, anything of serious content '
that is received".
(Ref: Strauss, L.J.S. (1971) (eta])) k

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Dr. S.R. Ranganathan defined CAS as:

"documentatioa periodical... listing the doculnents appearing during the
period covered, and without being selected to suit the requirenients of a
particular reader or of a specific lopic under investigation. This is of the
nature of a general appetizer. It endeavours to keep the clientele informed
promptly of all the nascent tl~oughtcreated in their fields of wo1.1~and related
fields".
(Ref : Raganatl~an,S.R)
Prof. B. Guha defines it as:
"a current awareness service is a device of the infosination system through
which the users of iizformation can be informed promptly, as soon as
possible after publication but before absorptioil illto the cornprelzensive
secondary sources of current literature on a broad subject field or on an area in
which a group of persons are interested, and presented ill a manner, volume,
and rhythm intended to facilitate or cultivate current approach to information.
In the context of a libraly, the time linlit should be aAer the receipt of the
publications but well before the receipt of the secoizdarypu~blicationscoi~taining
tl~en~".
(Ref: Guha, B. (1983))

In the context of science and teclulology, it 11as been defined as:

"science - inforinatiolz system continually calliilg the scielltists' attention to
the newly developed material on topic falling into his long-term field of
notice".
interest, whicl~remains uilclzanged until f~~rther
Information seekers use the following conventional channels to know the
cLtrrent developmen~sin their areas of interest:
Communication, oral or written, received from colleague working in similar
area of research.
Regular scanning of current awareness lists such as list of additions,
forthcoming or current contents, etc. brought out by various agencies
and primary sources of information received in libraries/information
centres.
e

Preprints received from authors.

Reviews of publications appeared in primary sources.

Attending meetings, symposia, conferences, etc. and througl~exchange
of information dui-ing personal discussions.
Laboratory notes, technical records.

Information received through newspaper, e-mail, bulletin board, internet,

etc.
Alerting services received from professional agencies.

Besides, the above, there are many other sources and cha~~nels
from where
cursent information is received by the inforination seekers regularly. Every
professional, be they information scientists, lawyers, doctors, engineers,
technologists, managers, acadeniicians, whether in marketing, business,
teaching or research work, need to be aware of changes in the environment

Alerting Services

Computcrised Information
Services

that iimpinge upoil the orga~lizatioilfor which they work. Althougll they nlay
collect information through any of the above channels, but it may be quite time
consulning for the individual information seeker to scan all of the appropriate
sources. In order to support their inforinatioil requirements in keeping up to
date, orgai~izations,where they are working, should provide current awareness
service to:

Keep the information seeker up to date.

Save the project time.

Aid in the creation of new ideas.

Save the time and financial resources on subscription and storage of primary
infor111ation sources.
Reduce the paper flow tlirough an organization.

11.2.2 Characteristics of CAS

Current awareness service has certain characteristics.It is not in response to any
specific query. This service is provided to update knowledge of researchers in
their areas of work and also to keep them abreast of developmeilts in a broader
field. It is a continuous service provided to the information seekers irrespective
of the stage and progress of their research. Infonnation seekers may not find all
illfoinlatioil relevant to tl~einall the time but they may record the sources which
they have already scanned thi-ough to make sure that nothing has left during
their literature search to avoid duplication in research. Library and informatioil
professionals providing current awareness service should keep the following
characteristics in their mind:
0

A current awareness service is an announcement mechanism.

It may be presented in printed, electronic or any appropriate form acceptable

to information seeker.

It i.s provided.to meet the c~lsrentinformation requirement.

This service is not usually intended to klfiI1 information requirement of any
specific query. It is illeai~tfor panoramic view of current developrne~lts.

This service is usually provided in a broader subject area to present a view of

specific as well as peripheral subjects.

Usually CAS is provided to a group of researclzers, of homogenous

requirements of infonnation, not to individual.

It is not a tailor-riiade or customized service.

CAS has to be provided within a time-fiame much before the information is

published or appeared in indexing and abstracting sources.

Getting feedback, fi-omthe users about the relevance of information supplied

to them, is not a prerequisite in CAS.

Speed, currency and ease to use are three factors to determine the efficiency
and effectiveness of CAS in ally organization.

Current awareness services overcome the time-lag between the publication of

items and their subsequent inclusion in comprehensive indexing or abstracting
sources. Informatioi~professionals have different opinion about this time period.

Sonle say, it should not be more than one nzontl~from the items appeared in
primary sources otl~ersopine that there should not be ally arbitraxy time limit.
More precisely, it should be brought out before the notification in secondary
sources of information.

11.2.3 Components of CAS

Following are the basic compoileilts of any current awarel~essservice:
1) Full bibliographic citation consisting of the following information as the
case may be:

Author
Title
0
Volume number, issue number, part, pagination
Year, month, date of publication
Conference location and date (in case of conference)
Patentee, patent number, patent issuing body, date of patent granted,
countly. etc. (in case of patents)
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Standard/specification number, standardizing body, country, date of
issue, etc. (in case of standards)
Any other specific inforlnation required to qualify bibliographic citation.
2) Subject-wise, group-wise or any other suitable pattern of arrangement of
records/entries.
0

3) Alphabetical arralige~nentof list of Iteywordsldescriptors/ index terms

representing subject concept of docurne~lt.

4) Well arranged, inore suitably alphabetical, list of all sources of information

need to be included in CAS.
5) Alphabetical list of contributors and their addresses with Rill details of
contact. This may be helpful in getting more information or in sharing
available information:

11.2.4 Modes of Providing CAS

Broadly, current awareness service can be divided into bibliographic and nonbibliographic services. Bibliographic service provides access to the literature
oC a subject field whereas non-bibliograpliic service provides the inforrnatio~l
itself. Libraries and infornlation centres serving organizations may choose
any or both of the two types of modes of current awareness services.

1) In-house generated current awareness service.

2) Cursent awareness service provided by external dgencies.
1) In-house Generated CAS

Many of the current awareness services generated by the librarians and

infornlatioll professionals in India are manual bibliographic and based on local
scanning of newspapers, journals, newsletters, patents, standards/spccifications
and other publisl~edinformatioll sources. Since tlze i~lFormatiollcontained in
CAS is of current value, therefore, there is no requiremel~tlo maintain back file
or database for a long-term. Tl~isservice is usually based on the local scanning

Alerting Services

Computerised Inforlnation
Services

and entry of record of items received in the library/info~mationcentre. This may

also be in the form of circulation of photocopies of content pages of information
sources im~zzediatelyupon receipt in the library, list of additions, coinpilation of
current list of literature, etc. Items included in the in-house generated CAS are
available in the library to supply full-text information on demand. To make it
more cui~ent,received items can be scanned tZxo11gh, in electronic foim and put on
the LAN of the organization. The service can be updated inore frequently in
coillputerised ~llodethan [he manual one. A group of information professionals,
well aware of the information requirements of various teams worlcing on research
projects, collect, select and disseminate information in appropriate forms. This
type of service has inore flexibility, currency and fast delivery of information to
the end users.
Computer-based current awareness service can be generated as information
product of an in-house database. These databases are maintained with the aid of
a text-information management system or a database management system. The
basic advantage of this mode is that a ilumber of different i~zfotmationproducts,
in printed, as well electronic form, can be gelmated from the same database.
lafact, inany sostware packages designed for processing of textual information
such as CDS/ISIS, can replace nlanual system of providing CAS. Computerized
in-llouse service o&rs flexibility and easier indexing and maintenance of
database. A number of software packages are available commercially which
are suitable for generation of CAS. Some of these are:
Package

Supplier

BASIS

l[l&rmation DimensionsInc.

BRS/SEARCH

BRS Software Products

CAIRS

LeatllerheadFood Researcl~Association

ORBIT

Maxwell On-line Inc.

STATUS

Harwell Comnputer Power

TINI,IB

Information made easy Ltcl.

BOOKSHELF

Logical Choice

DATA FLEX

Datallex

EXTRACT

Sofiware Sol~ltion

PROCTTE

Personal Bibliographic Softwarc Inc.

STATUSPC

Harwell Computer Power

SYDNEY

Soutrai Ltd.

Besides the above, a number ofpersolla1bibliographic sofhvarepackages are available,

which support users creating their own database on PC's for storing and display of
desired records. Some of these are Bib/Search, Reference manager, AskSam,
Notebook, etc.
2) CAS Provided by External Agencies
awareness services are available from two mains sources:
External c~1~e111
a) The Oidine hosts; and
b) The Database Producers.

