11877828

Highlights of Library Automation related documents in the INSPEC Arvind Singh Parmar; Sanghmitra A. Kumar; Thushara Prakash; and V. L. Kalyane Abstracts The paper has attempted to analyse the Library Automation related records in the INSPEC (1969 to July 2004). The growth of Library Automation related literature, country of input, scattering of literature in different publication types, core journals publishing Library Automation related publications, language-wise proportion of the literature, content analysis through keywords/descriptors, availability of URLs (Universal Resource Locator) for full text articles as alternative locations were the main focus of the study. After the year 1984, the literature grows approximately linearly with a growth rate of about 600 items per year. The USA is the predominant publishing country of Library Automation related literature. Journals are the most preferred publication media, followed by Conference/Proceedings-Papers, BookChapters, and Reports publications. Most productive journals are: Library Hi Tech, followed by Computers in Libraries, VINE, Information Technology and Libraries, and Program. English articles constitute 91.83% of the total literature. That means the non-English articles constitute only 8.17%. The keyword analysis indicates that the key areas of Library Automation were cataloguing; academic-libraries; informationretrieval; Internet; and information-services. The most occurred URL was http://www.dlib.org/ as alternative locations in the availability notes of Library Automation related records. Keywords: Bibliographic Databases; Core Journals; Country-wise Publication Outputs; INSPEC; Keyword Frequencies; Library Automation; Literature Growth; Publication Languages; Publication Mapping; Publication Productivity; Publication Types; Quantitative Assessment 1 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by E-LISIntroduction The library environment is currently undergoing rapid and dynamic changes. There was an increasing demand for processing of data and retrieval of information in the quickest possible time. The application of information systems and services is perhaps the only way to cope with the information needs with speed and relative accuracy and reliability. Computer applications in libraries can in fact be categorised mainly into three types: For supporting clerical functions associated with technical processing and circulation work (Library automation); For information storage, retrieval and dissemination; For supporting "Management Information Services" for librarians, especially analysing library statistics. The most commonly known house-keeping operations are: acquisition control, serials control, cataloguing and circulation control, web cataloguing, and metadata linking [INSDOC 2000]. Library Automation is the key element for information industry. Research and development of Library Automation has grown very rapidly in recent decades and become increasingly important for the economic growth of librarianship of a developing or developed country. As a reflection, Library Automation literature has also grown rapidly, though diversified as well. CD-ROM and online databases were used as source for R & D mapping [Kalyane and Kadam 1998; Tsay et al. 2000; Parmar 2004]. INSPEC, produced by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK, is one of the largest-established and best-known bibliographic database for engineering information. INSPEC database covers physics, electronics, electrical engineering, computer sciences, and library and information technology. It is available both online and on CD-ROM. INSPEC database has coverage of more than 40,000 records on library and information science. In practice, any given historical account must be limited by its choice of coverage, technique of analysis and objectives. Effective use of already available knowledge is as valuable as creation of new knowledge [Kalyane et. al. 2003, Kalyane et. al. 2004]. Hence, present effort is to highlight it. The work has focused the literature available in the INSPEC database on Library automation. The objectives of the work were: • to depict the growth of literature; 2• to analyse the literature based on country of input; • • • • • to find the scattering of literature based on publication types; to identify core journals publishing Library Automation related publications; to present language-wise proportion of the literature; to analyse the contents of the papers through keywords/descriptors; and to quantify the availability of URLs (Universal Resource Locator) for full text articles History of Library Automation The prospects for development after 1960 were foreseen [Pekelis 1984] as follows (The Year-Forecasting): 1970 - Translating machines; 2000 - Artificial intelligence, Global library; 2020 - Logical languages; 2030 - Robots, Contacts with extraterrestrials; 2050 - Memory playback; 2060 - Mechanical educator; 2080 - Machine intelligence exceed man’s; and 2090 - World brain. 