Information and the Resources of Information Are the Backbone for the Development of Any Society

Electronic Resources in Social Science : An Introduction

Information and the resources of information are the backbone for the development of any society. Accesses to current information arethe significant factor that helps in indicating the social, economic or scientific growth and development of the society. Social Sciences largely depend on data and information related to social and economic conditions of the society. The Scholars and Researchers of Social Science who are actually the guardian of the society have to be made aware of the information sources in social science as these may help them in formulating appropriate theory or policies to improve the condition of the society and help in progress of it.

Scholars, researchers, and students of the social science have to be familiarized with the information resources available in social science and also the process to access these resources. The digitization of libraries and the information available in electronic resources have helped the modern scholars to access the updated information within a short span of their publication. These resources are available on the computer or may also be accessed by modern hand gadgets like tablet. Thus it has become easy for the scholars to access the information at their own time and place unlike in the past when the only resources to information were the libraries. The scholars had to depend on library hours, they had to manually search the library catalogue or take the help of library staff to search a particular document and even if document is located the scholar then had to undergo the long process of borrowing that document. Electronic information resources have helped in overcoming this cumbersome process of acquiring the document

Although the electronic resources have made the access to information simple and swift but to acquire the information through electronic resources the scholars must have the fundamental knowledge of computers and Internet i.e. to open and navigate the document in the computer, to download the documents from the website, search the online catalogues for documents available in library collections or search through search engines for information available on web. Most often the scholars would have the basic know-how of computers but a little guidance from the technical staff of the library may help them to develop skills to search the information from the online sources.

About E-resources

Electronic resources can be referred as an information that is made available electronically either online through Internet and web resources such as e-books, e-journals, e-databases etc or offline like data available in the form of CD, DVDs or any other external memory storage device that can be accessed on computer without the use of Internet. These resources can be accessed through computer either mainframe, personal computer or mobile device. Electronic Resources are the innovative way of presenting the information using value added service. Through these resources information transfer is rapid, at low cost and allows more flexibility and interactivity with larger cooperation.

E-resources in Social Science Research

Social Science Research consist of various data related to social systems of the country like the educational system, social structure, administration, political activities, etc. International data are also needed to distinguish and develop relative research theories. These data keep changing rapidly with the changes in society. Therefore for the scholars involved in research must be updated with the current information to bring out a qualitative outcome of their research. E-resources provides quick and updated information to the scholars. E-resources available in social sciences are :

1)Online Catalogues - Almost all the social science libraries have adopted to Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) to display the catalogues of their library collection. OPAC is actually the electronic version of the catalogue that was maintained manually in the traditional libraries. It provides briefinformation about the entire collection of the library.It helps the scholar to find whether a particular book or journal is available in the library.

Process to Access: This catalogue helps to provide information about the availability of a particular book, journal or periodicals or article database, Report, Thesis etc.in the library. It also displays the status of the book i.e. if borrowed or is on shelf. To browse the online catalogue user must click on the optionOPAC by visiting the library website or through the icon displayed on the desktop if it is installed on their P.C. through LAN connection. The OPAC will display the categories of their collection like Books, Journal, Articles, etc. The user can select the category and search the documents required by them through the title or name of the author, Classification number, Subject and publisher. For searching a Journal the user can enter the title of the journal in search text box. Article database can be searched by entering the name of the author, title or subject. The document can also be searched through keywords or combinational searches. The option of ‘New Additions’ provides updated list of new books and journals acquired by the library. The user can just click on “New Additions” to get the list of currently acquired books and journals.

Apart from the OPAC some library networks like DELNET, INFLIBNET, WoldCat, Library of Congress etc. gives access to union catalogues i.e. information about collections of different libraries across the nation and world.

2)Online databases–

EconLIT- URL-

It is a American Economic Association’s Indexing and abstracting database that gives elaborate index of economic literature of journal articles books, book reviews, collective volume articles, working papers and dissertations from around the world. It covers the databases from the year1969, recently the databases from the year 1886 has also been added to it. EconLIT can be accessed through libraries or institutions subscribing to the databases. Although individual American Economic Association members can also refer to the EconLIT database by registering to it but these members will not have the facility of links to full-text journal articles and books available on library and institutional installations.

Areas covered: It covers vast range of index to economic journal articles, books, book reviews, collective volume articles, working papers and dissertations.

Process to access database: The database is accessible through Journal list, Document types and subject descriptor. User can search through free-text search and in order to refine the search the user may refer specific title, author, author affiliation, source, publication information, publication year, document type, ISSN or ISBN, keywords, subject classifications, named persons and geographic descriptors.

ERIC- URL -

Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC) is a worlds largest information resource centre in education. It is a bibliographic record of literature in education along with an increasing collection of full text document. It allows accessofthe full textsto only few underdeveloped and developing countries. It provides quick access to educational literature in view to support educational research and information. ERIC is a programme sponsored by theInstitute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education.