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Services offered by the Oilline I-Iosts are primarily generated fi-om the database
inounted by these hosts. They offer save search facility wl~ichstores profiles
that can be run on regular basis. These profiles can be run every time a database
is updated or at a wider interval as specified by the information seeker. This type
of cusrent awareness seivice is available with alnlost all Online I-Iosts in a variety
of subject areas. Notification is received fro111these hosts in printed format,
machine readable for~nat,floppy disc or CD-ROM or directly to the conlputer of
the user. Following are some of the features wlzicl~have islade this service niore
valuable:

Crossfile searchii~gor t l ~ eability to use one profile across several databases

available wit11 Ol~lineHost.

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Avoiding duplicate records retrieved from various bibliograpllic databases.

Downloading and storing of records for fkture use on the basis of contractual
agreement.
Handling of graphics, chemical f o r m ~ ~structure,
la
trademarks, design and
other colnplex kjgures.

Other lcinds of cuwent awareness services are provided by the database producers.
There are a large llulnber of publishers and database produc,ers worldwide that
offer current awareness services. 011the basis of subject coverage, libraries and
ir~fon~~ation
centres may select appropriate database producers and type of CAS
provided by them. Some important producers and their services are discussed
below:

IS1 Alerting Services (http://alerting.isinet.corn)

It includes both profile based and tablc of colltents (TOC) alerting services that
deliver cu~-rentbibliographic infornlatioll and full-length, English language author
abstracts in technology. sciences, social sciences, arts and humailities directly to
the desktop of the user via web or e-mail. Table of colltents ('I'OC) provides
entire tables of contents and author abstracts from the information sources
selected by the user. User may receive daily or weeltly alert service which 11e
c i d quickly scan through all the current bibliographic information in specified
subject area simply by accessing the web or e-mail. User can also place
order for full-text docuinent fro111 IS1 document delivery service.
A)

IS1 Profile-based Alerting Services

i)

Discovery Agent
This unique web-based alerting service can be used by individuals or for
disse~ninatingcustoillized inforination tluougtlout a11 entire organization.
User can create and inanage personal research profiles. These profiles are
filtered against current contents database of over 9000 journals.

ii)

Personal Alert
It is a highly customised, profile-based alerting service covering high impact
literature in over 16,000 teclu~ology,science, social sciences, and humanities
journals, books and coilference proceedings.

iii) Research Alert

This is a print based alerting service that delivers complete bibliographic

illformation based on personalized profiles developed for specific users.

Alerting Services

Colnputerised Information
Services

B) Ta ble-of-Contents Alerting Services

i)

Journal Tracker

This cost-effective current awareness service provides table of contents

and author abstracts from selected title of journals out of SO00 scholarly
journals in the ISI database. One can select 25 titles fro111list of all jouunals,
in one subscription. As soon as journals are received and included in the
IS1 database, TOC alerts will be sent to the user through e-mail.
ii)

Corporate AIert

Organizations, libraries, laboratories can make use of corporate alert to

disseminate journal tables of contents with author abstracts directly to user.
Based on the needs of organization, a list of highly relevant journals can be
selected from the IS1 database. The subscriber will start receiving TOC via
e-mail as soon as journals are processed for inclusion in IS1 database, and
they may refine list at any time.
iii) IS1 Chemistry Server
In the highly co~npetitivechemical, pharmaceu~tical,bioteclmology and
agrochemical industries, inforinatiox~is often the key factor behind a
successfill and profitable product launch. IS1 Chemistry server offers web
access to information on a11 newly reported structural chemistry published
in primary journals and patent literature. It provides information on new
synthetic techniques, novel organic compounds, graphical display for
identification in structural chemistry, bibliographic references and author
abstracts.
iv) Current Chemical Reactions
This service keeps one upto date on the latest synthetic techniques. It is
designed for research scientists and managers. It saves time in research
work in laboratory and literature search in library by providing concise
descriptions of the latest syntheses. This service is available in printed as
well as in electronic form. Printed version of current chemical reactions
has four indexes - Index to New Synthetic Methods, Journal Index, Author
Index, Corporate Index, wl~ereasits electronic database provides instant
access to an enhanced set of reaction, bibliographic data and world patents.
v)

Current Contents Service

This current awareness service is available in printed, CD-ROM, floppy

discs and also in web version. A weekly service covers more than 1000
journals titles in each of the followiilg seven discipIines, is the most
coinprehensive current awareness service brought out by ISI.
1)

Life Sciences

2)
3)

Pl~ysical,Chemical and Earth Sciences

Engineering, Coi~ljjutingand Technology

4)

Arts and Humanities

5)

Social and Behavioural Scieilces

6)

Agriculture, Biology and Eilvironrnental Sciences

7)

Clinical Medicine.

--.

Its web version, known as Current Contents Connect (htlp:llwww.isinet.com~

products/cc/ccconnect) focuses on business and electronics
and telecommunication. Similarly current contents proceedings, provides
latest information from
presented in prestigious conferences,
symposia, etc. Current contents search is available tlvough several IS1
distribution partners that provide a variety of choices involving functionality,
editions and access. These agencies are Ovid Technologies Inc., Silver
Platter Information, Gale Group, the Dialog Corporation and Data Star.
Each service agency provides its own unique list of features and benefits.
vi)

Dialog Alert Service

Dialog (www.dialog.com) offers a current awareness service known as
Dialog Alert by permitting its users to create, edit and review alert profiles
through a menu-driven system. It also permits delivery of search results
via E-mail system accessible through Internet. Information delivery can be
made in any user-defined format: Main advantage of Dialog Alert is that
this service is available in most files. It can be run on the files of user's
choice.

ii)ACS Alert Services

American Chemical Society offers two kinds of current awareness services

of very latest articles and research from the world's leading source of
information in chemistry. These are:
Table of Contents Alerts is a fiee servicedesigned for scientistswho want to
see the entire contents of anissue ofjo~unalpublished by the ACS. It contains
the title, author,jo~unalname, inclusive page numbers and this information is
disseminated by the ACS to the scientists through e-mail.
b) As Soon As Publishable (ASAP) Alert
ASAP is a dailylweekly alert service received by the scientists about the
articles ofACS journals as soon as they appear on the web or sometimes a
week before their appearance. This service is also available free of cost.
vjiii Scholary Article Research Alerting (SARA)
a

SARA is a free e-mail current awareness service that enables quick access
to journal articles online and provide notification of any journals's contents
prior to publication. This offers tables of content of over 540 journals
published by half a dozen publishers all over the world.

.x) Contents Direct from Elsevier Science

A free e-mail current awareness service that offers contents lists of books
and journals published by Elsevier Science directly on the computer of the
users. It also includes short news items.
:)

Contents Alert by Sage Publications

A pre-publication alerting service offered by the Sage Publications free of
cost to its subscribers. Subscribers can receive table of contents of selected
journal, through e-mail muchtbefore their*publications (e-mail address:
contents.alert@sagepub.com)

Alerting Services

Computeriscd lnforniation

xi) Link Alert by Springer

Services

Link Alert, a free e-mailing c~~rrent

awareness service delivers the table of
conteilts of books and journals brought out by Springer.
and professional agencies
Besides above, there are a number of
offkring cull-ent awareness services in various areas like:
Eurek Alert
IDEAL Alert
IEEE- What's new?
1OP Alerts Cronl Instit~~te
oSPhysics
TOC from Oxrord
Contents Awareiless Service from National Academy of Sciences
Cite Track from National Academy of Sciellces.
@

Electroilic Mail and Bulletin Board Service

A 13unlber of networlts offer electronic mail and bulletin board services. These
services may be operated within an organization for free-flow of ini'brnlation
and sharing of research outputs. These are useful for co~nn~unicating
new
information to individual users. Bulletin board service is meant for making general
announcelnellts to all users of a network and used for publication of llewsletters
and other infornlation services. Many online hosts operate bulletin boards for
announcen~entof their new products and services.

11.2.5 Evaluation of CAS

The characteristics that nlalte any current awareness service valuable will vary
from one user to ai~other.Librarians or infor~l~ation
scientists have always needed
to decide whicll infor~nationservices to produce in-house and which to buy from
external sources. External current awareness services offer the following
advantages.

They provide access to a large store of information, which a local library or

infor~liatioilcentre does not need to maintain and is available when it is
required.
lnibrinatioil can be downloaded for further processiilg and easy paclcaging
which later can be added to the in-house database.
@

While deciding upon the nlode of cursent awareness service, one should
keep the following points in mind :
e

Database coverage

Timeliness or currency of information provided

e

Cost of thk service

User friendliness of the interface that support the activities in profile

malting, searching, etc.

Raiige of print or display fornlats in which records are available.

Document delivery service associated with curreilt awareness service.

