Archive-name: internet/info-research-faq/part3
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: April 2002
URL: http://spireproject.com Copyright: (c) 2001 David Novak
Maintainer: David Novak <da...@spireproject.com>
Information Research FAQ (Part 3/6)
100 pages of search techniques, tactics and theory
by David Novak of the Spire Project (SpireProject.com)
Welcome. This FAQ addresses information literacy; the skills, tools and
theory of information research. Particular attention is paid to the
role of the internet as both a reservoir and gateway to information
resources.
This FAQ is an element of the Spire Project http://spireproject.com,
the primary free reference for information research and an important
resource for search assistance.
*** The Spire Project also includes a 3 hour public seminar titled
*** Exceptional Internet Research. This is a fast paced seminar
*** supported with a great deal of webbing, reaching to skills and
*** research concepts beyond the ground covered on our website and
*** this FAQ. http://spireproject.com/seminar.htm has a synopsis.
*** I am in Europe, seminaring in Ireland and Europe though I
*** will be returning to the US shortly, and South Australia for
*** a seminar this October.
Enjoy,
David Novak - da...@spireproject.com
The Spire Project : SpireProject.com and SpireProject.co.uk
NOTE FOR RETURN READERS: previously, we prepared this section by
converting work originally prepared in html. This became unproductive
so we have limited the internet links in this FAQ and direct you to the
more lengthy articles prepared in html. All the required links and
search tool forms reside in other parts of the Spire Project, like the
websites and free shareware
(http://spireproject.com/spire_latest_version.zip).
Information Venues
Section 5
At the successful completion of his work in Nubia, Shakh was invited to
travel to Babylon as the assistant to the new ambassador. It had been
many years since Egyptians were in official contact with the residents
of the two rivers. All trade had been conducted through the Phoenicians
living along the Mediterranean coast. With these cities captured by the
Assyrians, new trade links were needed.
The journey took much longer than Shakh had expected. Leaving Egypt in
a simple boat, it took many months to reach the shores of Lebanon,
where the tall cedar trees grew. These trees, essential to crafting
fine sea-worthy ships, was just one of the items sought by the
Egyptians.
Within two weeks of their arrival in the Assyrian capitol Nineveh, the
Ambassador fell ill and died. Without guidance, 18 months journey from
Egypt, Shakh stepped into the position.
His first task was to gather information both of the officials best to
approach, and of Egyptian goods most likely to interest the Assyrians.
With few local contacts, Shakh set about building connections with
other governments, dining with export officials, collecting information
about how other governments had succeeded and failed in their trade
requests with the Assyrians. Shakh knew success would depend on
approaching the most practical of officials while delicately
side-stepping the wishes of the officials who threatened, or felt
threatened, by Egypt.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
While it may be practical to divide all information into a collection
of formats, information is also organized by others for our benefit.
Libraries, commercial databases, journals, information archives, each
of these venues will assist you to find particular information. The
information is already gathered together, classified and organized for
your benefit. As a skilled researcher, you must be proficient in
finding information from these resources.
"The United Nations is involved in every aspect of international life -
from peace-keeping to the environment, from children's rights to air
safety. ... The UN system generates an enormous amount of information
on some of the most pressing issues the world faces ... press releases,
video and photographic footage, publications, briefing papers, etc."
Samir Sanbar, A Guide to Information at the United Nations.
United Nations documents are a recognized authority for any number of
international issues: social, legal and political. You certainly will
not be chastised for quoting United Nations statistics. Critical to
research, the UN is a collection of almost autonomous organizations
(called organs) with occasionally overlapping responsibilities,
distinct websites, and recorded as distinct publishers. As you approach
UN information, remember this is not a monolithic organization with
clearly defined roles. All drug efforts are not coordinated by the
UNDCP and all statistical work is not undertaken by the UN Statistical
Division.
UN Internet Resources
The UN website at www.un.org is just one entry point to UN information.
