National Academies Press: OpenBook

Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes (1959)

Chapter: Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information

« Previous: Determining Requirements for Atomic Energy Information from Reference Questions
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×

Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information

JIŘÍ SPIRIT and LADISLAV KOFNOVEC

At present, the increasing amount of scientific and technical literature renders it impossible for scientists and technical workers to follow up all the new literature related to their fields. In order to identify and obtain the most important documents, they inevitably need the assistance of information unit officers. These are in a position systematically to provide information about newly published documents by means of (abstracts) cards.

If an information unit is to work for only a small number of research and technical workers, the information officers will be able to store up in their memories the different items that may be of interest to individual scientists. If, however, the number of specialized scientists or research workers is large, the information unit must be provided with special accessories if a systematic information service is to be correctly performed. In what follows, one of the most important of these accessories, i.e., the thematical plan of the establishment or institution, will be described in detail.

Obviously, a scientist cannot wait until some report of some foreign experience happens to come to his knowledge. Therefore, the information officer must know in advance what the individual creative workers will need. He must also know how and where the necessary information can be acquired.

In order to survey the requirements of the individual scientific workers, information officers must constantly be in contact with the scientists and choose useful information on the basis of the thematical plan. That is to say, each

JIŘÍ SPIRIT and LADISLAV KOFNOVEC Research Institute for Materials and Technology, Prague, Czechoslovakia.

1  

The paper by W.K.Lowry and J.C.Albrecht entitled “A Proposed Information Handling System for a Large Research Organization” (Area 5 of the Conference) also contains a discussion of methods for determining the information requirements of individual scientists served by an information service.

Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×

year, prior to the beginning of work on research, development, and design problems, the information officers will note, in a most detailed and specified way, the requirements of the individual scientific workers. These requirements should be arranged from two different points of view: (1) from a personal one, by making for each of the creative workers separately a specification of his requirements, classified, for example, according to the UDC; (2) from a subject field point of view, by systematically arranging the specified items according to the UDC, together with the name of the workers interested in them, all classified into larger groups for easy survey. These two specifications, if necessary supplemented by an alphabetical index of the main groups, represent a year’s accessory tool for the information unit (or the technical library) and form the thematical plan which is the basis for providing foreign and domestic technical information.

The thematical plan is of the utmost importance in organizing a systematic information service, and is a significant component of any active information service. In order to gather the individual requirements of scientific and research workers, a special “Information requirement sheet,” of which a copy is appended, is filled in by the creative workers served by the information service.

On the information requirement sheet are shown the name of the scientific worker, his section and department, the number, designation and details of the research problem in question, and also the stage of its elaboration and the corresponding UDC number. It is most useful to indicate where best to search for information sources and during what period of time, and also to give characteristic details about the information required. Frequently a retrospective search is required, translations from various languages, etc. The back of the page provides space for entering data about accomplished searches or studies and translation work, and about the range of information services during the year. These “Information requirements sheets” are filed in the study department.

These “Information requirement sheets” are the basis for elaborating the establishment’s thematical plan. Great care is taken in indicating UDC numbers for the different items since they are fundamental to the information unit’s work for the coming year.

The first and basic part of the thematical plan is a systematic arrangement of all information requirements according to UDC, as for example,

 

Steam boiler

 

621.18

Steam boiler materials

Dr. Wild

621.18.004.6

Disturbances on steam power plants

Lindner

621.181.021

Steam boiler pipes

Dr. Wild

621.183

Steam boiler fittings

Dr. Wild

621.183.002.3

Materials for steam boiler fittings

dipl.Ing.Schmidt

Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×

621.186.1/.4

Steam line welding

Landgraf

621.187

Steam boiler operation

Dr. Wild

UDC numbers are indicated in the left column, the second column gives short descriptions of the required information, and the right column indicates the names of the scientific or research workers who wish to get information on the topics listed.

The second part of the thematical plan is arranged by departments of the establishment or by individual research groups of the Institute, with the names of the research workers in alphabetical order. Under the name of each research worker are all his information requirements and the respective UDC numbers, as for example,

Dipl.Ing.Schmidt

539.3.19

 

Methods for measuring residual stresses

539.4.014

620.17

539.319

621.986

 

Stresses after cold forming

539.4.015

621.986

Influence of cold forming upon mechanical and physical properties of materials

620.18

Metallography, microscopy, apparatus for making polished sections

620.182

620.183.002.3

Materials for steam boiler fittings

When abstracting a book or another nonperiodical publication or some journal literature, the information officer states, with the aid of UDC numbers, which of the scientific workers are to be supplied with the respective information. Thus, the systematization of the information service is assured, every research worker mentioned in the thematical plan receiving, for his personal use, copies of abstract cards, prepared in the study department, pertaining to his field of interest.

In establishments where the information service is already in common use, supplying copies of abstract cards, as mentioned, will be sufficient. In establishments where such services have not yet been introduced or are only occasionally used, the abstracts may be written on special forms with explanatory text such as: “We call your attention to the following article…. The periodical in question is at your disposal in our library,” etc.

The thematical plan is designed to be used not only by workers of the information unit, but also by scientific and technical workers, since it provides them with a good survey of the problems under study and of those who are working on them and who are in a position to give advice in certain cases. This is especially advantageous in large establishments or institutes where it is quite difficult to get a clear picture of the activities of the individual workers.

Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Page 189
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Page 190
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Page 191
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Page 192
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Page 193
Suggested Citation:"Systematically Ascertaining Requirements of Scientists for Information." National Research Council. 1959. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10866.
×
Page 194
Next: How Scientists Actually Learn of Work Important to Them »
Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information: Two Volumes Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

The launch of Sputnik caused a flurry of governmental activity in science information. The 1958 International Conference on Scientific Information (ICSI) was held in Washington from Nov. 16-21, 1958 and sponsored by NSF, NAS, and American Documentation Institute, the predecessor to the American Society for Information Science. In 1959, 20,000 copies of the two volume proceedings were published by NAS and included 75 papers (1600 pages) by dozens of pioneers from seven areas such as:

  • Literature and reference needs of scientists
  • Function and effectiveness of A & I services
  • Effectiveness of Monographs, Compendia, and Specialized Centers
  • Organization of information for storage and search: comparative characteristics of existing systems
  • Organization of information for storage and retrospective search: intellectual problems and equipment considerations
  • Organization of information for storage and retrospective search: possibility for a general theory
  • Responsibilities of Government, Societies, Universities, and industry for improved information services and research.

It is now an out of print classic in the field of science information studies.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!