Currency.is a nmjor concern in the current awareness service. Many users find
that external services are lacking in currency. For scientific databases it may be

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three to six montlls from the date of original publication before abstracts are
available online. Position of CD-ROM based current awareness services are worse
on currency with a typical quarterly, half yearly or even yearly update frequency.
Some external current awareness services are veiy costly and they do not
appropriately package to suit an organizalion. Thus, inally librarians or
information scientists prefer to use external current awareness notifications as
inputs to a11 individually tailored in-house service. In general, it has been found
that any one of cun-ent awweness servicelsourcesdoes not meet all requirements.
Different services may be offered by a larger information unit to cater for a
variety of inforniatio~lneeds. This may involve using boll1 in house as well as
external current awareness services. Some oftlle important features of in house
and externalcurrent awareness services are listed below:
Table 1: Cornparison of CAS Provitled In-house and by External Agency
Feature

In-House Generated CAS

I) Confidentiality Secure and Controllable

CAS by Extel-nal Agency

Exposes interests to outside organizations.

2 ) Coverage

Less extensive of published Covers greater numbers of documents in

published literalure, yielding wider
literature may include
discipline perspective.
internal documents e.g.
research reports,
correspondence

3) Currency

Potential for being very

current if primary sources
such as newspapers.

Rather variable. Solnc real time systems,

other databases may be 3-6 months behind
publication of primary docu~~ient.

4) Control

Awareness of needs of
users can coordinate
needs o f a group of users.

May lead to no overall perspective to users

needs within an organization.

5 ) Clients

Smaller more coherent

group with less diversity
of interests.

Large groups with various ccnploying

organizations.

6) Products

More limited.

A filll range of fol-mats available.

7) Format+
delivery

Current awareness available Delivery ]nay be via external network.

in format designed for
majority o f users. Delivery
may be via internal network.

8) Document
delivery

From documents in local

collection.

Need to use document delivery services.

11.2.6 New Directions for CAS

Over the decades informati011needs of the users have not been changed althougl~
users may have become more sophisticated i11 the quality of iilternal prir-ted
documents that are expected and in the use of information technology to supp01-t
information dissemination, storage and retrieval. Following are some of the major
changes that have been observed in recent years:
e

Infor~nationseekers working in ail organization have become more aware of

fie need of current information.

Organizations involved in research and developmellt activities have realized

that current awareness of infosnlatiion is the major factor in competitive
intelligence,

Alerting Services

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Con1 puterised lnformntion

Services

More empllasis should be given on the needs of individuals rather than

organization as a whole. 'bus the demand for tailored current awareness
service has increased as compared to generalized one.
Machine-readable current awareness services overcome all problen~sof speed,
time and cursency of information and now information seekers prefer network
'version of CAS than the coilventional printed mode of dissemiilation of
information.

As the demand for tailored cull-entawareness services have increased during the
recent past, librarians and inlor~nationscientists may need to play effective roles
as a part of a team ol' a research project in tlie organization and not to offer
current awareness service from a distance.

Self Check Exercise

1) What do you understaild by the term 'current awareness service'? Explain
various modes of providing current awareness service in an organization in
brief. Also explain the various paranleters for evaluation of CAS.

Note: i) Write your answer in the space given below.

ii) Check your answer wit11 the answers given at the end of this Unit.

.INFORMATION(SDI) SERVICE
Tlie dissemination of information on civilization's progress has led to
contiiluouslyincreasing store of knowledge. The social, ecollomic and industrial
development all are dependent upon the scientific research. As a result, the amount
of infornlation, generated through scientific research, has increased dramatically
and created problems with regard to:
learning of existence of infor~llationalready available, and
lu~owinghow to locate required information from gigabilion pyramids of
information.
In order to alleviate these problems, library and information professionals
developed certain tools and tecl~niquesfor identification of saurce materials that
are of potential value. This exponential and multi-disciplinary growth of
i~zforn~atioiz
on every subject forced them to think of some faster mechanism of
storing, retrieving and disseminating information.

For example researchers working on some research project face problems of

identifying relevant information pertaining to their specific research endeavour.

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n case they do not get what they need in time, the inforinatioll is literally of 110
to them. Lack of relevant information often leads to either wrong direction
pr duplication in research work. Researchers normally stay in their own chosen
peld of interest. They often shift from one aspect to another aspect which attracts
heir attention. Regardless of circumstances, each researcher has the same
Lllocation of time in his professional life. The exponential growth of information
ias made researchers physically impossible to imanually review all technological
current j ournals. Keeping the time limitatiolls
r
in view, one must be very selective to choose relevant
for the stucly and research. The huge volume of illformation made
This necessity was realised long back
over from time-consuming convelltional
system of disseminating relevant information.

n 1945, Vannevar Bush developed a systell~called "1UEMEX that could include

111
the articles, reports, personal co respondences, clippings and laboratory I-eports
I
ally researcher needed. After that, ~nanyp ofessionals e.g. Mortirner Taube,
a n s Peter Luhn, Calvin Mooers etc. tried to rsolve the problems of retrieval of
info'ormation. The Institutioil of Electrical Engi~leers(IEE)
in 1967, a computer based service to cover all sections of
rinted version of Science Abstracts. The A~nericanInstitute of Physics created
program based on monthly tape service called
PJN in 1972. Similady, National ~echnicalInformalion Services (NTIS) also
unclassified reposts of projects sponsored by
01-1
a large ii~imberof professiollal agencies,
nstitutions, associations started information services on deiliaild and also in
inticipation. The custolllized and personalised illformatioil services provided
I y any agency is known as SDI service wl-~ichwill be discussed in the following
ections in detail

11.3-1 Definitions of SDI

/The concept of Selective Disselnii~atio~l

of Inforlllation was given by H. Peter
Luhn in 1961. He defined "The selective dissemination of iilforlnatioll is that
I
,service
withi11 an organization which concerns itself with the channeling of new
terns of information, from whatever source, to those points within the
brganization where the probability ofusehlness, in co~mectionwith current work
L1- ii~terests,is high."
(Ref : Luhn, H. Peter (1961)).
I

E d m o n d Weaving defines SDI service as:

"It is the activity of sul~plyinga clientele 011 a regular basis wit11 requested,
specific types of iiifornlatioi~- the emphasis being 011 the specific.''
(Ref : Weaving, Edmoild (1 991)).

SDI was developed wit11 a specific pmpose of providing researchers at a regular

interval of time tluough a caref~illyselected list of all ltinds of documents in his
area of iatcrest. These documents have beell brought out in the preceeding period
in all the significant publicatiolls published worldwide. Emergence of computers
a ~ l dcomlnunication technologies with increasing processing power and faster
delivery inode of illformation has changed the scope of SDI service. The
databases in electronic and CD-ROM format alollgwith e-mail

Alerting Services

Computerised Information
Services

and internet access facilities have become added advantages. These have
expanded the objectives ancl scope of SDI service wlicll was originally conceived
as a local service to an individual research organization, and now acquired the
functioi~of providi~lga national or international service.

11.3.2 Components of SDI System

The SDI system sl~ouldhave the following components:
0

User's profile
Docunlellts profile or database
Con~puterhardware
Software
User interface

i)

User's Profile

The basic step in designing SDI service is to identify the clientele of an

01-ganizationwho require such' service. The user of the SDI service niay be either
individual or a holnogenous group of an organization. The subject interest of
each user is ascertained and represented in the form of a keyword or combination
of lcey words or any appropriate code. The pattern of record of interest is called
'a profile'. Identity of a user alongwith his subject interest is lmown as 'user
profile' Thus the user profile is a succinct statement of the inforinatiolz
requirements of a user or group of users.
ii) Documents Profile o r Database
@

It refers generally to a machiize-readable file of bibliographic records. Ally

libraiy or iilforlnation centre planning to starl: providing SDT service may
decide whether to:
Subscribe coininercially available database of related subject in electronic
format or CD-ROM format, or
Create its own in-l~ousedatabase in machine-readable form.

Both types of databases have their own merits and demerits. Coverage and scope
of co~nlzlerciallyavailable databases may be more than the in-house created one.
On the other hand, in-house created database is very time consuming but more
precise and less costly. Moreover, docunlents demanded by the users can be
supplied fronz the local collectioil wl~ichmay not be possible in coinrnercial
database.
iii)

Computer Hardware

Earlier thz SDI service was provided manually by the library and inforination
professior~als.The advent of computer has changed the scenario of SDI service
provided to an organization. Increasing storage capacity and processing power
of computer has resulted in more efficient dissemination of selective infor~nation
to the users. Libraries ancl inforlation centres may acquire stand-alone or
network-based colnputers for the purpose, depending upon the strength of users'
profiles in the organization. Many organizatiolls connected tllrough LAN, MAN
or WAN are provided SDI service efficiently. CDIROM based SDI service
requires CD-drive or CD-Net technology alongwith computer and other
communication tech~~ology.
-

!I

iv)

Software

Software is one of the essential c o ~ ~ l p o ~of

l eSDI
~ ~ tsystem.
s
Library or infor~llation
centres may develop in-house software tailored to the specific requirements of
the organization. Alternatively, they may select one of the commercially available
software packages, which could run on the in-house coinp~tersystenl and provide
SDI service througli it. Another option is to subscribe for external databases
with integrated SDI software conlponent wllich co~zldbe used to search the
database. CD-ROM database manufacturer and vendors supply search software
a l o ~ g w i tdatabase.
l~
Besides the SDI software, colizl~zunicatioilis also required
for,thedissemiilation of information. Since software development involves a lot
of money and time, cornlnercially available software is l~loreviable and financially
feasible.
V) User Interface
Every SDI system should have a mechanism whicli perinits i~ltesaction
between tlze user and the system. This is essential to nlalte the SDI service
inore purposeful and effective. Jt iilcludes the followillg aspects:
@

Notification of recent literature;

Request to t1.w users to furnish feedback on regular basis. The feedback
may be positive or negative depending upon the relevancy and usef~lliless
of the items received by the users; and
Infor~nationillterlnediaries who interact wit11 the users and are
acl~owledgeableregarding databases, retrieval techniques, creation of
users profiles, etc.