1950: The Library of Congress (LC) used the unit record machines for the production of catalogues for the first time in 1950. Since then many libraries in USA have used unit record machines for automating several of their activities. Use of punched cards, data processing equipment (like unit record machines e.g., tabulators, collators, sorters, etc.) and early computers were prevalent that period. 1960: This period witnessed the use of general-purpose digital computers for the purpose of automating some of the library functions (such as circulation control, acquisitions, serial control, and cataloguing) and for the design and development of information retrieval systems. Feasibility studies on on-line interactive systems and some advanced micro-image searching systems were on during the late 1960s. 1970: Design of on-line systems and conversion of batch systems to the on-line mode were developed. 1980: Library Automation entered into another era in the 1980s with the introduction of microprocessors for use in library activities. Intensive use of on-line systems and use of mini/micro computers, especially the microprocessors were common. After 1990: Digital Library can handle multimedia data, which can present information more effectively than print media and can be accessed easily and 3understood even by those who are illiterate. The following points illustrate the potential differences between traditional and digital libraries [Borgman 1999; Kilker and Gay 1998): o Traditional libraries are based upon centralised control and relatively few access locations; digital libraries can be distributed and ubiquitous; o Traditional libraries support one-way, loosely coupled (slow) interaction; digital libraries support two-way communication with tight fast interaction; o Traditional libraries are based upon a model of one-way search: a consumer looking for an object; digital libraries support symmetric search: consumer looking for an object and the producer of the object looking for a consumer; o In traditional libraries structured text queries (and some browsing) are used to aid intellectual access; in digital libraries complex interactions of query, navigation/ browsing, and social filtering can be used; and o Only a librarian may add to the collection of conventional library, because of the discipline essential to create a quality catalogue. In a digital library, cataloguing discipline and search restrictions to authorized data can be automatically enforced. Gaur analyzed the present status of digitisation of Indian Management Libraries through a survey. The issues such as library automation, development of digital libraries, he found that 45% of libraries have not yet started automation; out of 55% of libraries that have started library automation, only 16% have been fully computerised. Thus, in Indian libraries the digital gap is widening day-by-day. Now is the time when management libraries must make computerisation their number one priority [Gaur 2003]. World Wide Web open archive initiative first started by Paul Ginsparg, a physicist at http://xxx.lanl.gov/ the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), developed the first Eprint archive in August 1991. Many subject disciplines such as astronomy, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics have taken the lead in eprint distribution. Perhaps because scientists and researchers in these fields possessed the first high-level computers, e-print servers became available and then prevalent in these disciplines. Fields in the humanities and social sciences have recently begun following the trend, but still lag significantly behind in terms of server repositories and papers [Prakasan et al 2003]. 4Survey of the status of E-LIS, live archives in the field of Library and Information Science [Kumar and Kalyane 2004] highlights include: Conference papers (34%); highest approval, June 2004 (28%); published archives (76%); not refereed (52%); not in public domain (60%); highest self-archiving-author (De Robbio, Antonella). The number of EPrints having single JITA domain specifications were: Theoretical and general aspects of libraries and information (27); Information use and sociology of information (80); Users, literacy and reading (13); Libraries as physical collections (30); Publishing and legal issues (57); Management (13); Industry, profession and education (36); Information sources, supports, channels (113); Information treatment for information services, Information functions and techniques (101); Technical services libraries, archives and museums (25); Housing technologies (1); Information technology and library technology (92); and Inter-domainary (395) i.e. having specifications of two or more than two JITA classes. Materials and Methods Library Automation literature scattered in the INSPEC bibliographic database during 1969 to July 2004 is explored. Normal subject keyword search is adopted to retrieve literature related to Library automation. The search resulted a total of 12,322 records related to Library automation. The search queries were as follows: INSPEC till July, 2004 #3 #1 or #2 (12322 records) #2 (librar* automat*) in TI (573 records) #1 (librar* automat*) in DE,ID,SU (12287 records) The phrase ‘Modern librametrics’ was used for the fist time in the context for statistical analysis of digital metadata [Kumar 2004]. That is simple statistical methods of digital metadata counting to evaluate and quantify the growth of a subject. The same techniques have been employed to analyse the bibliographic records in present study. Normal count procedure (Kalyane and Vidyasagar Rao 1995] is used throughout the analysis of data. 53. Results and Discussion 3.1. Growth of literature The most famous ‘Ideal Logistic Growth Model’ of literature in a field has been well discussed in early 1990s [Garg and Kari 1992], [Braun et al 2000], and [Garg and Padhi 2002]. Logistic growth assumes that the growth rate is proportional to the product of present size and future growth. The escalating growth after maturation implies that old topics of research are no longer relevant and new directions in research, new discoveries, and new opportunities keep growing. According to Gompertz, the logistic growth of any field of knowledge ideally takes an extended S-shape [Sharma et al 2002]. Figure 1 depicts year-wise and cumulative number of R&D publications related to Library Automation since year 1969. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 1969 1971 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 Year Number of Publications 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000 12000 Number of publications Cumulative No. of publications Cumulative No. of Publications Figure 1: Library Automation related R&D publications as per INSPEC (1969-July 2004) 63.2 Country-wise Input There are a total of 43 countries, which have contributed to the input of Library Automation literature to the INSPEC database. Country-wise input of publications is given in Table 1. USA is at the top position with 6,677 publications followed by UK (2,913), Germany (545), The Netherlands (383), Australia (217), and India (201). The total literature output of these top 6 countries on Library Automation related research amounted to about 88.75 per cent. 3.3 Types of Publication Media As per INSPEC, out of the 12,322 publications, 9,973 (80.9%) are scattered in Journal-papers followed by 2,237 (18.15%) in Conference/Proceedings-Papers, 72 (0.58%) in Book-Chapters, 25 (0.20%) in Books, and 15 (0.12%) in Technical Reports. Comparison of growth in literature of Library Automation related research in terms of their publication media are presented in Figure 2. The proportion of NonConventional Literature (NCL), which includes technical reports; conference/symposia/seminar papers etc., is 19 %. Table 1: Input-wise list of countries contributing to the Library Automation related literature as per INSPEC (1969-July 2004) Rank Country Number of Publications Rank Country Number of Publications 1 USA 6677 20 Malaysia 12 2 UK 2913 20 Poland 12 3 Germany 545 21 Ireland 11 4 The Netherlands 383 22 Brazil 9 5 Australia 217 23 Costa Rica 8 6 India 201 24 Czech Republic 6 7 Hungary 167 24 Norway 6 8 Canada 146 24 Romania 6 9 Japan 141 25 Russia 5 9 West Germany 141 25 Slovakia 5 10 Denmark 128 25 Yugoslavia 5 10 Sweden 128 26 Switzerland 4 11 Czechoslovakia 87 27 Croatia 3 12 France 82 27 Nigeria 3 13 South Africa 43 27 Slovenia 3 14 USSR 42 27 South Korea 3 15 Spain 39 28 Austria 2 16 China 36 28 Bulgaria 2 17 Israel 30 28 Singapore 2 18 East Germany 23 29 Belgium 1 18 Italy 23 29 Saudi Arabia 1 19 Cuba 21 Total 12322 7Reports Books BookChapters Conference/Pr oceedingsPapers JournalPapers 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 Number of publications Figure 2: Publication media–wise number of publications related to Library Automation as per INSPEC (1969-July 2004) 3.4 Highly contributing journals The total number of 9,973 journal articles related to Library Automation are scattered in 536 distinct journals. The most contributed five journals are Library Hi Tech contributed 478 (4.79%) articles followed by Computers in Libraries with 430 (4.31%) articles, VINE with 381 (3.82%) articles, Information Technology and Libraries with 348 (3.49%) articles, and Program with 297 (2.98%) articles. Productivity of other journals in descending order of number of publications: Electronic Library (295); Library Software Review (285); Cataloging & Classification Quarterly (227); Journal of Library Administration (224); Library Trends (188); Technical Services Quarterly (184); Reference Librarian (178); Tudomanyos es Muszaki Tajekoztatas (163); Bulletin of the Medical Library Association (160); Library Resources & Technical Services (152); Medical Reference Services Quarterly (134); IATUL Proceedings, New Series (132); INSPEL. International Journal of Special Libraries (128); Online (126); ABI Technik (118); 8OCLC Micro (115); LASIE (109); OCLC Systems & Services (104); Resource Sharing and Information Networks (103); Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory (100); Small Computers in Libraries (99); Microcomputers for Information Management (94); Special Libraries (92); Internet Reference