Of note, it contains a searchable archive of UN press releases
stretching back to 1995, 7 days of press briefings, an archive section
and information about UN publications. The real tool to use is UNIONS
(http://www3.itu.int/unions/search.cgi), a meta-search engine for many
of the larger UN organ websites.
UN Library Resources
The UN is an accomplished publisher, through their sales lists is not
particularly large. It is just that anything they do publish is of a
very high standard. Many documents are generated by the numerous
meetings and efforts, so there is a second style of publishing, called
Masthead or UNDoc documents, that are usually just photocopies. UNDoc
are found in a collection of UN depository libraries around the world.
(There is a good list at http://www.un.org/MoreInfo/Deplib/). Thus we
have the UNDoc primary source documents and UN Sales Documents, given a
sales document number and sold and shelved in libraries as books.
S/1997/742/Add.1, Report of the Secretary-General on the situation
concerning Western Sahara: a brief breakdown of the estimated costs for
completing the voter identification process in Western Sahara.
Other documents have wider appeal...
E.96.I.5, The United Nations and the International Tribunals for the
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda - UN Blue Book Series
S/1997/742/Add.1, Abortion Policies: A Global Review, Population
studies No. 129: A three volume, 650 page country-by-country look at
abortion.
You can use the US Library of Congress Online Catalogue for a good
approximate search of UN Sales documents. A search of UNDoc documents
requires one of three comprehensive databases, like UN-Bis Plus, though
you can also get the numbers to specific documents through UN
periodicals like the Yearbook of the United Nations and the United
Nations Chronicle.
With 300+ shelves of UN documents at depository libraries, the UNDoc
files are excellent records to history. The UNDoc Current Index (ceased
publication in 1996) is an extensive quarterly directory (of the
non-cumulative kind) just for this purpose.
Further tools are available to help the dedicated searcher, like
focused indexes and an annual list of current sales documents (also
online).
Trouble with Age
United Nations publications do suffer time lags. The best documents
appear well after the curve of public interest. Primary UNDOC documents
will take up to 6 months before becoming available at a UN depository
library and the Sales Documents are compiled after this. On the
positive side, UN archives frequently extend back to the 1950s.
Information Theory
The UN has existed since the 1950s. The systems established to manage
and distribute access to UN publications is at once both highly
sophisticated and out-of-date. It is truly amazing to see 300 shelves
of UN documents (a very big room mainly filled with stapled
photocopies).
At the same time, it is only a matter of time before the whole concept
of UN depository library is translated online. There is such potential
savings (there are 359 depository libraries in the world but the UN
pays for one in each country) and such an improvement in access.
All the links and a few of the forms for searching UN information
reside at http://spireproject.com/un.htm ___________________________________________________
We pay a high price in both direct and indirect taxes for our
government. These are intelligent people, paid to be informed.
Government experts and documents are thus generally detailed, factual
and reliable ... and helpful. It should not surprise you that
government documents have a high quality, tend to have a little problem
with time.
Archive-name: internet/info-research-faq/part2
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: April 2002
URL: http://spireproject.com Copyright: (c) 2001 David Novak
Maintainer: David Novak <da...@spireproject.com>
Information Research FAQ (Part 2/6)
100 pages of search techniques, tactics and theory
by David Novak of the Spire Project (SpireProject.com)
Welcome. This FAQ addresses information literacy; the skills, tools and
theory of information research. Particular attention is paid to the
role of the internet as both a reservoir and gateway to information
resources.
The FAQ is written like a book, with a narrative and pictures. You have
found your way to part two, so do backtrack to the beginning. If you
are lost, this FAQ always resides as text at
http://spireproject.com/faq.txt and with pictures at
http://spireproject.com/faq.htm
This FAQ is an element of the Spire Project http://spireproject.com,
the primary free reference for information research and an important
resource for search assistance.