Self Check Exercises

1) Define the Selective Disseminatioli of 1nfosmcztiol1-(SDI)service and explain

its significance in researcll and development.
2) What are the inllportant coinponents in a1 SDI system?
Note: i) Write your answers in the space given below.
ii) Check<your answers with the answe1.s given zt the end of tliis Unit.

1 1.3.3 Operational Aspects of SDI

Once it is decided to provide SDI service from docunlents acquired by the library
or information centre, their next steps would be t l ~ eselection and filtration of
documents i.e. books, reports articles from journals, patents, conference

Alerting Services

Con1puterised Inf~rnlation
Services

proceedings, etc. creation of database i.e. textual, bibliographic etc. and various
other jobs as indicated in the following functional diagrarn:(Fig.)

Docu~neiltProfile

,,

Thesaurus

User Profile

Matching by
Computer

Notificatior~to
Users

on Demand

Feedback from users

and its analysis

Fig. 1 : Worlc Flow of SDI System, Functional Diagram

(Source: IGNOU Course: BLIS 07: Unit 08: Compiterised Information Services)

Here SDI system can be explained in terms of set of rules, tools and procedures
as operated by human beings or computer or both to carry out the followind
operations:
Creation of a document profiIe/database of resources
@

Profile constl-uctioi~
Matching the contents of the user profile with the document profile
Retrieval of pertiizeilt il~forination
Notification of the retrieved information to respective user

Feedback from the user

Evaluation of each one of the above colnponent and the system as a whole,
T11e above s.teps are explained in the following paragraphs in detail.
.

Document Profile
The first step is the filtration, identification and selection of type of documents
i.e. journal articles, monographs, co~lferenceproceedings, conference papers,
technical reports, patents, standards/specifications, thesesldissertation, etc. to
be included for the'storage of their bibliographic details that would be needed to
serve bibliographic need of a particular user community. It would mainly depend
upon the selection criteria and policy adapted by the library or infonnation centre
where the SDI system has to be made operational and category of users have to
be served, Once the docun~eiilsare selected, they need to be organized and
controlled so that they can be identified and located in response to a specific

I
i'

I
I

query. To create database of docunlents in nlachine readable fonn, various formats

are available which can be used in organizing docume~lts.
The next step would be to analyze the contellts of documents. This is a11
intellectual process and carried out by the library and information professionals.
The basic aim is to find out, what tl~edocuments is all abotrt and translating into
a preferred vocabulsuy i.e. natural or controlled one. It is vely important to decide
to use the language of indexing before creating database for searclling. The
problem is that many words have more than one meaning and the same meailing
can be expressed by using different words. A colltrolled vocabulaly is essential
for the consistent representation of subject matter of docuinents both in input to
the database (at the time of indexing) 'and in output fioi11 the database (at the
time of searching). It also facilitates to coilduct the searches from the database,
especially by bringing together terms that are closely related. Various existing
systems have developed their owl1controlled vocabulasy i.e. tl~esaurusand any
appropriate thesaurus may be adopted in controlling the terms. Sources of thell~
are:

INSPEC Thesausus, IEE 1989

NASA Thesaurus, NASA, 1982
@
l'lzesau-us of Scientific, Engineering and Technical Terms
e Thesaurus of Engineered Materials, ASM
Committee on Scientific and Technical Inforination (COSATI) Thesa~~rus,
COSATI
UNESCO Tl~esaurus,UNESCO
Tl~esaui~~s
of Engineering Terms, EJC. 1964
Thesaurus of Engineeiing and Scientific Terms (TEST), 1967
Thesa~uusof MetallurgiclTeims, ASM

Finally, recording the values of various attributes expected to be used as basis

for searching. 111 info~mationscience, this is conlmonly represented by the term
'iadexing'. If the attribute is subject then the index would be cafled 'subject
index'. If the attrib~tteis the name of autl~orthe11 inclex would be 'author index'
and so on.
Once the above steps are over, the index record goes into the database where it is
organized in such a way, in appropriate bibliographical forinat, that it ccm be
conveniently searched in response to a specific query.
User's Profile

User's profile is nothing but a list'of,tccl~licalterm or terms, describing the

user's information req~~irement.
This is the iinportant task and success of ally
SDI system depends to a great extent on the coilstruction of user's profile.
Whenever a user or a group of users ii~tendto avail SDI service, he may be
approached and requested to specify his information requirements in a narrative
way in plain language, describing his interest in a detailed way. A simple list of
words may not be the best response. He should be encouraged to write a paragraph
on each interest. He may be requested to provide information about:

What are his cursent activities which need an inforlnation back LIP?
What type of research is he doing?

Alerting Serviccls

Computevised information
Services

What type of duty is he perforlniizg i.e.~acadeinic,

administrative, nlanagerial,
research, etc.
What aspects of a subject are important in his work.
What are the inforlnation problems with his cursent work?
Is tile iilformatio~lwaiztecl technical or commercial?
Is a theoretical or practical approach needed?
Wl~atwill be time-schedule of receipt of infomation?
What should be the scope and coverage of information?
Wlzetlier full-text inforrnatiorl will be needed by him?

It would be quite useiiil if the user is aslted to provide some references to required
inforination or f~~ll-text
document or one or two articles releva~ztto him. He may
be requested to provide a list of significant terms wllich precisely define t\le
sub.ject of his interest. One call use glossaries, handboolts, dictionaries, thesauri,
subject heading lists or even schedules of classification schemes for more
clarificatiol~of relationsl~ipof various ternls used by the requester. On the basis
of user's statement the infor~nationscientists may design or construct the
i~ldividualsearch profile for the users of the SDI system.
Although the interest of tlze user may change quite frequently. Sometimes, useldoes 1101 i n f o r l ~the ilifor~nationscientists for his changed needs of information.
For this reason much effort has to be put into keeping in touch wit11 user of the
SDJ systenl after initial contact. The coilstruction and revision of user's profile
is an essential and continuous task. It demands an illtellectual effost fro111 both
the user and the inforinatioll scientist. The regular dialogue between the user
and the iufonnation scientist is a lllust for running an efficient SDI service. The
profile can be retut-ned to the user for modificatioi~every montl~or so and can be
amended wl~eneverfeedback is received from the user. Various stages invojved
in the construction and nlonitorii~gof tlze user's profile and operational aspects
is sl~ownill Fig. 2.

Profiles Matcliing
As discussed in the preceding paragrapl~a user desires infornlation and sulbmits
his request to information scientists in a prescribed form. The searcher nnalyscs
his query i.e. what the user is really loolting for, makes a subject statement,
identifies concept and derives equivalenr terms from controlled vocabulary. He
prepares search strategy also called request representation or sometimes
represel~ttatiolzof information needs, finally search statement and translates into
the syste~~ls
language. ?'he process of searching is explained in the following
paragrapl~s.

