DOCUMENT RESUME ED 060 875 LI 003 541 AUTHOR Mikhailov, A. I.; Giljarevskij, TITLE An Introductory Course on Informatics/Documentation- INSTITUTION international Federation for Documentation, The Hague (Netherlands). REPORT NO FID-481-1971 PUB DATE 71 NOTE 201p.;(100 References), revised and enlarged edition AVAILABLE FROMInternational Federation for Documentation, 7 Hofweg, The Hague, Netherlands ($11.90) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Courses; Developing Nations; *Documentation; Gui es; *Information Science; *Information Scientists; *Information Seeking; *International Programs IDENTIFIERs *Scientific and Technical Information ABSTRACT The efficiency of scientific information activities depends on the availability of highly skilled and experienced personnel and on the familiarity of all scientists and engineers with the essentials of information science. In 1963, the International Federation for Documentation (FID) appealed to its member countries to promote the establishment of documentation and scientific information chairs at universities and other institutions of higher learning. Such a chair was set up at the Lomonosov University of Moscow in academic year 1963/64. One of its purposes is to teach the students basic methods of scientific information work and to make them acquainted with the major tools used in this work. This Guide has been written on the basis of that course. The Guide contains: the text of the lectures, questions for self-checking, tests or examinations, lists of references suggested for further study, curriculum and syllabus of the lectures and practical lessons. The Guide is intended primarily for students in countries still lacking any regular instruction in the discipline, and the initial training of information officers in developing countries. (Author/NH) "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY- RIGHTED MATERIAL BY MiCRQPICHE ONLY HE4SEE GRANTED SY ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING /UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE US OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIOE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PER- MISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE ON INFORMATICS/DOCUMENTATION by A. I. Mikhailov and R. S. Giljarevskij Revised and enlarged edition rm4 qtM 1-fD INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR DOCUMENTATION 7 Hofweg, The Hague, Netherlands FID 481, 1971 :(: )11 1.4 PREFACE The scientific and technical revolution now under way is associated with a rapid growth of scientific information. The increasing nuMber of scientific and other publicatiOns is the hest noticeable featureof the phenemenon which is.frequently described as "information eXplosion". Scientists andengineers naturally seek to obtain.with minimum of effort as much information as possible in a forM cenvenient fdr uSe..Inreaponse to this social need, a special kind of activity called scientific infor- mation, or documentation has emerged. Most conntrieshave created ramified networks of information centres or documentation, Services whichregularly provide the specialists with necessary information. It is a specific feature of information activities thatan overwhel . ming majority of specialists in science and technology takepart in them. They record the results or their.research and development work inpapers, bOoks, reports, projects, invention specifications, which are later used by other scientists and engineers as initial data for furtherresearch and development endeavours. There is a special category of scientific specia- lists - information officers whose task is to regulate the flow of these documents and to mould the totality of scientific facts and data into forms convenient for use. The efficiency of scientific informationac- tivities depends on the one hand on the: availability of highlyskilled and experienced personnel and on the other hand on the familiarityof all scientists and engineers With the essentials of information science and on their ability to find and use scientific information accumulated through the ages by mankind's exploring endeavour. In many countrieS training is provided for-information officers and users through regular college ana university courses. In 1963, the Inter- national Federation for Dooumentation (FID) appealed to all itsmember countries to promote the establishment of documentationand scientific information chairs at universities and other institutions of higherlear- ning. Such a ehair of scientific information vas setup at the Lononosov University of Moscow in the academic year 1963/64,one of ita purposes being to teach the students basic methods of scientificinformation 'work and to make them acqainted with the major tools used in thiswork. A 2/47 hour optional course in information science is Offered to