*** The Spire Project also includes a 3 hour public seminar titled
*** Exceptional Internet Research. This is a fast paced seminar
*** supported with a great deal of webbing, reaching to skills and
*** research concepts beyond the ground covered on our website and
*** this FAQ. http://spireproject.com/seminar.htm has a synopsis.
*** I am in Europe, seminaring in Ireland and Europe though I
*** will be returning to the US shortly, and South Australia for
*** a seminar this October.
Enjoy,
David Novak - da...@spireproject.com
The Spire Project : SpireProject.com and SpireProject.co.uk
NOTE FOR RETURN READERS: previously, we prepared this section by
converting work originally prepared in html. This became unproductive
so we have limited the internet links in this FAQ and direct you to the
more lengthy articles prepared in html. All the required links and
search tool forms reside in other parts of the Spire Project, like the
websites and free shareware
(http://spireproject.com/spire_latest_version.zip).
Searching Specific Formats.
Section 4
On the second year of his training, Shakh began to piece together the
many rules and guidelines to understanding hieroglyphs. He had thought
the lessons would end once he learned the glyphs but no, there were
long and convoluted rules governing the translation of sounds into
glyphs. Simple rules govern the placement of glyphs on the wall -
certain glyphs lose their meaning when placed apart.
Then, there was the art of writing. The glyphs had to be the right size
and shape. If you were about to finish the line, you could squish
certain glyphs just a little to make room for the next glyph. If you
did not plan well, you would leave the line hanging, a word unfinished,
a sentence incomplete.
Then Shakh started to learn hieratic - shorthand glyphs for less formal
situations.
It was all very complicated and cumbersome. Shakh did not like the
technical nature of writing. So much to learn and still so far from
writing clear, interesting results. His seasons in training went very
slowly. The Nile rose then fell then rose again.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A great deal of dull information must be comprehended, absorbed,
internalized. Nothing spectacular. Nothing of particular interest. Just
a mass of rules and guidelines to help you move within the world of
information.
On the third year of medical school the aspiring doctor begins to
memorize a vast linked-array of drugs, symptoms and afflictions. The
next three years are spent developing this mental array; refining,
building, adding experience, so that one day a doctor may look at a
symptom, think of possible afflictions or drug reactions, then
proscribe drugs or call for further tests. The whole process of
learning this array is intensely dull.
In the first part of this FAQ we explained in detail how an information
search involves first selecting a suitable format (book, webpage, news,
interview ...) then searching a few important tools that help us find
information in that format. The first format we will look at is the
humble book.
Books
Links and forms at http://spireproject.com/books.htm Shakh arrived in Edfu on a small boat in the company of his father. It
was a short walk from the dock to the Edfu temple complex. A fantastic
sight. A noble sight. The temple included a vast library of books and
manuscripts - a warehouse of knowledge about Egypt.
Not that there were many manuscripts in total. The time and expense it
took to create even a single copy made the library a prohibitive
expense open to only those in certain need. This was not a public
library, but an elitist library, open only to those who could justify
the gifts required to enter. There it was, open before them, long
shelves of scrolls arranged by rough topic. Amazing indeed. Shakh
shivered slightly in the cool air. This would be his life for the next
few years.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Books have such meaning to us as a society. We have a vibrant emotional
connection. Books exude a solid proof of value to a larger community.
They are important resources but the additional awe is amazing to
behold. Try ripping a chapter from a book you own in public. The stares
and discomfort is almost tangible. Some book-lovers get upset about
slight creases in books, treating books as if they were important
museum quality manuscripts - something to hold with awe and treat
gently.
Being a book writer is similarly impressive. It is a mark of an expert.
A knowledgeable expert. A knowledgeable expert we should listen too,
should pay money for the chance to listen to, should pay, listen and
carefully not crease their work.
This attitude is silly.
A book is a package of information, prepared along certain guidelines,
with a purpose. In research we look for books on a topic that may help
us answer a question. These books tend to be large, lengthy, detailed,
verbose, heavy. Books are not good at describing cutting edge
developments. They generally summarize popular consensus. They avoid
criticism. When searching, they can make horrible resources.