1
1
1

1
j
I
I

During the coi~structionof user profile, the user lnight have given a single word,
more than one word in a string, nalne of a11author or institution or organization,
title of source doculnellt i.e. journal, report, etc. He might have given co~ltrolled
terins froi~i%
thesaurus. The job of searchers is to translate the concept of user into
descriptors talcen Eroln a controlled vocabulary i.e. thesaurus wl~icl~
was used for
the sla~ldardiziilgof terms at the time of indexing. This type of approacll will
help indexer as well as searcher in perfect

'1

111 1
61

Alerting Services

checks his
The docrl~ne~~talist
interpretation of the Subject

References relevant to the subject

provided by the customer

Statelnent of specific search words, synonyms,

related subject phrases, narrower terms, ai~tllor
names, journal titles, author

<

'

Thesauri, glossaries, handbooks,

and titles in abstract journals

Profile master file

Fig. 2 : Generalized Flow Chart for Profile Construction

(Source: IGNOU Course BLIS 07: Block 3: Unit 8: Coumputerised Infor~nationService).

matching of docwnei~tsstored in the database. To makes more familiar about

the tl~esaurus,some of its important features are narrated below:

Computerisctl in for ma ti or^

"It is a coiltrolled and dynainic vocabulary of semantically and systematically

related terms" i.e. it provides a map of knowledge in a specific domain in
which concepts Elre related to one another and also ensures consistence while
malung index entries in a bibliographic information retrieval system. It helps
in broadening and narrowing the searcll. In the thesaurus, we generally find
sy~~onyii~s,
general definitions, specific definitions, related terms (RT),
broader tesnls (BT), and narrower terms (NT). Tlie thesaurus also provides
Use and Used For (UF) references. A sample entry given in the 'Thesaurus
of Llaser Science and Technology Terms' is listed below:

Scrviccs

CRYSTALS

NT

(Solid substances exhibiting some degree of geometrical

regularity).
MATERIALS
AC'TIVATED CRYSTALS

ALEXANDERfTE CRYSTALS
BICRYSTALS
BORATE CRYSTALS
IONIC CYRSTALS
LASER CRYSTALS
LIQUID CRYSTALS
NEODYMIUM YAG CRYSTALS
POLYCRYSTALS
QUARTZ CRYSTALS
RT
CRYSTAL LATTICE
MTF USE
MODULATED TRANSFER FUNCTION
MODULA'TED TRANSFER FUNCTION
UF MTF
Thesaurxs also controls variations in the spellings i.e. American and British
English. Some of the common variations is listed below:
e (~oc~clppkdia)
g (Analog)
er (Center)

British English
ae (Encyclopaedia)
gue (Analogue)
re (Centre)

or (Color)
za (polarization)

our (Colqur)
sa (Polarisation)

American English

After query is received from the user then it is interpreted, appropriate searcl~
statements are formulated and the actual search (i.e. n~atcl~ing
user profile with
the documents profiles) is conducted with a view to retrieving the required
information. All these tasks can be done ma~luallyor automated. Before the
search is started, the searcher has to plan his course of action to search the
database. This is known as search stmtegy.

Search Strategy
The search strategy encon-passes several steps and levels of work in retrieval of
inforn~ation.Developing a good search strategy requires knowledge about the
nalure and organization of documents in the database and also the exact needs of
[he user. Knowledge of the user's exact.requiremerrtcan greatly affect the actual
search and retrieval process. In certain cases, the user may need a few relevant
items, in that case searching will be limited. Conversely, the user may wish to
obtain all the relevant items and in that case the search must be exhaustive;
T l ~ ~ ithere
s , could be three kind of searches:

i) High recall search - when the user needs to find out all the relevant items
on the stated topic.
ii) High precision search- when t11e user needs only relevant items i.e. as small
nuinber of non-relevant items as possible.
iii) Brief search - when the user wants only a few relevant items.

There are many issues that need to be considered while formulating an appropriate
search statement. These are:
i) the concepts to be searched and t~ikirorder
ii) the term(s) that appropriately represent (s) the concepts
iii) the features of the retrieval system concerned, and
iv) tlie measures to be talten in revising a search statement.

Pre-Search Interview
Search.results depend upon the correct understanding of the precise needs of the
user wl~ichcall be developed through pre-search interview. It is a conversation
between the information seeker and the searcher. To make the pre-search
interview more successful, searcher should possess the following skills:
a

good personal communicatioll slcills

conceptual slcills
analytical slcills
knowledge of file organization
uilderstanding of indexing policy and procedure
understandi~lgof vocabulary control
subject luiowledge

Searching Process
While searching the database having co~ltrolledlanguage, asearcl~ermust perform
the following:
@

*
0

decide the lteyword(s) that might be used by the atlthor(s) of the relevant
documents.
use the thesa~trusof the chosen database in order to translate the query term
in the appropriate way.
guess which of the chose11 terms (or concepts) might llave been used by the
database indexer.

Alerting Services

Con~puterisedInformation
Services

*
*

coordinate the terms (ofhen using Boolean Operators) to f o r ~ ~ ~ u the

l a t search
e
statement.
input the search statement.
repeat all the above steps until a desirable output in obtained or the search
fails altogether; and
identify the actual relevant items from among those retrieved.

The result of the search depends largely on how adequately the search terms are
combined. Boolean search techniques have been used widely since very
beginning. George Boole (1 815-1 864) devised a system of symbolic logic in
which he used three operators viz +, x, and - , to combine stateme~ltsin syinbolic
fi-om. John Venn later expressed Boolean logic relationships through what are
known as Venn diagrams. These three operators of Boolean logic are:
"Logical Sum" or "OR Logic" allows the searcher to specify alteinatives anlong
search terms (or concepts). For example the query statement.
(COTVIPUTERS ) OR (COMMUNICATION)

It will retrieve records which nlay contain iteins on either of these two topics, or
both.
"Logical Product" or "And Logic" allows the searcher to specify the
coillcidence of two or more concepts. The query statement
(COMPUTERS) AND (COMMUNICATION)
will retrieve records which may contain both terms
"Logical Difference" or "NOT Logic" facilitates searcher to exclude items
from a set. In a statement
(COMPUTERS) NOT (COMMUNICATION)
The system will retrieve records which may have the first term not the second
one.
These logical operators can be used separately or in combination of more than
one to nlalte a search statement. Besides Boolean operators, there are other
techniques used in searching for retrieval of relevant records. Some of them are
discussed below:
I

Proximity Searching
Boolean search operators are not enougl~to refine search statements. Therefore,
there is a need that the systenl should provide adjacency/proxi!mitysearch facility
by permitting tlie searcher to specify the context in whiclzia term must occur.
This facility allows the user to speciQ whether two search terms should occur
adjacent to eachbther, whether one or more words occur in between the search
telms, whether the search tern~sshould occur in the same paragraph irrespective
of the intervening words, and sb on. Some of the examples of proximity search
facilities are given below and the sane have been adapted by the BRS.

.
,

,
I

INFORMATION SAME RETRIEVAL

The system will retrieve ail records where the search terms i.e. IJVFORMATION
and RETRIEVAL occur in t l ~ same
e
paragraph.

Alerting Services

INFORMATION WITH RETRIEVAL

The system will retrieval all records where INFORMATION and RETRIEVATA
occur in the same seatence.

INFORMATION ADJ RETRIEVAL

The system will retrieve all records where INFORMATION is followed by
RETRIEVAL in the same sentence.

IhIFORMATION NEAR RETRIEVAL

The system will retrieve all those records where either INFORMATION is
followed by RETRIEVAL or RETRIEVAL is followed by INFORMATION is
in the same sentence i.e. UNFORMATION RETRIEVAL or RETRIEVAL of
'INFORMATION.
Different types of softwares offer different types of proximity search operators:
For example in micro CDS/ISIS:

LIBIURY (G) AUTOMATION

will retrieve all records where both the search terms occur in tbe same field. i.e.

LIBRARY AUTOMATION.
STORAGE $ RETRIEVAL
will retrieve both the search terllls occur with at most one word between them
i.e.

STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

Range Searching

111scientific and teclmical inforn~atio~l

requirement where illformationis available
in numerical form, range searching is required to refine the search statement.
The following options are available for range searching
greater than (>)
e.g. wavelength>l.30 x 10-"in

less than (<)

e.g. wavelength < 1.30 x 1 0-6nl

equal to (=)
e.g. gain = 1.20 x lo-' db

not equal to (+)

e.g. pulse length

;t

1.OO x 1 0-12second

greater than equal to (> =)

frequency > = 5.00

10' HZ

less than equal to (< = )

frequency < = 5.00. x 1 0 % ~

Limiting Search or Field Search

A database contains different fields like author, title, abstract, etc. The searcher
should be able to limit his search in one or more fields and search software
I

Ca~nputerisedlnformrtio~i
Services

should provide this facility. This is also known as field search whereby the
searcher can specify that the search terms are to be looked for in one or more
fields. For,exainple
MNGANATHAN/(AU) will retrieve those records
where IWNGANATHAN occurs in the "Author" field.
ELECTRODYNAMICS /(TI) will retrieve those records
in wl~icllELECTRODYNAMICS occurs ill the "Title" field.
Truncation
When the search term in a profile is not truncated, it will be retrieved only if it
exactly matches the same term in the database. Trucation allows a search to be
conducted for all the different forms of a word having the same common root.
The term nlay be truilcated to facilitate retrieval of terms with a coinmoil root or
containing common fragments. Incorporating lruncation device makes it possible
to search for a portion of the term only. A number of different options are available
for truncation, e.g. right truncation, lefi truncation, masking of letters in the
middle of the word.
Left Transaction retrieves all words having the same characters at the righthand part. For example

$MARC will retrieve

UNIMARC and
USMARC.
Right Truncation retrieves all words having the same characters at the lefthand part. For example
Computer$ will retrieve
Computers
Computerization
Computerization etc.
Left and Right Truncation allows simultaneous substitution of prefix and suffix
to a term fragment or term root. For example:

$FORM$ will retrieve

INFORMATION
DEFORMATION
REFORMATION
CONFORMATION etc.
Thus the term truncation is very helpful which enables the searcher to search
forword stems as and when the nature of the query demands.
Search Refinement - The ability to specify a search strategy, and to elicit a
response in terms of a number of postings or records retrieved on the basis of
that strategy, is fundamental to the retrieval systenl. This facility supports the

narrowing or broadening of search strategies. Once a search statement is

formulated, there should be provisio~~s
for refining it in step by step fashion so
as to arrive at an optimum level of retrieval.
Notification

Next imnportant aspect concerning the organization of SDI service is notification

of search results (outputs), based on the user profiles, to the individual users of
tlie system. Each individual user receives notifications from the system, if my
close match is observed between his profile and any document in the database.
The notification is sent to alert the user that certain docutllents are likely to be
relevant to his interest. It may inciude bibliographic details of the retrieved
documents.
Feedback.

