communication skills dr. maisara mohyeldin gasim chapter 3 collection of relevant data and technical...

Communication Skills

Dr. Maisara Mohyeldin Gasim

Chapter 3

Collection of relevant data and technical materials, information

sources (e.g. library and internet).



Today’s Objectives:

Students will be able to :

a) Information Sources on the Internet.



Information Sources on the Internet


Dr. Maisara Mohyeldin Gasim4

Information Sources on the Internet• Introduction• Resource types in subject-based resource

gateways • Categorised list of resource types• Information sources

– Abstracting and indexing databases– Books/ online bookstores– Citation databases– Conferences, exhibitions, fairs– Courseware, tutorials, guides– Digital collections



Information Sources on the Internet…

• Information sources…– Directories– Discussion forums– Electronic journals– Employment/ career– FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) sources– Funding/ grants sources– Libraries/ information centres– Maps– Museums and archives




• Information sources…– Organisations, societies, companies– Patents– People, experts– Preprints– Product catalogues– Reference sources– Research projects– Science news– Scientific data sets




• Information sources…– Specialised search engines– Software– Standards– Technical reports– Virtual libraries/ subject gateways– Meta sources

• Keeping up-to-date with the latest Internet sources



Introduction • We have witnessed a tremendous growth in the quantity of printed publications - books, journals, conference proceedings. • Today Internet and its related technologies like WWW has resulted in the rapid proliferation of electronic information. • From its origin in 1991 as an organization-wide collaborative environment at CERN - European laboratory for particle physics, for sharing research documents in nuclear physics, Web has grown to encompass a variety of information sources - electronic journals, pre-prints, technical reports, databases, library catalogues, educational materials, career sources, information on organizations, associations and so forth. • The growth of the Web has proliferated so rapidly and in so many areas of society, we now recognize that 'taming the Web' has become an urgent necessity, if it is to mature into a reliable and effective communications medium.



• Because of this rapid growth, librarians and information professionals are developing a variety of solutions in bringing the explosion of Web resources under control.

• It is our(librarian's) responsibility to provide systematic access to information available on Internet, by classifying the same depending on its inherent characteristics.

• With the rich experience gained at NCSI in building resource catalogues in Science, Engineering and other allied fields, we have identified a set of Internet Resource Types in which most of the Internet resources can be beautifully accommodated and very well structured.

• We attempt to provide a brief overview of the various types of Information Resources available on Internet in Science & Technology, Business and Social Sciences.



Resource Types in Subject-based Information Gateways

• ADAM - adam.ac.uk/adam/index.html Art, design, architecture and media information gateway is a searchable catalogue of 2390 Internet resources that have been carefully selected and catalogued by professional librarians for the benefit of the UK Higher Education community. • ARGUS Clearinghouse - www.clearinghouse.net/ Provides a central access point for value-added topical guides which identify, describe, and evaluate Internet-based information resources. • Chemdex - www.chemdex.org/ An international directory of chemistry on Internet from Dept of Chemistry, University of Sheffield.



Resource Types in Subject-based Information Gateways…

• EEVL - Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library www.eevl.ac.uk UK gateway to quality engineering information on the Internet • Galaxy - galaxy.einet.net Galaxy originally a prototype associated with the DARPA-funded Manufacturing Automation and Design ngineering (MADE) program, is the oldest browsable/searchable web directory. • SOSIG - sosig.ac.uk/ Social Science Information Gateway helps to locate high quality sites on the Internet, relevant to social science education and research. • Vlib - The Virtual Library, www.vlib.org/ oldest catalog of the web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of html and the web itself.



Categorised List of Resource Types Primary Sources Databases, data sets Books & reference Organisations & people

& collections Sources

•Conferences •Courseware/ tutorials/guides/•manuals •Discussion groups •Electronic journals (Full text) •Electronic journals (TOC) •Patents •Preprints •Projects (current) •Science/research news •Software •Standards •Technical reports •Theses and dissertations

•Abstracting and indexing databases (bibliographic databases) •Citation databases •Digital collections (images, audio, video) • Equipment/ product catalogues •Scientific data sets (numeric, property, structural databases) •Library catalogues (including union catalogues) •Museum and archives •Virtual libraries

•Books •Reference sources (dictionaries,encyclopedias, biographies, handbooks, abbreviations, thesauri) •Maps

•Employment/ career sources •Funding/ grants sources •Libraries/ information centres •Organisations/ research institutes/ companies/ societies •People/experts/ scientist directories