thestudents in the natural science faculties; this Guide has been -writtenon the basi of that course. The Guide contains material ror an introductory course ininrorma- tics/doeuMentation: the text of the lectures, questionsfor self-checking, tests or eXaminations, lists of references suggested fOr further study, cUrriculum and syllabus of the lectures and practical lessons.The Guide ie intended primarily for the students of institutions of higher learning in the countries still lacking any regular instruction inthe discipline; it can also be used for the initial training of information officersin developing countries. The Guide was written under a Unesco contract to FID. The authors wish to acknowledge their deep gratitude to the FID Secretariatand the staff of the Unesco Department of Documentation, Libraries and Archives for valuable advice and assistance rendered during the preparation ofthe manuscript. The principal ideas expressed in the Guide havebeen formulated 4 informatics ("Osnovy by the authors in a monograph onthe fundamentals of Informatiki", Moscow, Nauka Publishers,1968, T66 pp.) jointly with A.I. Chernyi to whom they offer sincere thanksfor the university lecture him material placed at their disposal andthe helpfUl ideas suggested by in discussing those lectures. Thanks arealso due to E. Azgaldov and K. Erastov who translated this workinto English. The authors hope that theirGuide will prove useful both to the stu- their dents being introduced intoscientific infe'mation activities and to teachers, and they would be gratefulfor an, comments or suggestions. 4 CONTENTS Page Preface 3 7 List of Figures of. 1. Scientific Information Activities - Organic Part Scientific Work 9 Scientific Literature - Source and Means ofDisse- 2. 22 mination of Knowledge Information and Bibliographic Publications - Sourcesof 3. 42 Data on Literature 4. Information Agencies and Special Libraries -Auxiliary Institutions of Science 63 77 5. Essentials of Information Retrieval 86 6. Conventional Information Retrieval Systems 102 rr Descriptor Information Retrieval Systems 117 8. Technical Facilities of Information Retrieval 130 9. Reproduction of Scientific Documents 143 10. Use of Scientific /nformation Syllabus and Programme 155 for the Introductory Course onInformatics/Documentation 159 Figures 1 to 40 199 Alphabetical subject index 7 LIST OF FIGURES See page 1. Growth of world science periodicals 11 2. Tasks and stages of scientific-information activities 3. TYpes of scientific documents and publications 23 4. Citation of science documents in later publications 36,59 5. Distribution of new references to earlier publications in a hypothetical field 37,38 6. Seatter of citations in an isolated special literature 38 7. Ralf-life of scientific literature 39 8. Age distribution of papers cited in publications of 1965 39 9. Two different abstracts of the same paperas abstracted in the VINITI Abstract Journal "Chemistry" andthe "Chemical Abstracts" 10. Arrangement of entries for the same books ina classified, alphabetical subject and author order 51 11. Basic types of bibliography. 52 12. Layout of entry in a permuted-titIe index (KWIC Index) 57 13. Portion of a page in the Science Citation Index 58 14. Channels of dissemination of scientific informationfrom the generators to the users 6 3 15. DistributiOn of scientificand technical informatiOn flows among the information agencies in the USSR 67 16. Diagram of information retrieval 77,105 17. Dependence of recall on precision 81 18. General block-diagraM Of an information retrievalsys em 81 19. Arrangement of bibliographical particularson the title-page and in the entry 87 20. Scheme of rules for description of the basic types of publications 89 21. Specimen index entries 89 22. Graph of an hierarchical classification and the relation- ship between its divisions 23. Main divisionsin the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) 94 24. Main divisions(continued), and synopsis of auxiliaries in the UDC 94 25. Deciphering ofa VDC number 95 See page 26. A hypothetical classificaton of objects according to attributes which do not form natural hierarchy 103 27. Graphical representation of relations between sets 105 28.. Working principle of the Uniterm System 109 29. Specimen layout of a subject class in a thesaurus 112 30. ExaMples of codes for edge-punched cards 121 31. The working principle of body-punched and superimposable cards 121,122 32. Aperture cards 123 33. Microfiches (specimens) 124 34. Schematic operation and main unita of Filmorex system 125 35. Schematics of the basic copying processes 132, 134 36. Relative advantages and disadvantages Of the different copying processes 135,141 37. Schematics of the different printing methods 136 38. Block-diagrams of the different,printing Machine types 136 39. Schematics of operation of the hectograph,