Books are also large and physical creations. They must be stored. They
stick around. They have a limited shelf life but libraries are forever
over-stocked with dated publications of limited use and value. They are
also long - troublesome things to read.
Books come in different flavors. There are the books by industry
insiders who tell the truth, rip the facade about a particular
industry. Such books make brilliant resources. There are also books by
journalists, prepared without insider knowledge, more of a novel of a
newsworthy situation. Such books tend to the verbose, circumstantial,
light on facts.
Certain questions simply beg to be answered by reading a book. Such
questions are usually general, introductory, timeless. For such
questions a stack of news articles would lack cohesion. A collection of
articles would be too precise, not give you the larger picture. Such
questions need the 100 pages of description, pictures and the
considered framework that books embody.
Finding a Book
As an information format, there are certain tools and resources you
need to be aware of to effectively search for books. Thankfully, many
of these tools have emerged on the internet. These include:
- A database of the free books on the internet from projects like the
Online Book Initiative and Project Gutenberg. Includes many
copyright-free classics (but not ebooks - a different concept).
- Three government publication databases for the US, UK and Australia.
The US and Australian databases are comprehensive. The UK database is
incomplete. The complete database is commercially available
- The book databases of large online bookstores is incomplete but
useful as a fast search of current books. Some include background
information. I use Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Borders and the UK Internet
Bookshop (of the WHSmith bookstore chain).
- The largest libraries of the world, like the US Library of Congress
and British Library hold more than 20 million publications stretching
back many years. The online book catalogues are not good for the latest
books, but are brilliant at earlier works.
- Local libraries and state libraries are noteworthy as finding a book
in their database also means you have found access to these books.
- The definitive resource is the collection of national Books-in-Print
databases like [US] Books in Print, Australian Books in Print, French
Books in Print... These databases are commercially available online, as
print directories (yuck) in libraries and often from publicly available
to search from good bookstores
Book Databases
Information about new books is organized in a collection of national
"Books in Print" databases. This information is publisher-verified,
includes forthcoming titles, and is naturally updated far faster than
the library and bookstore catalogues.
Books in Print, produced by Bowker, delivers publisher-verified
information on US books. British Books in Print is produced by Whitaker
...
Archive-name: internet/info-research-faq/part5
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: April 2002
URL: http://spireproject.com Copyright: (c) 2001 David Novak
Maintainer: David Novak <da...@spireproject.com>
Information Research FAQ (Part 5/6)
100 pages of search techniques, tactics and theory
by David Novak of the Spire Project (SpireProject.com)
Welcome. This FAQ addresses information literacy; the skills, tools and
theory of information research. Particular attention is paid to the
role of the internet as both a reservoir and gateway to information
resources.
*** The Spire Project also includes a 3 hour public seminar titled
*** Exceptional Internet Research. This is a fast paced seminar
*** supported with a great deal of webbing, reaching to skills and
*** research concepts beyond the ground covered on our website and
*** this FAQ. http://spireproject.com/seminar.htm has a synopsis.
*** I am in Europe, seminaring in Ireland and Europe though I
*** will be returning to the US shortly, and South Australia for
*** a seminar this October.
Enjoy,
David Novak - da...@spireproject.com
The Spire Project : SpireProject.com and SpireProject.co.uk
Search Tactics.
Section 7
The Pharaoh called on Shakh to negotiate the annual royal donation with
the priests of Karnak temple complex. The Pharaoh was not wise in such
matters and had previously given far too much to the detriment of the
state. It was not wise to voice such sentiments. Shakh instead set
about negotiating a figure ample to their needs but insufficient to
further expand the temple complex.
Shakh wisely chose to negotiate up river at the Kom Ombo temple - away
from Karnak. Choosing words carefully, he deftly rejected the initial
estimate of the temple's needs, then spoke calmly, eyes tight, that the
Pharaoh had decided Karnak should supply the priests to the Egyptian
army - at current expenses.
