Abstracts And Indexes In Science And Technology

"Owen has pulled together into one source the major indexing and abstracting sources in science and technology." --MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION BULLETIN

Information Sources in Science and Technology: A Practical Guide to Traditional and Online Use presents a selection of traditional and online methods of using information sources in science and technology, including people, organizations, literature, hosts, and databases. This text serves as a reference book that helps the reader choose sources of information and their guides, includes a routine for finding and using information, and offers tips on searching and obtaining literature in a usable form. This book is comprised of nine chapters and begins by explaining how to choose type(s) of information source that is likely to be most helpful. The chapters that follow present guides on people, organizations, and literature as sources of information. A chapter on information services focuses on those organizations that supply information or references to information that could be helpful. These services range from answering telephone queries to supplying collections of relevant documents, and from broadcast television information to direct connection with computer databases. The next chapters discuss ways of searching the literature and computer databases, obtaining literature in a usable form, and organizing and presenting information. This book concludes by considering current awareness or keeping up-to-date with information about recent developments. This monograph is intended for librarians and information officers, especially for those working in scientific or industrial environments, practicing scientists and engineers, and students associated with these professions.

This third edition of what has become a classic among textbooks in schools of library and information science (and related programs) has been thoroughly updated to reflect the evolving technological advancements in the field. Focusing on indexing of the subject matter of material, the beginning chapters review the literature and discuss various principles and practices such as exhaustivity or depth of indexing, specificity, checktags, pre- and post-coordinate indexes, and consistency and quality of indexing. Discussions on abstracting cover such concepts as the different types of abstracts, purpose of an abstract, structured versus narrative abstracts, informative versus indicative abstracts, subject slanting, modular abstracts, and writing and evaluating an abstract. Various styles of indexing used in printed publications such as Index Medicus, the Engineering Index, and Chemical Abstracts are illustrated in the text; although the author is quick to note that printed tools are used much less today in favor of their online counterparts. In the online world, indexing has even greater importance in the effort to retrieve relevant data efficiently. Related concepts such as weighted indexing, linking of terms, and relational indicators are discussed as aids to precision. The idiosyncrasies of indexing special formats such as images and sounds and the Internet, as well as the use of computer-generated or automated indexing and abstracting, are also reviewed. The author admits that the Web has become so large and complex that it is beyond the scope of any single book to explain all of its components. He suggests the use of Web-based services such as The Extreme Web Searcher's Internet Handbook News and Updates http://extremesearcher.com/news.html or Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com to keep current with new developments.

This study instructs the beginning abstractor and information scientist on how to abstract the literature of science and technology. It should also be of value to scientists and to management personnel in universities, industry, business, and government who write, use or manage abstracts.