STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications
Participant’s Handout
Accessing Information in Developing Countries Workshop
The Internet for teaching, learning and research
This handout aims to outline some of the ways that academics can use the Internet to support their
work. One of the first things people need to do to start using the Internet effectively is to get an
understanding of the types of resources they can actually find there and to consider how these might
be used to support their work. Academics might consider using the Internet to support the following
activities:
1. Conducting a Literature Search
2. Maintaining Current Awareness
3. Making Professional Contacts
4. Professional Development
5. Teaching and Learning
6. Finding Data
7. Finding Software
8. Information Seeking
1.1
Conducting a Literature Search
When conducting a literature search users can now consider using the Internet as a valuable
compliment to traditional library resources. A number of resources are available:
Information Gateways
Information gateways are online catalogues of Internet resources which enable you to find high quality
resources on the Internet that are relevant to academic work. Each resource has been hand-picked
by a librarian or subject specialist for its relevance to the academic community.
Resource Discovery Network
http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
“The RDN is a collaboration of over 70 educational and research organisations. In contrast to search
engines, the RDN gathers resources which are carefully selected, indexed and described by specialists
in our partner institutions. You can be confident that your search results and browsing will connect you
to Web sites relevant to learning, teaching and research. RDN is a cooperative network consisting of a
central organisation, the Resource Discovery Network Centre (RDNC) and a number of independent
service providers called hubs covering a range of subject areas. RDN is currently freely accessible to all
via the Internet.”
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STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
PINAKES
http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html
“"In ancient times, the Library of Alexandria was seen as a universal store of human knowledge. As the
Library grew in size, however, it became increasingly difficult to locate relevant material. The poet
Callimachus solved the problem by compiling a catalogue called The Pinakes. On a far smaller scale,
these Web pages hope to provide a similar function for Internet resources, by linking to the major
subject gateways.".
Bibliographic databases online
Many bibliographic databases can now be accessed over the Internet, enabling users to search for
relevant texts from any networked PC. The databases available range from large national databases,
for example covering all social science subjects, to smaller databases covering smaller collections
and focused on a particular subject. For example:
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
http://www.ericsp.org/
“The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a US network designed to provide ready
access to education literature. It is a program of the National Library of Education, U.S. Department of
Education. At the heart of ERIC is the largest database in the world - containing more than 950,000
records of journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, and
books. Each year aproximately 33,000 new records are added.” The ERIC database is available in many
formats at hundreds of locations and can be searched for free via the Internet.
BiblioSleep
http://www.websciences.org/bibliosleep/
is a database containing sleep and sleep-related citations and abstracts. It has been produced by the
Brain Information Service at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Asian Science Citation Index
http://www.pjbs.org/
“ASCI database originate from journals all around the world, and cover topics in every life
sciences discipline. If the information you need lies in the life sciences, ASCI should be part of
your information solution. Whether you study botany, pharmacology, biochemistry, or
evolutionary ecology, ASCI has the journal articles that your research depends on . Over
2,10,000 new citations each year” Also links to TOCs/abstracts for 10 Asian published
journals
CARINDEX
http://www.mainlib.uwi.tt/
“An index to the contents of some 70 West Indian journals, published within in the Caribbean region. It
also includes theses and papers presented at conferences. CARINDEX covers publications in the social
sciences and humanities from 1983 onwards, with priority being given to indexing materials of
immediate relevance to the teaching and research at the three campuses of the University of the West
Indies. It is prepared and maintained by the Library of the University of the West Indies (UWI). Full
bibliographical details are provided. Each record contains an abstract of content. The full text of items is
not available
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STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
ISAP Online
http://www.nlsa.ac.za/services_isaponline_about.html
The Index to South African Periodicals (ISAP) is a database containing abstracts and bibliographic
information about articles in more than 680 South African periodicals and journals. Topics range from
highly specialized and scientific to general popular articles and are specifically selected for their
research and use value. Subscribers pay an annual subscription. Non-subscribers may search, but
cannot see full bibliographic details. Full text may be ordered from the National Library of South Africa
Document Delivery Services.
Online collections of papers, articles, working papers and pre-prints
The Internet is increasingly offering collections of online papers and articles that can be searched
online and which retrieve full-text copies of the articles. One notable development is that some
academics are by-passing traditional publishers and publishing articles on the Internet themselves.
There is an increasing trend for publishing pre-prints and working papers on the Internet to encourage
the peer-review process.
WoPEc - Electronic papers in economics
http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/WoPEc.html
This is an international effort to collect together and make publicly available working papers in
economics from academics from all around the world. The database is continually expanding and
contains thousands of working papers from hundreds of series. (NB: WoPEc is part of a larger project
called NetEc which is an international academic project for networking interaction in economics.)