Abstracting and Indexing Databases (Bibliographic Databases)

• Databases are a collection of records pertaining to a specific field of study. • Increasing number of bibliographic databases with abstracts of books, journal articles and conference proceedings are now web accessible • Some of them are accessible free of cost - eg Medline, Cancernet • Online hosts like Dialogweb, STNeasy are making their databases web accessible on subscription

• BibEc - netec.mcc.ac.uk/BibEc.html • Medline - www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/freemedl.html • Medline - www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/freemedl.html • World Database of Happiness - www.eur.nl/fsw/research/happiness/



Books/Online Bookstores• Books/online texts can be viewed online • Can be searchable by author, title, subject • One can leaf through the books and download electronic texts • Most of the books are free and sent to your browser via html or downloaded • Intimation regarding arrival of new books is faster • Orders can placed for books through online bookstores

• Booksearcher - www.melt.co.uk/surfsearcher/books.html • NIST - webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/physics.nist.gov/ PhysRefData/contents.html • Psychology of Cyberspace (The) - www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/psycyber.html • Science Books Online - www.nap.edu



Citation Databases

• Databases which include citation information of the authors Example • ISI's 10858 Most Cited Chemists - fluo.univ-lemans.fr:8001/chimie/chimistes.html



Conferences, Meetings, Exhibitions, Trade Shows, Fairs - Published/

Forthcoming• Provide advance information on various International conferences, trade shows taking place • Some offer virtual visit to these exhibitions • A search by subject, date or location help to identify details regarding forthcoming conferences Examples • EXPOguide US Countrywide Trade Shows, Conferences and Expositions - www.expoguide.com/ • Selectscience.net - Information from the worldwide laboratory industry www.selectscience.net/ • The IMEX Exchange Trade Show Pavilion - www.tsnn.com/imex/imex/



Courseware/ Tutorials/ Guides/ Manuals

• Aim to provide distance learning/education irrespective of geographical boundaries • Electronic classroom where students use the Internet to explore research topics and develop proficiency in technology • Offer many courses in various subjects online • Class materials are delivered through Web Examples

• Global Instructional Chemistry - www.ch.ic.ac.uk/GIC/• The World Lecture Hall - www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/



Digital collections (images, audio, video)

• A Multimedia web site include information in the form of text, images, some may have sounds and movies. • Most of them require plug-ins to access the site. Examples

•NASA's Multimedia Gallery - www.nasa.gov/hqpao/library.html/ •The Nine Planets - A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System - seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html



Directories • Include a comprehensive list of addresses of suppliers/buyers in case of business directories, list of Institutions with their addresses • Arranged alphabetically or follow a classified listing • Allow to browse through them as well as searchable • Most of them are available free on Internet and of help in establishing contacts either for business or for research purposes Example• 123Trade: Indian Trade Directory - www.123india.com/123trade/ • BRAINTRACK - www.braintrack.com/• DARE - www.unesco.org/general/eng/infoserv/db/dare.html



Discussion Forums/ Listservs • Also called as mailing lists, discussion lists and listservs aim to provide current awareness in a specific field of interest E-mail is used to set up informal discussion forum among members of specific interest over a network • Forum software (Listserv) maintains a list of e-mail addresses of all subscribers • Most of the forums archive the messages and allow searching and extraction of earlier messages • Messages posted on the forum are automatically distributed among members Examples : A List of many listservs worldwide - mailserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/intgroups/globlist.html Chemical mailing lists - bionmr1.rug.ac.be/chemistry/overview.html Listserv guides: listserv indexfile - tile.net/lists/ Diane kovac's list of scholoarly electronic Conferences - n2h2.com/KOVACS/ Liszt : Directory of e-mail discussion groups - www.liszt.com/ The SOSIG mailing list - www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/sosig/



Electronic journals - Table of contents, Full text

• Table of Contents (TOC) as well as fulltext of Journals are now web accessible • Publishers of many science journals provide content pages of their journals, free of cost. • Some are electronic versions of print journals • Some are electronic versions only - published and accessed on networks • Some are accessible free on Internet • Some are accessible free on Internet due to print subscription by the organization • Publication is faster, economical too, offering quicker access to desired articles • Licensing and authorization restrictions need to be taken into consideration Examples • Ejournal SiteGuide : A MetaSource - www.library.ubc.ca/ejour/ • Electronic Journals Information Service (EJIS) - www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ncsi/internet/type/ejrnl/ejrnl.html • ESTOC, the Elsevier Science Tables of Contents service - ww1.elsevier.nl/homepage/browse.htt • LINK Alert--Springer-Verlag Free TOC & Abstracts - link.springer.de/ol/index.htm • Science Direct - www.sciencedirect.com