It was a clever ruse. The negotiated royal donation was significantly
reduced and the priests were happy to be excluded from military duty.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If searching be a combination of science, art and experience, then the
science of searching is the easiest of the three. There are just a few
search elements to remember and search techniques to apply.
Firstly, there are the tactics associated with free text searching;
that of Boolean, proximity, truncation, field searching, target
searching and further enhancements.
Secondly, there are the basic classification schemes: the Dewey decimal
system (for books) The WIPO and US Patent Classification Systems (for
patents), the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes (for
industry) and a number of additional classification systems founded on
the same principles.
Thirdly, there is the way information is organized. A book has a
table-of-contents and an index, large directories like Kompass and Gale
Directory of Databases are arranged with so many indexes (geographic,
subject, product, name) that the contact information is often separated
and numbered, then referenced as a number. The results are initially
confusing. Statistics similarly have ways of presenting information
(pie charts, line charts, charts with ranges which do not reach zero)
and again, this can be confusing the first time you see them.
Let's start with the technique associated with searching a text
database.
Straight Word Searching:
All search situations allow you to ask for the presence of words in a
block of text. Obviously it helps if you ask for the right word or
words. If you ask for the right words, they you will quickly locate the
information you desire. For best results you obviously want to choose a
word or words which accurately describes what you are looking for.
Prepare to search the text several times with different terms, and
consider the possibility of different spellings for the same words.
Straight word searching is fairly ubiquitous on the internet. You can
always search a webpage with the search function of your web browser.
Alternatively, you can search by placing a large amount of text into a
word processor and using the in-built search functions. Your
word-processor can handle large files like website traffic logbooks and
archived files of past mailing list discussion. There are also
specialist tools like the shareware WinGrep
(http://www.mindspring.com/~bgrigsby/wingrep.html) for searching many
files on your computer hard drive. (Alternatively, consider
AgentRansack http://www.agentransack.com).
Text Fragments:
The simplest refinement to straight searching involves searching for
parts of a word - if you are interested in surfing, search for surf
better yet, search for " surf" with the space in front of the word.
Truncation:
Some search engines don't allow searches for text fragments, and you
must explain your intention by adding a truncation mark (usually * or
?) to the ends of words. For most professional researchable databases,
alga? will include both algae and algal (as in algal bloom). I was once
badly lost because of the spelling difference between aging and ageing.
There are a number of improvements on this concept to. Sometimes there
are special symbols for a non-space character car?a, sometimes there is
automatic awareness of multiple spellings (colour & color). Sometimes
there is even automatic awareness of synonyms. Often you are initially
unaware important information is indexed under slightly different
spelling, so truncation is strongly suggested for most searching.
Thesaurus:
An improvement on truncation is the opportunity to look directly at a
list of words, either keywords, or descriptors. This allows you to see
the range of spellings before you search. This is also ideal for
searches of company names or proper places so you can select only the
words you are interested in. In a simple way, some library catalogues
present subject searches in this way: a list of subject categories
arranged alphabetically.
Boolean operators:
Changing tack, searching for multiple words calls for "and, or, not"
concepts. I want this word and that word, but not another word. It is
simple enough. Many of the search engines allow for this with the
-sign, and commercial databases often add brackets. Use of the not
symbol is frowned upon in textbooks (too easy to dismiss information
you are interested in it is said), but the 'and & or' is absolutely
necessary for complex questions like I want [(spaghetti or noodle) and
pasta] or (Italian and cuisine). With most internet search engines, but
not all commercial searches, you will find 'and' is assumed.
Proximity operators:
The next dramatic improvement fixes the position of words relative to
one another. In this category we have adjacent (often written as adj,
next, or "inserted in quotes"), near (by how many words), or in the
same sentence. Often it is wise to stretch the distance a little
(within two), but where available, proximity is best way to remove the
dross without affecting the value of information. "Patent near
Research" is much more precise than "Patent and Research".