Electronic Journals and Tables of Contents
The future of academic journal publishing has been made uncertain by the emergence of the Internet. The number of journals
available in full text over the Internet — at a price — is ever growing; the Internet can also be used to view, usually free of
charge, the Tables of Contents and Abstracts of printed journals. Many publishers have created a Web site for each of their
print journals and these can be useful for the first stages of a literature search. For example:
Scholarly Articles Research Alerting
http://www.tandf.co.uk/sara/
SARA (Scholarly Articles Research Alerting) is a free email service designed to deliver tables of
contents of forthcoming journals to anyone who registers to receive them. The service covers journals
published by: Taylor & Francis, Carfax, Routledge, E&F Spon and Psychology Press. Once registered,
users receive regular emails of contents pages from the journals of their choice, with bibliographic
information to help them locate the full text articles. Users may select individual journals or subject
groupings. The service covers journals relevant to most of the social sciences.
A recently developed site aims to become a ‘global research gateway’. It provides electronic
marketing and distribution for publishers, with full text available on subscription or pay-per-view.
Ingenta
http://www.ingenta.com
Amongst other services, offers free searching of millions of academic and professional articles from
around 2,500 journals. Abstracts are accessed free of charge and there are links to full text services on
a pay per view basis. There is also a Medline service linking to full text articles. The site has over a
million visitors a month and is the most used academic web service in the UK, serving over 70% of UK
educational and research institutions.
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STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
Some academics have set up their own electronic journals, bypassing traditional publishers
completely. For example:
Psycoloquy
http://psycprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
This is a full text electronic journal sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA). It
resides on a server at Princeton University, USA and as well as publishing articles it publishes peer
commentary on the articles. All articles have been formally peer-reviewed.
Library Catalogues (OPACS)
Many library catalogues can now be searched remotely via the Internet – which can assist in tracing
down materials in a literature search.
Hytlenet
http://www.libdex.com/
This is a searchable catalogue of OPACs around the world, giving telnet addresses and guest logins.
1.2
Current Awareness
Many academics wish to keep up with new developments in their field by monitoring the latest
publications. They might want to include the latest Internet publications in this activity. There are a
number of ways they can do this – by using alerting services which email subscribers with regular
updates on new Internet sites, or by scanning “What’s New” sites on a regular basis.
Alerting Services
An example:
Scout Report for Social Sciences
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/index.html
This is a USA Internet awareness service for academics, students and librarians in the social sciences.
It is published on the WWW every other week and offers an annotated list of new Internet resources
which have been selected by librarians and content specialists working with the social sciences. Users
may subscribe to receive the report via email if they prefer.
What’s New Sites
An example:
What’s New on EUROPA
http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
Europa is a WWW-server offering information on the European Union. All the EU policies, official
documents and publications are published on this site. The What’s New page lists all the resources
recently added to the site. Users may consider bookmarking sites like this so that they can check them
regularly and maintain awareness of new publications as they appear.
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STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
1.3
Making Professional Contacts
The Internet is a communication medium as well as a source of information. There are a number of
ways that it can be used to help academics to make contact with professional colleagues.
Electronic Mailing Lists
There are a great many scholarly discussion groups available for academics – which enable one-tomany communication over email. Many of these lists have archives of all the messages sent to them
and these can often be searched by keyword. An example:
PHILOS-L
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html
This is the main english-language mailing list for academic philosophers. It has many members including
philosophy academics from around the World. Complete archives are found at: the above address.
People Directories
The Internet offers some online directories that list the contact details of professionals working in a
particular field. For example:
The Worldwide Email Directory of Anthropologists
http://wings.buffalo.edu/WEDA/
This includes the addresses of professional anthropologists and amateurs. The directory can be
searched by name, institution, address or research interests.
Organisational Home pages
Many organisations now create their own Web site, offering details of the people working there and
the work they conduct. Universities, governments, commercial and public sector organisations are all
adopting this approach and their Web sites are often very useful sources of information. For example:
College and University Home Pages - Alphabetical Listing
http://geowww.uibk.ac.at/univ/
A list of the homepages of universities and colleges worldwide. The list is arranged both alphabetically
and geographically. Maintained by Christina DeMello in the USA, the site is now mirrored in a number
of countries.
1.4
Conferences and Professional Development
The Internet can be an invaluable resource for professional development. It has the advantage of
providing very current information – and many social science organisations are increasingly using the
Internet as the main channel for publicising conferences and training events.
Professional Associations and Scholarly Societies
Many professional associations and scholarly societies now have their own Web sites. For example:
Copyright INASP – see: http://www.inasp.info/training/training-materials-copyright.html for more details.
STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
International Union of Psychological Science
http://www.iupsys.org/
The Internet site of the International Union of Psychological Science, which aims to develop the
exchange of ideas and scientific information between psychologists of different countries. The IUPsyS
organises International Congresses and meetings on a number of subjects and a calendar of these
events and full details of them are available on this site. There is also information about membership,
reports and guidelines.
1.5
Teaching and Learning Resources on the Internet
Academics interested in teaching and learning can increasingly find materials and resources to
support this on the Internet.
Computer Assisted Learning
The Internet is being used for Computer Assisted Learning, especially for the delivery of online
tutorials and for distance learning. Sometimes these materials are free for others to look at and use.
Some sites point to collections of computer assisted learning materials. An example from the UK:
Learning and Teaching Support Network
http://www.ltsn.ac.uk/
The LTSN is a major network of 24 subject centres based in higher education institutions throughout the
UK and a single Generic Centre. It aims to promote high quality learning and teaching through the
development and transfer of good practices in all subject disciplines, and to provide a 'one-stop shop' of
learning and teaching resources and information for the HE community.
Course plans and lecture notes
Some lecturers and teachers are making their course plans and lecture notes freely available over the
Internet for others to share. For example:
The World Lecture Hall
http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/
This site contains links to pages created by faculty staff worldwide who are using the Web to deliver
class materials The collection is managed by staff at the University of Texas (USA) , to allow academics
to share their resources. It has sections for the social science subjects.
Online tutorials
There are a growing number of online tutorials available on the Internet that allow distance learning.
For example:
The Mathematical Models of Human Memory: Tutorials
http://psy.uq.edu.au/CogPsych/Noetica/OpenForumIssue6/introduction.html
This is a set of seven online tutorials published in Noetica, the electronic journal of the Australasian
Cognitive Science Society. Written in HTML, they take the user through various mathematical memory
models step by step and offer tutorial questions at the end.
Online Texts and Textbooks
Digitisation projects are making printed text available in electronic form over the Internet. Some
authors are choosing to publish new texts on the Internet as well as or instead of in print.
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STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
For example:
Research Methods Knowledge Base
http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/index.htm
This is a Web-based research methods text book, authored and published by William Trochim of Cornell
University, USA. The book provides an excellent introductory course in research methods, allowing
students to work at their own pace and to add comments to the site.
Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/
Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic texts (etexts). Electronic versions
of many classic texts can be found from this site.
1.6
The African Digital Library
http://AfricaEducation.org/adl/
Free to users in Africa, the collection covers subjects such as management, health, agriculture,
religions, and information technology, mostly in English.
1.6
Data
There are some large academic data banks and institutional data shops which can be a valuable
statistical resource for social sciences. Coupled with this there are also many online statistics
packages which can be used to manipulate the raw data. These can be invaluable resources for
social science research.
Data archives
Many countries now have their data archives on the Internet. For example:
CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives)
http://www.nsd.uib.no/Cessda/
This is an integrated data catalogue for mainly European social science archives. It has been
produced by CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives) CESSDA promotes the
acquisition, archiving and distribution of electronic data for social science teaching and research in
Europe. Currently allows you to search across one or all of the archives of France, Denmark, UK,
Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and Australia. Query specifications include title, name,
content, year and geographical focus.
1.7
Finding Software
It is possible to download software from the Internet and there is an Internet tradition of sharing new
software developments so it is often free of charge. Academics can benefit from the many statistical
packages that enable raw data to be manipulated and made meaningful.
Copyright INASP – see: http://www.inasp.info/training/training-materials-copyright.html for more details.
STIMULATE INASP Workshop: Accessing Information in Developing Countries - Handout
Software Archives
There are a number of sites that collect examples of free software and make them accessible from a
single access point. For example:
UK Mirror Service
http://www.mirror.ac.uk/
The UK Mirror Service is a national service which benefits the higher education and research community
in the UK. It is funded by JISC, the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education
Funding Councils. It maintains copies of electronic archives from all over the world, providing access to
a wide range of up-to-date software and other material which is available free of charge to anyone from
the UK Higher Education community.
Statistics Packages
Software for statistical computation can be downloaded from the Internet, often for free.
VassarStats: Web Site for Statistical Computation
http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/VassarStats.html
This site provides access to 35 JavaScript programs through its pages for calculating a variety of
statistical formulae. The programs are listed under the headings: Procedures Applicable to Categorical
Frequency Data ; Procedures Applicable to Proportions; Procedures Applicable to Ordinal Data;
Correlation and Regression; Properties of the Normal Distribution; t-Tests and Procedures; Analysis of
Variance; Analysis of Covariance; Miscellaneous Procedures; and Simulations. The site is clearly laid
out with explanations of the formulae used and instructions on how to enter data. For certain of the
programs, data may be imported by cutting and pasting into a form; on others, a printable version of the
results can be produced. The site gives details of the problems that may occur with the use of different
browser versions.
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