This is an important mechanism to evaluate tlie performance of the SDI system.

Individual user is given a feedback froin alongwith the notification. User is
requested to evaluate the references received by him. He may be requested to
specify the relevance of received references in terms of:
Most relevant
Peripheral
Irrelevant
On the basis of feedback received from the user, the searcher may modifj liis
search strategy, logics used or any other steps in the operation of SDI service.
An active interest and personal contact between the user and the searcher is of
great importance to reach a fast convergence for the ~nodificationsof the profiles.
Feedback is necessary because of frequent change in the information requirement
of the user. A sample feedback form is given in the Appendix 2.

11.3.4 CD-ROM Based SDI Services

Bibliographic aatabases on CD-ROM have become very popular because of the
large storage space and the lower costs compared to its predecessors, magnetic
tapes. Although these databases are being updated less frequently than the other
online counterparts, it can be used to provide in-house SDI service as it can be
cheaper than the alternatives available from olieline database services. In India,
where setting up of CD-ROM networks for end-user access is beyoild the budgets
of most of the libraries and infomation centers, SDI through CD-ROM databases
is an effective alternative. Majority of CD-ROM databases do not support SDI
software. Therefore, separate softwares are needed to be developed to search
and disseminate i~lformationrelevant to the user's interests periodically. All
CD-ROM databases have user-fi-iendly softwares with saving of search strategy
facility. The SDI can be provided in two ways: (1) Single database searching;
and (2) Multi database searcl~ing.
Sit,,,, Database Searchiqg

In order to provide an SDI service using single CD-ROM database, the searcher
should create search strategy for all the users and save them in the hard disk.
Whenever a CD-ROM update is received, the searcher has to run the saved search
strategies on the updated database and download the retrieved records for

Alerting Services

Co~nputerisedI~~formation
Services

dissenlirlation to users. If there are large number of SDI users, each time searcher
has to run tlie search strategy which is a time consuming process. Searclier can
make it automatic to lnalte the SDI service more efficient.
R/lulti Database Searching

Libraries and information centres subscribing to many bibliographic CD-ROM

databases on various topics face problems of running SDI service because of
their different data structures, frequency of updation, different search software,
search con~il~ands
etc. CD-ROM databases like INSPEC, Chemical Abstracts,
Con~pendex,Applied Science and Technology Index, LISA, US Patents, GDI,
etc. are brought out by different database producers. Some of the databases
issue only updated information whereas otl~ersare cumulated with passage
of time. Searcher laas to decicle whether the saved search strategies are to be
run.:
e

on each data base separately

011downloaded (updated) information stored in the hard disk.

First option is time consumiag, therefore second option can be applied in the
following manner.

Matching

Fig.3 : Multi Database Seal-cl~ing

11.4 ELECTRONIC CLIPPING SEWICES

One of the major problems faced by the information professionals is to monitor
the news, both in real-time and with periodic updates, appearing in over thousands
channels of televisions and daily news papers published world over. It may not
be possible to collect, select, store and disseminate newslinformation fiom all
sources within a very short interval of time. However, solne information providers
created electronic clipping services and disseminating selected news1
information to their users. Most of them are foreign-based, whereas, big
organizations and institutions in India like DESIDOC, NIC are offering this
service to their users on limited basis. In this service, user's can set up profiles
n t news relevant
on electronic clipping service providers to monitor c ~ ~ r eevents
to their areas of interest and evolving issues. Here it may be difficult to elaborate
all national and international agencies offering electronic clipping service but
some of the important ones are narrated below:

P.A.S.S. PORT (Data Times)

It offers several electronic clipping services, all packaged under the name P.A.S.S.
Port (Personalized Automated Search Service). This service analyses the user's

need, tries several search strategies to see which worlts best, then establishes a
profile for daily delivery to the user's account. 'U1e standard electronic clipping
service searches about 300 databases on Data Times and runs the search daily.
One of the more unusual P.A.S.S. Port features is its same day coverage of about
100 newspapers. The saine day news alert service searches a subset of articles
focussing on regionally sigilificant topics, chosen by the editor of the selected
newspapers. This service delivers articles matching the user's interest profile to
the user's fax machine or mail account by 7:00 A.M. Eastern time. It illcludes
ai-ticles within seven days of the date oftheir publications. This service is primarily
a clipping service for daily newspapers, broadcast transcripts and wire services.
P.A.S.S. Port searches transmitted by fax are forinatled in two colurnnls of text,
containing an article fi~ll-text,or the articles citation, document ID number and
first few paragraphs. The cost of on-demand full-text article delivery is US $5
per article. One of the major problen~sin electronic clipping service fioin inultiple
newspapers is retrieval of duplicate or near-diiplicate articles, witla several papers
picking up the same wire story. Data Times tllus provides the option to remove
duplicate articles, although soine users inay want to see all coverage of a particular
topic. Duplicate detectioli is performed by coillparilig text rather tl~arzheadings,
and multiple copies of stories, in which 70% of the text is the same, ase elirniiiatrd.
Profile can be set to ru11 once a day, alterrzate day, weekly or any periodicity
opted by the user.

Alert Service (DIALOG)

DIALOG offers alerl service by permitting its user to create, edit and review
their user's profiles througl~menu-driven system. It perlilits delivery or search
results to a fax or ally electrollic mail system accessible through Irlternet.
Information delivered through alert service call be presepted in any slandasd or
user-defined formats. Each alert file includes the fjle(s) searched, the search
stateinent(s) used and each record in a standard DIALOG output style. It also
iilclucles duplicate detection features.
Dow Jone's CLIP Service

This service identifies news as soon as it is added to tlie database. Sii~ceCLIP

service includes newswires, this helps the users to rl~onitorlate breaking news
automatically. The user is prompted to indicate the files to be monitored, the
search strategies to be used and the name of resulting 'folder'. Each folder can
have upto five search statements. User is asked to specify the deliveiy options
for the clippings. The user has the option to review the headlines of the clipped
articles before viewing the fu~ll-text.Clippings are kept in a folder for 30 days if
not deleted by the user before then. Clippings call be delivered by fax, AT&?'
Mail, Easy Link, MCI Mail, or Sprintmail.

News Flash (News Net)

News Net began as a service offering electronic versioils of ii~dust~y

aewsletters.
It has since expanded to ixlclude newswii.es, directories and source books and
gateway access to company information. Its primary use is electronic clipping
service and to monitor industry trends or to track late-breaking stories on the
newswires. Retrieved inforination can be stored by date, keywords, phrase, or
database code. This service is menu-driven with the following options:

Alerting Services

Computerised Information
Services

e abi1i.t~
to specifjr both activation and expiry dates.

sorting ofresults by issue date, title of publication, or alpllabeticallyby keywords.

ability to ~~ndelete
search phrases deleted within the past two weeks and return
theill to active monitoring.
e ability to copy existing folder setting to create new folder.

The news is delivered online or through fax.