Employment/ Career Sources

• A service designed for both job seekers and recruiters • Connects you to jobs and companies that wants you • Maintain a database of resumes and job listing which can be posted as well as searched • Facilitate in accepting resumes from any part of the world to be posted on the Web, freely • Current trend is for the job seekers to represent themselves on the Web to remain competitive in the emerging employment marketplace. Examples • Ajob4scientists.com - www.ajob4scientists.com/ • IT Careers Web Magazine for Indian Professionals - www.winjobs.com/• scijobs.org - www.scijobs.org/



FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

• A unique and interesting way of organizing information on a given topic • The site as the name suggests is structured in the form of questions as well as answers on a specific topic. • Fundamental concepts on an specific field of study get represented better through FAQ • Saves the time of the user in getting the right information since the purpose and scope of the site is quite explicit Examples • FAQ of fuzzy logic and fuzzy expert systems - www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/faqs/ai/fuzzy/part1/faq.html • Math FAQ - daisy.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/node1.html



Funding/ Grants Sources • Provide information about funding options available for scientists to pursue their research and training, from non-profit institutions and Government agencies • Is of immense help to students pursuing higher studies to obtain scholarships or to apply for financial aid in the institutions of their study Include a directory of funding programs with contact information Examples • Funding opportunities for training in biological and medical sciences - www.grantsnet.org/ • Grant Resources on the Web - www.ala.org/acrl/resjuly99.html • 101 Top College, University and Scholarship Pages (American Educational Guidance Center) - www.college-scholarships.com/100college.htm



Libraries/ Information Centres

Libraries having realised the importance of Internet to provide better services to users, have made their presence on the Web

• Information sources on Internet are becoming an essential ingredient in the collection development of the library • Library websites facilitate quick and complete access to the collection as well as services of the library • Act as Internet gateway by providing links to important sites of relevance to users Examples:• Academic Libraries worldwide - dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/Academic_Libraries/• Libweb's Libraries Servers via WWW - sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb



Library Catalogues (including union catalogues)

Most of the library catalogues are now web accessible • Useful for identifying books available in other libraries, selecting books for local acquisition, bibliographic verification as well as searching the holdings of periodicals of other libraries. • Holdings can be searchable by Author,Title, Subject or Keywords • Helps in building up resource sharing among the libraries • Access is free, may require 'guest' login, and mode of access are through telnet, Gopher, catalogue of very large libraries are web accessible Examples • Hytelnet - sundog.usask.ca/ • Library of Congress (LOCIS) - lcweb.loc.gov• webCATS: Web accessible Library Catalogues - www.lights.com/webcats/



Maps• A virtual atlas includes maps of the world as well as images of planetary objects • Allows for search, display or downloading images • Useful to scientists working in remote sensing, geological as well as space applications Examples

• Microsoft's Terraserver : Presenting the earth in a mosaic of photographic imagery - terraserver.microsoft.com • Planetary Image Atlas - www- pdsimage.jpl.nasa.gov/PDS/public/Atlas/Atlas.html



Museum and Archives

• Users can virtually visit to see the online collection of exhibits from their desktop • Saves a lot of time, making it possible for everyone to visit the museum, thus bridging the distance • Open to all irrespective of geographic location Examples

• Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) - Space Flight experiments - lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/ • The Virtual Museum of Computing (VMoC) - www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/other/museums/ computing.html#museums



Organisations/ Research Institutes/ Companies/ Societies

• Provide information about the scope and function of the organization • Also include details of products and services offered to the users and developmental activity related to the purpose of the institution • Publish newletters and magazines which are made web accessible to promote their services and products Examples • American Chemical Society - www.acs.org • Corporate Sites - www.p-c-net.net/~hawki/business.htm • FAO : www.fao.org • Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) - www.isro.org/ • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - www.ieee.org/• International Organizations - www.uia.org/website.htm • National Informatics Centre - www.nic.in