Fields:
By separating information into different fields, we can selectively
search different portions of the information. I want the title to show
the words "Patent" and the abstract to include the words "Patent
Research". Field searching is a common way to refine a search, but be
aware searching titles is very likely to remove some desired
information, where as searching descriptors and not abstracts may
dramatically improve the content.
Date Fields:
Are you really interested in information more than 15 years old?
Library catalogues frequently have many aging books, and date limiting
is very wise.
Further Enhancements:
Ranking and the ability to search multiple databases are some of the
further enhancements that select databases permit. There are also
advances that do not have a grand impact - like natural language.
Natural interpretation allows the searcher to phrase a question with
common sentence structure. The computer then interprets what you want.
In theory natural language is liberating but in practice the strengths
of Boolean, proximity and field searching far exceed the benefits of
natural language searching. Lastly, there are special techniques like
target searching available on a few systems that bear discussing.
Sorting allows you to shape the presentation of the information. When
applied to financial information, this is particularly valuable. Alerts
allow you to automatically repeat a previous search and have the
information sent to you. Multiple database searching allows you to
search a collection of databases concurrently. Ranking positions
certain information at the top. These techniques can be valuable in
certain circumstances.
These technical options improve the blunt system of
...
Archive-name: internet/info-research-faq/part6
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: April 2002
URL: http://spireproject.com Copyright: (c) 2001 David Novak
Maintainer: David Novak <da...@spireproject.com>
Information Research FAQ (Part 6/6)
100 pages of search techniques, tactics and theory
by David Novak of the Spire Project (SpireProject.com)
Welcome. This FAQ addresses information literacy; the skills, tools and
theory of information research. Particular attention is paid to the
role of the internet as both a reservoir and gateway to information
resources.
*** The Spire Project also includes a 3 hour public seminar titled
*** Exceptional Internet Research. This is a fast paced seminar
*** supported with a great deal of webbing, reaching to skills and
*** research concepts beyond the ground covered on our website and
*** this FAQ. http://spireproject.com/seminar.htm has a synopsis.
*** I am in Europe, seminaring in Ireland and Europe though I
*** will be returning to the US shortly, and South Australia for
*** a seminar this October.
Enjoy,
David Novak - da...@spireproject.com
The Spire Project : SpireProject.com and SpireProject.co.uk
Searching as Industry.
Section 9
Of interest to you now, the internet offers you a very good look at the
information industry. Most organizations involved in the information
industry publish exhaustive product descriptions on the net. Most
commercial products are delivered electronically.
Professional Search Resources
As a profession, researchers have diverse skills and needs. Constantly
working with information, in a competitive market, professional
information seekers are often starved for high quality information
about new research techniques, skills and sources. This can be found
through discussion groups like BusLib-l, websites on library science
like LisNews.com, associations like the Association of Independent
Information Professional (AIIP) and the Society of Competitive
Intelligence
Professionals (SCIP), events and conferences as listed in the journal
Online & CDROM Review.
As a more introductory resources, start with the a selection of books
and webpages like:
- The Intelligence Cycle[1], courtesy of the CIA library - a
single-page summary of the research process.
- The Information Broker's Handbook by Sue Rugge and Alfred
Glossbrenner, McGraw-Hill. Third Edition (1997) - a must-read for those
interested in the business side of information research.
- Secrets of the Super Searchers by Reva Basch. Unfortunately a 1993
book, but unique as a look into the field of information brokers.
Published by Eight Bit Books. (Dewey 025.524 BAS)
- Online is a good bimonthly magazine for information brokers. (Dewey
025.04).
There are a number of interesting periodicals, most owned and marketed
by Information Today Inc. BUBL lists a number more [2]. Others are
electronic publications, like LIBRES [3]: Library and Information
Science Research Electronic Journal, a biannual scholarly journal and
Information Research [4].
The commercial databases of interest are LISA (Library and Information
Science Abstracts), ALISA (Australian LISA), Information Science and
Library Literature.
Professional research demands a more effective, timely use of resources
at hand. It is challenging, and it is an occupation.