ECLIPSE (NEXIS)
Besides cul~entawareness service, ECLIPSE offers retrospective search facility.
The user has option to view search results partially or in full. An ECLIPSE
search is established by running a search, reviewing the results and then saving.
User can select an update interval i.e. daily, weekly, nlonthly etc. and select
delivery option i.e. online or to a stand alone NEXIS printer. Delivery to
co~nmercialelectronic mail systellls accessible through the Internet such as MCI
Mail, Coinpu Serve and AT&T Mail, and by fax. Unfortulnately, it does not
pel-nit editing of stored searches.
There are.a number of major professional agencies offering electronic clipping
services throughout the world. Some of the important services are discussed
above and their key features are tabulated beIow:
Table 2: Electronic Clipping Services
Onlinc Service/
Prodt~ct

Data times
Dialog Alert
Personalized
Automated
Search Service
(P.A.S.S. PORT)

Ease of Editing

Easy (user calls

customer service
for changes)

Very easy

Nun~berof F~les
in one SDI

About 300 for

regular PASS
PORT,about
100 for sarne
day News Alert,
several hundred
for Automated
Search

Up to 20
(charged
separately
foreach file)

Frequency
Optioris

Daily, every
other day, or
any other
frequency

Dow Jones
News/retr~eval
//CLIP

Very easy

NewsNet
NewsFlash

Easy

Any combination

NEXIS ECLIPSE

I'oor, must dclctc

existing search and
type in new search
.Unlimited

Unlimited

ofIIWIRES and
//TEXT files

Depends on thecontinual
file, usually
weekly or
monthly

Continual

Daily (either seven

dayslweek or
weekdays only),
rveekly and montlily)

needed
Display Formats

Headlines and
KWIC or first
few paragraphs,
full-text

Headlines, cites
abstracts or fulltext

Full-text, headlines
(for online delivery only)

Headlines , Citations, KWIC

citation and and full-text
first few lines
of text, KWIC

i
i
I

I
I

User-defined
Yes
Display Formats?

Yes

No

No

No

A l e r t i n g Services

Delivery Options Online delivery Print, fax or .to

fax, MCI Mail DIALMAIL, the
Internet, MCI
MAIL or X. 400
addressing

Onlinc delivery Online nnd Online delivery, to

(must log on to fax
LEXISINEXIS
DJNIR to view
stand-alone printer,
contents ofllCLIP
delivery to Internetfolder), fax a ~ l d
accessible electronic
mail systems (MCI
several electronic
mail systems
Mail, CompuServe,
AT&T Mail, etc.

Duplicate
Suppression?

Yes

Yes

No

Client identifi
cation on the
printout?

Yes

Yes, on the print Yes

and fax formats

Client identification on the

invoice?

Yes

Yes, by specif'ying Yes, by,using

the subaccount at clieot's name
the Alert Optionsfor the folder
menu
nanie

Real-time
updating during
the day?

No

No, daily updating

,in the most
freque~ltoption
available

Pricing

$15/months/
Per Alert Profile $15/months per 50 per hit Ranges from
term (minimum and per documentfolder plus
prenliu~n $1 Z/profi~e/update
information utlitREAD for dail
charge
charge. Many filcs

No, hut system

identifies
duplicate lhits

No

No printout No
option
avaiIable

updating
$75) for citat-

include the first 25

profile1
tion and KWIC docu~nentsin the viewing the
$30/1nonth/term profile charge
search results
additional charge
for full-text
per page for f i x
delivery plus
connect-time
delivery, per
and information 1,024 characters
unit charges
for electronic
(for online
nlail delivery
delivery)
Contact Data
Times for
pricing of News
Pipeline.

charges whencharges for t o

g241

any fi~ll-textupdate for monthly

articles
updating. A forced
displayed,
update mid-way
306 for
througl~the
KWIC views updating cycle
50$ for
is priced at 50
previews
percent of the
normal search
charge for that file.
'

(Source: Online. July 1994 P.50-51)

Libraries and information centres should take final decision on which electronic
clipping service is to be used for the purpose? What sources need to be monitored?
Do the sources need to be full-text or abstracts preferably? How frequently the
service is to be updated? Will the clipping service monitor the breaking news?
How frequently alert profiles be changed and updated? Is it available online or
offline?Options available to edit search results, etc. Keeping the above points in
view along with user Eriendly search and user defined formats are some of the
factors to be considered while selecting professional agencies for electronic
clipping services.

Computerised Information
Services

Self check; Exercises

2) Discuss various operational aspects of SDI service.

3) Explain various techniques applied in searching database.

Note: i) Write your answers in the.space given below.
ii) Clleck your answers with the answers given at the end of this Unit.

1.5

SUMMARY

A modern librarylinfonnation centre performs various kinds of ill-house activities

and renders infos~nationservices to its users in a~lticipationand also on demand.
T l ~ emain tbcus of this unit was to make students familiar with computerized
information services i.e., Current Awareness Service, Selective Disseminatioll
of I n f o r ~ n a t i oService
~~
and Electronic Clipping Service. Definitions,
characteristics, and various components of CAS have been discussed in details.
Two modes i.e., in-house geherated and CAS provided by external agencies
(ISI, DIALOG, ACS, Elsevier,' Sage, Springer, IEEE, IOP, etc.) have been
discussed in this unit followed by types of services and their subject coverage,
etc. Some of the important features and parameters, on the basis of which one
call evaluate CAS service developed in-house or provided by outside agencies,
are tabulated and explained. How the scope of CAS has changed during the
recent past and what would be the future scenerio, are also discussed in brief.
SDI service, as defined by various authors, its major components, user profile,
document profile, hardware, software, user interface, its various operational
aspects with flow diagram have also been explained. Procedure of creation of
database, controlled vocabulary, user profile, matching of user profile with
documeilt profile, searching teclmiques i.e. Boolean search, truncation, proximity
searcli, range search, field searcll, etc. and notification to the user and modification
of search strategy on tbe basis of feed back received from the user, have been
explained by giving examples of search results. Information cei~tresllibraries
inay opt CD-ROM searclling as an alternative to online SDI to save
corn~~lullication
cost and efforts. Electronic clipping service provided by foreign
commercial information service agencies, their coverages, significant features,
frequency of service, cost, etc. have been discussed in this unit. The unit also
colltains answers to self check exercises to aid the sh~dentsto comprehend the
different concepts discussed in the text of this unit. A list of keywords hasI also
been provided to explain some of the concepts included in this text.

1.6

ANSWERS TO SELF CHECK EXERCISES

1) A current awareness service is a device of the illforinatjon storage and

retrieval system through wllich the users of information can be informed
promptly, as soon as possible, after publication but before inclusion into the
comprel~ensivesecoildary sources. The channels of collln~unicationsto
provide current information may be telephone calls, recording of individ~zal
references and forwarding them to the relevailt users, through e-mail, fax,
bulletin boards etc. The main objective of CAS is to make users aware of
the latest development in their areas of interest. There are two main modes
of providing CAS.
1)

In-house generated CAS

2)

CAS provided by external agencies.

In-llouse generated CAS is based on the resources available in local library/

inforination centre. It may be in the forin of scanning of content pages of
newly received items and circulation among users, bulletin, etc. This service
search software.
can be provided from in-house created database and tl~.t.ot~gh
Various exterilal agencies are involved in this field .to provide CAS. Sollle
of them are:
Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)
Dialog
Arnekm Chemical Society (ACS)
Elsevier Science
Sage Publications
Springer
Institute of Physics (IOP)
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer)
These agencies offer CAS in the form of table of contents (TOC), documents
delivery and bibliographical details in various disciples. While evaluating
a CAS, the following parameters may be kept in mind.
Coverage of database
Information currency
Service cost
User-friendliness
Display forinat
Document delivery
SDI is that service within an organization which concerns itself with the
channeling of new items of information, from whatever the source, to those
points within the organization where the probability of usefulness, in
connection with ctu-rent work or interests, is high. It is developed for a specific
purpose to provide information at a regular interval of time. Through selected
list of publications.

Alerting SCI-vices

I
', 1

Computerised I n f o r n ~ a t i o n
Services

The exponential growth of information in every discipline has forced

information professionals to collect, select, process, store, retrieve and
disseminate information to the concerned users to save their time, efforts
and d~iplicationin research work. Earlier SDI was provided manually and
now with the emergence of computers and communication technology it
has become easier and much faster as compared to conventional modes.
3) Any SDI system has five basic components
User Profile
Database or Documents Profile
Hardware
Software

II

User Interface.

4) SDI system includes set of rules, tools and procedures as operated by the
computers and human beings or both to perform the following operations.
Creation of database or information resources also known as document
profile.
Construction of user's interest profile describing user's information
requirements.
Searching the SDI system for retrieval of relevant information i.e.
matching of document profile with user profile.

!
1

Notification of search results to the user in appropriate format and mode

of dissemination suits to the user.
Receiving feed back from the user about the relevance of the information
supplied, analysis of feedback and modification of user profile, search
stratygy or any steps involve in SDI system.
In information retrieval, Boolean search techniques are widely used. Three
Boolean operators 'AND' 'OR' and 'NOT' are used either in single or in
combination with others to retrieve required information. Logical operator
'AND' is used to narrow down the search, whereas, operator 'OR' is used to
enhance the recall and expand search scope. Logical operator 'NOT' is used
to exclude those terms which are not required by the user and known as
exclusion operators. Besides Boolean operators, there are other technique
like proximity searcl~ing,right truncation, left truncation, wild card search,
range search (less than, greater than, equal to, not equal to), field search etc.
are also used to refine search statements to make result more precise.

