ICT IMPACT STUDIES:
Implications and Impact of ICT and Media Convergence on India

The National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT) acts as a facilitator of information services to the users largely dominated by researchers and academicians, as this is one of its mandate. NISSAT has been continuously re-orienting its programme and activities in tune with the changing global scenario and in pursuance of the national efforts in liberalization and globalization of the economy, so that the interest of the wider base of clientele in diverse subjects could be better served.

We all know that India is fast emerging as a major player in the global ICT scene, but we do not yet know what are its implications and impact on India in different areas such as people, lifestyle, society, economy, education, entertainment, ethics, morality and value systems, culture and the like, directly and indirectly. Such questions and issues are endless. It is important for us to seek balanced and well-researched answers to such questions to find out the suitable mechanisms to provide statistical and factual back up to such research. Keeping this in view NISSAT thought of conducting `ICT Impact program' with the following objectives which would be useful to the policy makers & planners, decision makers, financial institutions, consumers, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, society, economy, R&D, etc.

Objectives

The main objectives of the impact studies are:

• to take stock of ICT and Media convergence applications in different sectors;

• to understand the impact that ICTs and Media convergence have caused or may cause on the development of different economic activities, issues of national, societal, familial and individual interest, value system , culture, etc;

• to create indicators, develop factual databases, case files, etc on the subject; and

• to analyse existing policies on the subject and to suggest / device new ones for the overall development of ICT in India.

Proposals are being invited from interested parties. For details, see our Ad on 2nd cover.

FACILITATING WEB OF SCIENCE (WoS) IN INDIA

NISSAT is examining the feasibility of providing Web of Science (WoS) facility to national scientific community through a consortium approach. Brief details of the proposal are given in the following paragraphs.

Web of Science (WoS)

Web of Science is a citation product of Institute of Scientific Information, Philadelphia, PA. It provides enhanced Web access to the ISI citation databases covering over 8,000 international journals and enables users to quickly navigate between complete bibliographic information, author abstracts, cited references, selected full text journal articles and other scholarly resources. Contents are available from 1945 to date with weekly updates.

WoS has the following files searchable either independently or together:

• Science Citation Index Expanded [SCIE] - indexes 5800 journals

• Social Sciences Citation Index Expanded - indexes 1700 journals

• Arts and Humanities Citation Index - indexes 1100 journals

The journals are selected for coverage based on their impact on research productivity and SCIE alone indexes an average of 18,700 articles every week. It provides unique links to references cited in the displayed article; references citing the displayed article; references related to the displayed article; full text for over 3500 journals; and links to abstracts from both citing and cited references.

The search facilities provided by the WoS are searching by author, title, subject terms, etc. and by cited authors, cited works and cited year.

Uses of WoS

Researchers can use WoS to

• follow the history or the methodology of an idea;

• locate current research based on earlier patents, reports, etc;

• map the history of an invention or discovery;

• create a list of experts in any specific field;

• track an article's evolving influence;

• monitor the research activities of competitors;

• verify the accuracy of a cited reference;

• navigate through multidisciplinary literature.

Access Options

Access through Internet from ISI's Website: WoS is accessible through Internet and the subscribers have to pay a technology fee of 20%, in addition to the database's normal subscription charges.

Access through Local Hosting: ISI has over 1100 installations world over. Asia-Pacific (including Australia) has about 200 installations, which include countries like China, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. These installations mostly carry an average 15-year back file.

To the best of our knowledge, India does not have any installation of WoS. The main reason perhaps, is its prohibitive cost. An attempt is being made to form a consortium of interested libraries and negotiate a price that the Indian libraries are able to afford. In the scheme of things, one or more national agencies would bear a part of the cost of acquisition. Even then, the individual consortium member would need to pay a substantial sum.

Interested institutions to join in the consortium may kindly fill up the proforma given at p.35 and return to the following address by fax/email/post as early as possible.

Adviser & Scientist 'G', NISSAT/ DSIR, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi-110016
Email: srv[at]alpha[dot]nic[dot]in Telefax: 011-6516078

UNIVERSAL LIBRARY ACCESS FACILITY

Library resources are of immense value to the society and human development efforts of the nation. However, the optimal use of these valuable resources is often negated due to access restrictions, while it is prohibitively expensive to build up multidisciplinary stocks in each library. NISSAT has been, therefore, exploring the possibility of introducing an effective mechanism for resource sharing and universal access as a win-win solution to both the libraries and users. NISSAT has thus formulated a scheme to provide library access as an "add on facility" to credit/debit cards. Brief details of the proposal are given below:

Objectives

The specific objectives of Universal Library Access Facility are:

• to facilitate authorized use of library and information materials of any library by those who are not its regular members;

• to assist the researchers, business firms, industrial units and other scholars with adequate library services; and

• to improve the revenue receipts of libraries to meet the operational costs.

Target users

Target users of the facility are:

• Executives of business houses and industrial undertakings, entrepreneurs, corporate houses, etc.

• Scientists of R&D institutions, and faculty members of universities and colleges.

• Officers & staff in government & public sector undertakings.

• Research scholars, students, retired persons, journalists, housewives, etc.

Target Materials

• All library materials including monographs, journals, etc in paper print or on compact disks.

• Excludes classified materials.

• Any other material that a library decides to exclude (For example, a library may decide to keep rare books, out-of-print items, current issue of journals, manuscripts etc which cannot be replaced at any cost.)

Library Services in Situ

In situ library services may include consultation in the reading room, access to CD-ROM facilities, bibliography preparation, document delivery and so on.

The participating libraries/ information centres will extend their service to the holders of designated card(s). The service charges (to be fixed by the library) may be paid on the spot by the intending users with their credit/debit card.

Present Status

The scheme is under discussion with designated banks providing credit card facilities and has expressed interest in NISSAT proposal. The banks are interested in knowing the number of libraries/centres likely to join the scheme and likely volume of business. If your library/information centre likes to join the scheme, please respond immediately. For more details, contact:

Adviser & Scientist 'G', NISSAT/ DSIR, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi-110016
Email: srv[at]alpha[dot]nic[dot]in Telefax: 011-6516078

Preliminary Demand Survey for

Facilitating Web of Science in India

QUESTIONNAIRE

Kindly send the filled up proforma given above to The Adviser & Scientist `G', NISSAT/ DSIR, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi-110016 by fax/email/post as early as possible.
Email: srv[at]nic[dot]in Telefax: 6516078

See p.33-34 for details
Information Today & Tomorrow, Vol. 20, No. 4, December 2001, p.33-p.36
http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/itt0104/nissr04.htm