Unlike research undertaken for your own needs, professional researchers
often know little about the topic they are asked to investigate. We may
not know the phrases which accurately describe a specific concept, we
sometimes don't recognize gold if its labeled copper, but we have to do
everything fast - lest the cost escalate above the expectation of the
client.
Client? Yes, professional research starts with the client.
Professional research involves far less book and library work, and far
more interviewing, database access and online article purchasing. When
money is involved, time becomes very precious. The first luxury lost:
the luxury to get to know the topic in leisurely detail.
Instead, professional research starts with a careful description of
exactly what information is desired (and why). You must quickly build a
good plan about who you will ask and where you will look. This is,
after all, your primary skill others have great difficulty in
duplicating - traversing the information sphere swiftly and skillfully.
Many researchers today can search databases. Most researchers are
familiar with library work. Personal research has the added benefit of
being part of the learning process. So why reach for a professional?
The first unique skill we must refine is our knowledge of the research
tools. Computer databases may be easily accessible, but are not easy to
search. Interviewing is conceptually simple, but is not simple in
practice. Each aspect of research can and must be refined.
The second unique skill: interpretation. Working with information
frequently allows us to better judge the reliability and bias of the
information we retrieve.
Most information you find will be tainted. Secondary expertise almost
always present information in a biased way. You will counter this bias
both by being aware of the bias and by interviewing someone with a
different view. An inventor proclaims a devise in near completion - do
we believe? Obviously it requires further study. This is often lost on
amateur researchers - by collecting information from a variety of
different resources, with a range of bias, we can create a superior
assessment of the value of each item of information. Research based
solely on government research, no matter how well done, is
unprofessional.
The third unique skill is speed. We must be able to provide research as
a service, as a business, quickly. This goes beyond research to the
banal work of copyright and legal protection, selecting effective
research tools, finding fast expertise to supplement your own.
The skills of professional research are like the artist. They take a
lifetime to learn. The work is just business.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Database Industry
The commercial information sphere existed in the 1970's and earlier. It
is far more developed, far better organized, far better funded, almost
always far more valuable and expensive than every other research
resource.
For the most part, commercial information is arranged reasonably
uniformly in large databases of full-text or bibliographic information.
Some databases are small, single source documents, while others are
vast unfocused collections of, for example, all the news from the last
15 years.
Most directories and journals can be made into a database, but
single-source databases do not enjoy much financial success. The market
is too limited and the cost of promotion too high (except in a local
market with newspapers). To overcome this difficulty, single sources
are grouped together into larger collections of databases on a
particular topic. These large database groups have become primary tools
in commercial research.
Developing these databases requires considerable expertise and expense.
Sometimes data requires abstracting, interpreting, and as with some
Lexis-Nexis and WestLaw databases, even expert legal interpretation.
Sometimes firms develop a portfolio of databases. Sometimes firms build
just one.
The marketing and consumer billing of such databases is then provided
by a relatively small collection of large database retailers. A list
can be found in our "Commercial Databases" article. As an indication of
the size of this market, Knight-Ridder sold Dialog & Datastar for a
figure approaching half a billion dollars.
This industry consisting of a wide collection of players, each
improving and developing the information from individual periodicals,
journals, news items - all very confusing for the end user. This is
elegantly illustrated by the database descriptions for Lexis-Nexis
databases (their preferred term is libraries). See
http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc/sources/ as an example of specific
databases. In particular, see their library on patents.
Many single-sources appear in different commercial databases. Further,
different databases sometimes include different information from the
same single-source. One database may include just abstracts, another
may include fulltext, chemical indexing and more.
As a result, most researchers are unfamiliar with what exactly is being
searched.
Archive-name: internet/info-research-faq/part4
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: April 2002
URL: http://spireproject.com Copyright: (c) 2001 David Novak
Maintainer: David Novak <da...@spireproject.com>
Information Research FAQ (Part 4/6)
100 pages of search techniques, tactics and theory
by David Novak of the Spire Project (SpireProject.com)
Welcome. This FAQ addresses information literacy; the skills, tools and
theory of information research. Particular attention is paid to the
role of the internet as both a reservoir and gateway to information
resources.