Patents

• Patents are the most authentic source of information on scientific and technological developments • A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office - the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling their invention • Include useful information on patent laws and filing procedures of various Patent Offices located worldwide • The database can be searched through patent numbers, keywords, author...and contain abstracts or full-text of the patents Examples • Direct patent Ltd - E-mail and Fax delivery of International patents - www.direct-patent.nl/ • Guide to Patents and Patent information - www.european- patent-office.org/epo/online/index.htm• US Patents Fulltext - www.uspto.gov/patft/



People/Experts/ Scientist Directories

• Include profiles of leading personalities/subject experts in specific fields • Provide details regarding their areas of expertise, affiliation, contact information, other research interests etc • Very useful to identify people working in the related areas to exchange information and know-how Examples

• AgNIC : Agricultural Network Information Center - www.agnic.org • Profiles in Science - Biomedical Stars profiled - www.profiles.nlm.nih.gov



Preprints• Preprints were the earliest among the information resources to be made accessible over the Internet • Provide a means for rapid and efficient preprint distribution among scientists • It allows investigators to submit and retrieve electronic copies of preprints via Internet. • Access for retrieval and listing of papers in the database is possible through www servers, anonymous ftp, or E-mail. Examples • AMS Preprint Server for Mathematics (AMPPS) - www.ams.org/preprints/ • Chemical Physics Preprint Database - www.chem.brown.edu/chem-ph.html • The European Singularities Network : Preprints Archive - www.mi.aau.dk/~esn/



Product Catalogues • A catalogue listing products alongwith the complete specifications of the same and is searchable • Helpful for corporates in identifying the recent products available in the market in order to purchase them • Reviews of the product from users are also included Examples

• DesignInfo.com - www.DesignInfo.com/ • System Optimization Information - www.sysopt.com/



Reference Sources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies, abbreviations, thesauri, handbooks)

• Many of the printed reference tools are now web accessible, free of cost • Very handy in getting quick information on any topic covered in the reference sources • Collection of references can be easily searchable and browsable Examples

• Address Directory For The Politicians Of The World - www.trytel.com/~aberdeen/• Britannica Online - www.britannica.com • Encyberpedia - Encyclopedia on the Net -www.encyberpedia.com/eindex.htm• NCSI Reference Desk: Dictionaries, Encyclopedia..-

www.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ncsi/internet/type/refrence.html • OneLook Dictionaries: The Fastest Finder - www.onelook.com • The Basics of Design Engineering - www.penton.com/md/bde/index.html• Universal Currency Converter - www.xe.net/currency/



Research Projects (current)• Include a list of research projects currently underway in specified field with a brief description of the projects including details of the investigators and place of investigation Examples

• Knowledge Discovery in Databases: Projects - orgwis.gmd.de/explora/pages.html • Science experiments in Physics, Mathematics, Nonlinear Sciences, and Computer Science - xxx.lanl.gov/ • Signal Processing Information Base (SPIB) - spib.rice.edu:80/spib.html • Social Science Research Resources - socsci.colorado.edu/POLSCI/RES/research.html



Science News/ Research Communications

• Top stories in Science and other fields are now on Internet • Users can set up profiles on the topic of interest in which they will be alerted by e-mail • Archived news can also be searchable • Printed dailies are also on the net Examples • Scoop! Personalised News Service - www.scoopdirect.com • The Ultimate News Links Page - pppp.net/links/news/



Scientific Data Sets (numeric, property, structural databases)

• These databases contain factual data like numeric, property and structural information on the topic indexed • The data collections are critically assessed by individual experts or group of experts, hence are an authentic source of information for researchers Examples

• Aladdin Database Server - www-amdis.iaea.org/ • Data Analysis in the Social Sciences - uts.cc.utexas.edu/~fackler/data.html • LIGAND Chemical Database for Enzyme Reactions - www.genome.ad.jp/dbget/ligand.html • The Nuclear Explosions Database -

www.agso.gov.au/information/structure/isd/database/nukexp_query.html



Specialised Search Engines

•These pages have their own specialised search engine to search their unique collection, as well as related resources on the Web •Saves user's time considerably since the searching is faster, unlike the major search engine Examples

• Electronics Research and Development -www.dur.ac.uk/~des0sj/elec_res.html• Engineering E-Journal Search Engine (EESE) - www.eevl.ac.uk/eese/

• Netpart - Company Site locator - www.netpart.com/resource/search.html• Social Work Search - www.socialworksearch.com • World Trade Locator - www.intl-tradenet.com/locator.htm• WWWomen Search Directory - www.wwwomen.com/