11.7 KEY WORDS

Boolean Operators

Logical operators AND, OR, NOT used to combine

concepts represented by descriptors.

Current Awareness
Service (CAS)

A service designed to aid research workers in

keeping themselves abreast of the current
developments taking place in their subject of
interest.

1"t
B\

Oatabase

A machine-readable file of bibliographic records.

Document Profile

A file of maclzirle-readable bibliographic records,

which could be searched with reference to specific
criteria laid down by the searcher of the system.

Feedback

The act of using the output fro111a system as part

of input to the systein to achieve a greater
operational efficiency in the perfomance of the
system.

Precision Ratio

It is the ratio of number of relevant records

retrieved by the systenl to the total nuniber of
records retrieved. It is also represented in tlie forin
of percentage.

Record

A collection of related information.

Recall Ratio

It is defined as the ratio of iluinber of total relevant

records retrieved by the systein to the total number
of relevant records available with database. It is
represented in percentage.

SDI

Selective dissemination of information. A method

by which inforination is provided to the users on
the basis of their specific req~~irernents.

Search Strategy

A technique adopted to co~llbinethe search terms

using appropriate logic resulting in efficient
retrieval.

Search Term

A search tern1is an expression, a sequence of signs,

letters andlor figures relevant to a specific query.
It inay be a single word, more than one words in a
string, name of an author or institution,
classification cocle, or subject heading, etc.

Thesaurus

A controlled and dynamic vocabulary used i n

i~lformationretrieval system. It indicates the
relationships between the terins descriptors.

User Profile

If is a succint statement of user's information

requirements.

11.8 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Bjorner, Susan N. (1992). Multiple Dialog Alerts. We are not there yet. Online,
16 (S), 93-96.
Guha, B. (1983). Doczcnzen~utionund Information. Calcutta: Word Press.
Chapter 4.
Kemp, A. (1 979). Current Awareness Services. London: Clive Bingley. 1979.
Luhn, H. Peter (1 961). Selective Dissemination of New Scientific Illformation
with the Aid of Electronic Processing Equipment. American Docunzenfution.
12(4), 133-138.
Ojala, Marydee (1991). Staying Alert via Online Clipping Services. Online. 1 5
(3), 80-82,

Alerting Services

Conll)utorised Informfition
Ssrviccs

Richards; D. (1 992). Dissemination of Information. In: Handbook of Special

Librarianship and Information Work. Aslib.
Itowley, J. (1985). Bibliographic Current Awareness Services. Aslih Proceedings.
37 (9), 345-53.
Rowley, J. (1994). Revolution in Current Awareness Service. .Journal qf
Librarinnship aizd Infornzation Science. 26 (I), 7-1 3.
Ranganathan, S .R. (1 963). Documantation and Its Facets. Bombay: Asia
P~~blication.
Strauss, L.J.S. (197 1) (et al). Scientific and Technical Libraries: their
orgnnisntion and administration. 2nd ed. New York: Becker and Hayes.
Weaving, Edmond (1991). Current Awareness Service and the Inforination
Centre. Aslib Proceedings. 43 (lo), 299-303.
Whitehall, T. (ed.) (1986). Prcrctical Current Awareness Senrices-for Libraries.
Aldershot: Gower.

Weaving, Edlnond (199 1). Current Awareness Services and the Information
Center. Aslib Proceedings. 43(10).

Internet Websites
http://a1erting.isjnet.co1n

http://~ubs.acs.org
http://www.tandf.co.uldsara
www.isi~~et.comlicsl
www.isinet.com
www.sciencedirect. corn
www,elsevier.com/locate/conte~~tsdirect
www.sage~ub.corn
http:NIink.springer.de/alert/index.htm
http://www.idealibrary.com
l~ttp://www.ieee.ordiel
h t t p : l l ~ vwi1ey.com
,
http://publish.aps.org

Alerting Services

APPENDICES

Appendix 1

SAMPLE SEARCH RESULT

Database : Aerospace
Record # 6/53
High-g barrel roll maneuvers against proportionals navigation from optimal
control viewpoint
Imado, F.; Uehara, S.
Jour~~al
of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics; Vol: 21 Iss: 6, p. 876-81.
AIAA; Date: Nov.-Dec. 1998; Country of Publication: USA; ISSN: 0731-5090;
CODEN: JGCDDT; CCC: 0731-5090198/$2.00+.050 Our previous studies
very
showed that the 11igl1-g barrel roll (HGB) maneuvers generally prod~~ces
large miss distance against proportional navigation missiles. The performance
of these maneuvers is discussed from the viewpoint of optimal control,
Numerically obtained three-dimensionaloptimal evasive maneuvers of a fighter
against a proportional navigation missile were those of vertical-S type and
horizontal-S type, which are two dimensional in nature. It is shown that the
HGB is regarded as a kind of approximationof these optimal maneuvers however,
the HGB is easier to implement than the optimal maneuvers, and we may still
insist on the practical effectiveness of the HGB. (9 Refs.).
Record $7153
Terminal guidance algorithm for ramjet-powerd missiles
Aggarwal, R.K.; Moore, C.R.
Journal of Guidance, control and dynamics; Vol: 21 Iss:6, ~ ~ ' 8 6 2 - 6 .
AIAA; Date: Nov. -Dec. 1998; Country of Publication: USA; ISSN: 0731-5090;
CODEN: JGCDDT; CCC: 0731-5090/98/$2.00+.50 The terminal guidance
design problem for a long range bank-to turn (BTT) ramjet missile involves a
completely coupled pitch-yaw-roll nonlinear dynamics model. Because of these
nonlinear dynamics, an optimal solution for acceieratian arid roll-rate commands
can be found only by il~~merical
methods for solving two-point boundary value
problems. Because the roll-rate dynamics of the state-of-the-art missiles is much
faster than the rest of the system; states, a near-optimal solutio~lis obtained to
the BTT guidance problem using multiple timescale tecllniques. Nonlinear
feedback solutioils for the acceleration command and roll-rate co~nmandare
derived. The zero-order slow solution obtained by treating roll rate as infinitely
fast, is zero-order fast solution provides the roll-rate command. A first order
analysis corrects the acceleration command for the finite dynamics behaviour in
bank angle. Simulation; results are presented for a representative terminal
engagement using this algorithm. Near-zero miss distances are obtained in a
noise-freeenvironment. (9 Refs.)

1I

Cofnputerised Information
/11

Appendix -'2

Services

SDI Service No. 11

Feedback Form
Project: RCHIH02

From: 729lDr. K.N. Swainy

S.No. Title of the Article

write

Y orN

Peripheral to

My Interest

1.

Flutter testing in the 90's (the GBU-. . .

2.

Proportional navigation through predi. . .

3.

Robust control of linear parameterical. . .

4.

Stabilizing co~~troller
design for lin. . .

5.

Nonlinear Hlsub infinitelylrobust gui. . .

High-g-barrel roll maneuvers against. . .

Terminal guidance algorithm for ramjet. . .

Finite time stability approach to pro. . .
9.

The new triaxial shock and vibration. . .

10.

Integration and test processes for pr. . .

11.

MEMS inertial rate and acceleration s. . .

Stability analysis of missile guidance. . .

15.

Fixed-order dynamic compensation for. . .

16.

A miniaturized microwave dual down co. . .

17.

Guaranteed cost control of stochastic. . .

18.

Stability analysis of a missile contr. . .

19.

Robust filtering in an intercept system. . .

20.

Interpolation of observer state feedb. . .

21.

A study on design of instantaneous fi. . .

Robust switching missile autopilot. . .

Reconfiguration aqd scheduling in fli. . .

Modle identification and control from. . .

Improved trajectory estimation ofree. . .

I
I

Self-scheduling pole assignment of a. . .

26.

Application of nonlinear predictive c. . .

27.

Neural networlc modeling of flight con. . .

28.

A decopling controller design forth. . .

29.

CPS and radar aidded inertial navigate. . .

"

30,

ICBM reentry vehicle navigation syste, . ,

..

25.

Guidance algorithm design: a nonlinea. . .

1,i
4

Advances in electro-optic systems for. . .

Robust adaptive control of uncertain. . .

"

GPS UREIUE evolutiona~yimprovements. . .

B-1 B virtual umbilical demonstration. . .

Rocket trajectory correction using st.. . .

High precision IFOG insertion into the. . .

MEMS inertial rate and acceleration s. . .

F-16 flight tests of a rapid transfer. . .

The VIA vibrating beam accleratometer.... . . -

A demonstration of achievable accurac. . .

Keywords:- (Please provide keywords of your subject interest, if not already

sent)'

10.

5.
Mail to:

Scientist-in-Charge
Information Service Division
Defence Scientific Information & Documentation Centre
Metcalfe House, Delhi-110054

Alerting Serviccs