Services Quarterly (85); Acquisitions Librarian (84); Science & Technology Libraries (76); D Lib Magazine (72); Tidskrift for Dokumentation (68); Interlending & Document Supply (67); Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply (65); Library Micromation News (64); Law Librarian (61); Information Development (61); Journal of the American Society for Information Science (60); Information Services & Use (60); Community & Junior College Libraries (56); ASLIB Proceedings (56); Canadian Library Journal (55); Serials Librarian (54); Database (53); CD ROM Professional (51); Library Science with a Slant to Documentation (47); Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (47); Library Computing (46); College & Undergraduate Libraries (46); Technicka Knihovna (44); Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services (43); Journal of Internet Cataloging (42); New Review of Information Networking (40); Journal of Interlibrary Loan & Information Supply (40); Alexandria (40); Journal of Information Processing and Management (38); Joho Kanri (36); Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship (36); Documentaliste Sciences de l'Information (36); South African Journal of Library and Information Science (35); Reference & User Services Quarterly (35); Legal Reference Services Quarterly (35); IATUL Quarterly (35); Documentation et Bibliotheques (35); RQ (34); Information Outlook (34); IASLIC Bulletin (34); Slavic & East European Information Resources (32); CD Rom Librarian (32); Quarterly Bulletin of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists (31); Laserdisk Professional (31); Australian Library Review (31); Journal of Documentation (30); Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science (30); Journal of Academic Librarianship (29); Journal of Information Science (28); Journal of Hospital Librarianship (28); DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology (28); Kniznice a Vedecke Informacie (27); Journal of Agricultural & Food Information (27); Education for Information (27); Revista Espanola de Documentacion Cientifica (25); Library Review (25); Journal of the China Society for Scientific and Technical Information (25); Australian and New Zealand Journal of Serials Librarianship (25); Ariadne (25); Microform & Imaging Review (24); Law Library Journal (24); Information Processing & Management (24); Online Information Review (23); 9Information & Librarianship (23); SRELS Journal of Information Management (22); Serials (22); Public Library Journal (22); Microform Review (22); Learned Publishing (22); Journal of the Medical Library Association (22); Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (22); International Information, Communication and Education (22); SIGOIS Bulletin (21); Journal of Information Science, Principles & Practice (21); Journal of Government Information (20); Informatik (20); Government Information Quarterly (20); EDUCOM Review (20); Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian (20); Nachrichten fur Dokumentation (19); Government Publications Review (19); First Monday (19); Aslib Proceedings New Information Perspectives (19); Library and Information Science (18); LASIE Bulletin of LASIE Australia Company Limited (18); Libri (17); Library & Information Science Research (17); Journal of Library Automation (17); Communications of the ACM (17); Reference Services Review (16); Business Information Review (16); New Review of Information and Library Research (15); Media and Methods (15); Information Bulletin of the Library Automated Systems Information Exchange (15); IATUL Proceedings (15); Canadian Journal of Information Science (14); Proceedings of the SPIE The International Society for Optical Engineering (13); NFD Information Wissenschaft und Praxis (13); Nauchno Tekhnicheskaya Informatsiya, Seriya 1 (13); Library Technology (13); Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy (13); International Forum on Information and Documentation (13); Indicizzazione (13); Christian Librarian (13); Archives and Museum Informatics (13); Library Management (12); Library Hi Tech News (12); Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship (12); Journal of Access Services (12); Campus Wide Information Systems (12); Public Services Quarterly (11); Online Review (11); Online & CD ROM Review (11); New Library World (11); Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science (11); LIBER Quarterly (11); IFLA Journal (11); Herald of Library Science (11); Computer (11); Actualidades de la Informacion Cientifica y Tecnica (11); Searcher (10); Quarterly Bulletin of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (10); PC Consultant (10); Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (10); Journal of Information Networking (10); Indexer (10); IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (10); El Profesional de la Informacion (10); EContent (10); Computer Networks and ISDN Systems (10); Ciencias de la Informacion (10); Optical Information Systems (9); Journal of Librarianship (9); Information Retrieval & Library Automation (9); 10