Information Services and Use

Information metering can be defined as a process by which data access is measured and recorded in a usage file. Metering software, used to measure customer usage of an electronic file, provides valuable information on exactly what information customers are using. This capability has implications for electronic publishers and aggregators as well as for users of electronic information. Issues of privacy are also important to consider.

Ever since the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1992, the number of Internet users has increased annually at a phenomenal rate. The primary reason for this growth can be attributed to the ease-of-use of the WWW's navigational tool, the graphical Web browser. The Web browser allows ‘point-and-click’ navigation of the Internet using hypertext and graphical links enabling the user to retrieve information quickly and easily. It has now been realised that this tool, along with other Internet technologies such as electronic mail, may readily be employed within an organisation's internal Local Area Network or Wide Area Network to radically improve corporate communication processes and information flow. This information system utilising Area Networks used in conjunction with Internet technologies has become known as an Intranet. This paper aims to identify those areas of information provision which stand to benefit most from the use of Internet technologies as an internal information system and the impact it is set to have on the Information Professional.

This presentation includes a brief review of the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts' electronic publishing program with an emphasis on how the Internet means of distribution forms the basis for an overaIl business strategy.

For libraries, the transition from paper to electronic journals raises a number of critical questions, chief among them is the issue of electronic archives. Frequently overlooked by those outside the library community is the fundamental role the library plays as information repository and preservationist. The fact that increasingly more information is moving from paper to electronic form, and is correspondingly more accessible, does not obviate the need for a permanent record and ongoing availability. While there are a great many specific issues involved in a comprehensive discussion of who should provide electronic journal archives and how they are constructed, most fall under one of four broad topic areas – technical proficiency, permanence, location and trusteeship. This paper evaluates these areas and attempts to frame the how, where and who questions that both libraries and providers of e-journal services must ponder in the establishment of electronic journal archives.

This paper is an update of a presentation given by Rick Noble on 28 February, 1996 at the National Federation of Abstracters and Indexers (NFAIS) Annual Conference. It describes three major initiatives that OCLC has undertaken during the past two years to make information on the Internet more accessible to its members and users. These are: (1) InterCat, an experimental effort to catalog Internet resources using OCLC's traditional cooperative model, (2) NetFirst, a commercial product that is built and marketed like a traditional abstract and index (A&I) database and (3) PURLs, or Persistent Uniform Resource Locators.

More information is available on OCLC and its services at http://www.oele.org.

BIDS has now been running for six years. It was launched in February 1991 and was the first service of its kind anywhere, providing large scale networked access to ISI's bibliographic databases for the benefit of the whole UK higher education community (students, research workers, lecturers). The service is heavily used and very popular. The ISI databases alone are currently servicing nearly 10,000 sessions a day at peak times. Current peak totals for all databases are nearly 12,000 sessions a day.

Virtually every major higher education institution in the UK now subscribes to one or more BIDS services and it is reckoned that about 1% of all UK academics and researchers access BIDS each day. Non-UK sites also subscribe to some databases with users, for example, in Norway and Sweden.

In the Autumn of 1996 an entirely new BIDS service was launched. This service, which complements and builds on the bibliographic data services, is known as JournalsOnline. It provides end-users with network access to the full text of articles that have been published in recognised scholarly journals. Many of these journals are available free at the point of use to any academic anywhere in the UK Higher Education sector through a nationally negotiated site licence arrangement.

The paper discusses regional and international scenarios in information technology, particularly the Internet and attempts to identify some key issues in the development and use of the Net. The scope as well as the participatory interactive culture, complexity of information gathering and growing sophistication inherent in the Internet are underlined. Problems that may impede Internet connectivity in Nigeria are highlighted while the need for librarians and information specialists to embrace prevailing information technology is underscored.

The paper finally advocates for a cautious approach to Internet connectivity since a developing nation like Nigeria can ill afford to allow herself sidetracked, recolonized or to remain invisible and anonymous in the cyberspace.