This FAQ is an element of the Spire Project http://spireproject.com,
the primary free reference for information research and an important
resource for search assistance.
*** The Spire Project also includes a 3 hour public seminar titled
*** Exceptional Internet Research. This is a fast paced seminar
*** supported with a great deal of webbing, reaching to skills and
*** research concepts beyond the ground covered on our website and
*** this FAQ. http://spireproject.com/seminar.htm has a synopsis.
*** I am in Europe, seminaring in Ireland and Europe though I
*** will be returning to the US shortly, and South Australia for
*** a seminar this October.
Enjoy,
David Novak - da...@spireproject.com
The Spire Project : SpireProject.com and SpireProject.co.uk
NOTE FOR RETURN READERS: previously, we prepared this section by
converting work originally prepared in html. This became unproductive
so we have limited the internet links in this FAQ and direct you to the
more lengthy articles prepared in html. All the required links and
search tool forms reside in other parts of the Spire Project, like the
websites and free shareware
(http://spireproject.com/spire_latest_version.zip).
Certain questions require country specific data. The internet is a fine
source for this kind of information, dominated by data from large
international organizations (the UN, World Bank and WHO) and government
departments (CIA, UK Foreign Consular Office, Health Canada, Australian
Department of Foreign Affairs). This works in our favour: such
information attains a higher standard of quality than might otherwise
be expected on the internet. The down side: current information is
difficult to locate. Further commercial compilations exist with
particular strengths in economic analysis.
The Spire Project maintains a very fine html article on country
profiles, in many ways a flagship for our approach to assisted
research. All the links are on this article, so we will merely describe
available resources here. Start at http://spireproject.com/country.htm
As a fine example of liberating information from previously limited
circulation, country-specific data has flowed from many a government
and quasi-government institution. So much information, of such high
quality, has become available that several commercial interests have
abandoned the field altogether.
* International Travel Advisory Reports from USA, Canada, Australia and
the UK cover details of importance to travelers like health care,
crime, current security issues. These travel advisories only mildly
overlap so try to read each one and take note of the preparation date.
* Country Health Reports are released online from the CDC, Health
Canada, World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO).
* General and Demographic Country Profiles originate from the CIA, [US]
Library of Congress, US Department of State, UNICEF, US Census Bureau,
World Bank and the UN Statistical Division.
* Social profiles and detailed social incident reporting originates
from Amnesty International , the Red Cross, US Committee for Refugees,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), US
Department of State, Refugees.org cover Human Rights, Refugees and
Armed Conflict in great detail.
* Economic Country Profiles are released by the governments of New
Zealand, Australia, United States, The OECD and the World Bank. More
market related profiles also exist from the EU, the US and the World
Trade Organization (WTO).
What this means:
The list of publishers above is literally a Who's Who of international
diplomacy and observation. Embedded within this field is also a story
of the liberation of information previously published in different and
predominantly closed systems. As each individual publication emerges
online, it adds to the wealth of information from other sources. Taken
collectively, we have a powerful trend giving rise to very high quality
information - a trend not unique to country profiles. In time we will
see this trend transform many information fields.
For years I was aware of a small binder by the front desk of the US
consulate help desk. The binder contained the latest bulletins and
alerts thought relevant to overseas travelers. Today, you are far more
likely to see this electronically as the US International Travel
Advisory Reports, delivered electronically at
http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html
Almost all of the electronic resources, with the notable exception of
the Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) by the Canadian
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Norman
Paterson School of International Affairs, all these electronic
resources were previously published in paper. So the above list is
really a list of pre-existing publications now released on the
internet. This is both delightful, since we now have rapid access to
very fine publications, and delightful, since we can look forward to a
future with country profiles specifically designed for the web.