Software • A software library directory listing software related to browsers, commercial demos, development tools, graphics and multimedia, various utilities and tools etc. • Most of the softwares are free, few can be downloadable and used during free trial period • A very useful site for programmers, system managers and engineers Examples • Flight simulator - wings.ark.com/ • zdnet - www.zdnet.com/zdi/software • shareware.com - www.shareware.com • Chemistry Software Exchange - nhse.npac.syr.edu:8015/rib/repositories/csir/catalog/index.html



Standards • Standards from various international organizations like ANSI, ISO,IEEE, NIST are on Internet • A brief description of the standard with abstracts are listed • Some of them are accessible free, some require subscription or pay-per- transaction basis • Also provide information on national, regional and international standardization activities and services • Very useful site for manufacturers, research organizations and government bodies Examples • British Standards Institution (BSI) - www.bsi.org.uk/ • EI Web Standards - www.ei.org/ • International Standards -scilib.ucsd.edu/subjectdir/standards.html• World Standards Services Network - www.wssn.net/WSSN/index.html



Technical Reports

• Technical reports include serious research work which are made available only from the departments/laboratories of research institutions are now being accessible over the Web • Important source of reporting information relating to scientific and technical advancement, generally do not get published in journals or conference proceedings Examples

• NCSTRL--Networked Computer Science Technical Reports Library - www.ncstrl.org/



Virtual libraries/Subject gateways • Very comprehensive source providing pointers to Internet resources in all subjects - indeed a subject gateway • Internet resources classified under different resource types are listed under different subject categories and are browsable • A best place to start for identifying resources Examples Argus Clearing House - www.clearinghouse.net/ • BUBL LINK - bubl.ac.uk/link/index.html • Business & Technology - www.brint.com/Business.htm • EINet Galaxy - galaxy.einet.net/ • Business Information and Resources - www.acm.uiuc.edu/sigbiz/business.html • International Business Resources on the WWW -ciber.bus.msu.edu/busres.htm • Social Science Information Gateway - www.sosig.ac.uk/ • World Business Network - www.wbn.org/ • WWW Virtual Library - www.vlib.org/ • Yahoo - www.yahoo.com/



Meta Sources in specific areas • AGRICOLA Web Gateway--NAL - www.nal.usda.gov/ag98/• Artificial Intelligence Subject Index - ai.iit.nrc.ca/subjects/ai_subjects.html • Chemdex - www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/chemdex/ • Chemistry Resources - www.inform.umd.edu/UMS+State/UMD- Projects/MCTP/Technology/Chemistry.html • Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library - www.eevl.ac.uk • FAO Library's - www.fao.org/library/bookmk2.htm • Information Retrieval in Chemistry-WWW Server - macedonia.nrcps.ariadne-t.gr • Multimedia Heaven - www.webmarket.ch/mmheaven/tools/ • Ndb Biomolecular Research - www.links2go.com/link/http:/www.embl-ebi.ac.uk/• NOVAGate : Nordic Gateway to Information in Forestry, Veterinary, and Agricultural Sciences - novagate.nova-university.org/ • Telecom - china.si.umich.edu/telecom/telecom-info.html



Keeping up-to-date with the latest Internet resources

BUBL LINK Updates - bubl.ac.uk/link/updates/current.htmlEbig - www.ebig.com/ EEVL - www.eevl.ac.uk/ Freepint - www.freepint.co.uk/ Infomine - lib-www.ucr.edu/search/ucr_pslsearch.html Internet magazine - www.emap.com/internet/ Internet resources newsletter - www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html Produced monthly by Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

Japan's Nikkei Net - satellite.nikkei.co.jp/enews/BB/hitlist/index.html Keeping Current with the Internet - sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/newsites.html Netsurfer Digest - www.netsurf.com/nsd/



Keeping up-to-date with the latest Internet resources

• Refdesk - www.refdesk.com • Scicentral - www.scicentral.com • Scout report - Business and Economics, Science & Engg and Social Sciences scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/• Subject-wise Internet Resource Guides:Clearing House - www.clearinghouse.net/ • The Science Net Links - www.sciencenetlinks.com/science/rev_search.shtml• TIPTOP Physics - physicsweb.org/TIPTOP/ • Webmagazine online - www.webmagazine.com/ • What's new on Yahoo - www.yahoo.com/new/

communication skills dr. maisara mohyeldin gasim chapter 3 collection of relevant data and technical...

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