Areas Covered:ERIC provides access to over 1.4 bibliographic record of journal articles and other education related materials. The records in ERIC get added up frequently. It also provide links to some full text in Adobe PDF format. ERIC contains records of journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference, papers, technical reports, policy papers and other education-related materials. It consist of alphabetical journals and non- journals source list. The journal list covers information since1966

Process to Access the Database: ERIC has three process to search records 1) Basic Search 2) Advanced Search and 3)Search The Thesaurus.

Basic Search -The user can search the term through keywords in the title, author, Descriptor (from Thesaurus) fields. To find the exact match the user should use the quotation marks around the phrase and for exact match of the author the user should put “Last Name, First Name”
Advance Search – ERIC allows to refine the search by entering search terms in two or more fields together i.e. Title and name of the author, Source, ISBN, ISSN, Sponsoring agency etc. simultaneously and thencombining the search terms by selecting ‘AND’ / ‘OR’. If the user is looking for the full text, they have to select the option to display only full text information.
Search the Thesaurus–Thesaurus in ERIC is a list of education related subject headings arranged in anorganized form by assigning specific terms for the subject to make it easier to retrieve. Searching by thesaurus keywords will give precise results. As the keyword will exactly match with thesaurus phrase. It can also be searched by describing topic into one’s own word or through major concepts.

ISID– URL - ,

Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID)an Institute under Indian Council of Social Science Research have developed Online Indexes of Indian Social Science Journals (OLI) and Press Clippings of different Social Science disciplines.

Areas Covered: Initially these database covered only economic information but gradually it has expanded the coverage to include education, sociology, management and some inter disciplinary subjects.The ISID database provides access to the following information:

Online Index

Social Science Journals (Index of approximately 203 Social Science Journals are available)
Press Clippings

Other Research Reference

Union Budget Speeches
Economic Survey Review Chapters
National Policy Documents
Other Important Documents
Indian Statistical Indicators
International Statistical Indicators

The database consist of the following components :

Index to articles, discussion notes, editorials and reports appearing in 175 Indian journals in the fields of economics, finance, management, political science, history, education, health, sociology, gender issues, communication, etc. The number of references in this section is nearly 1.7 lakh.
Index to signed articles and write-ups published in 15 English language daily newspapers from 1990. The number of references covered are around 11.7 lakh.
Select policy documents like Union Budget Speeches, Sections of Economic Survey, key statistics on the Indian economy and Global Development Indicators.
Website addresses of important institutions and organisations relevant for social scientists.

Process to access database: To avail the databasethe user can register to the ISID Website free of cost by creating a user name and password. Theuser can browse database by clicking on any particular categories which will display the list of information in that category, the result is displayed in reversechronological order the latest information being displayed on the top. For searching the press clippings the user has to enter the keywords, news nature, etc. The detailed option is given below:

Online Search
Keywords AndOr
News Nature AdvertisementArticleEditorialNews ItemBook Review
Report TabularBibliographical
Nature PatternExact

PRESS CLIPPINGS SEARCH

Example:

For Online Index of Social Science Journals: If the user is looking for the information about “Indian Journal of Public Administration” select the journal from the list and click which will display the following information about the journal .

Published By / Indian Institute of Public Administration
periodicity / Quarterly
Editor / S L Goel
Address / I P Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi - 110 002
Telephone / +91 11 2370 2400
Fax / +91 11 2331 9954
Email / Not Available
Website /
Remarks / Not Available
Print / Close

INFORMATION DISPLAYED ABOUT JOURNAL THROUGH SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL INDEX

For Press Clippings: The user need to fill the search table consisting of keywords nature of news etc as mentioned above.

For Other Research Reference: If the user wants to refer Budget Speech 2011-12a click on Union Budget Speeches will display the budget speeches for all the years from 1990-91. The user can then select Budget speech 2011-12 which will display the budget speech of that particular year in details. Similarly process can be followed to browse information related to other categories like Economic Survey Review Chapters, National Policy Documents, Other Important Documents, Indian Statistical Indicators and International Statistical Indicators

JSTOR –URL -

JSTOR is a non-profit service developing full text databases for the academic community across the world.

Areas Covered: It covers around 50 disciplines. In JSTOR the broad disciplines that are covered are Area Studies, Arts, Business and Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Medicine and Allied Health, Science and Mathematics and Social Sciences. Under the social science disciplinethere are approximately 6670 titles of different social science disciplines.

Process to access the database: The database can be browsed by specific disciplines. The database is displayed under three categories journals, books and pamphlets. It also displays the publishing date. Search can be made by entering the phrase or word on which the information is to be retrieved. The user can further refine the search through advance search which gives the option to search through title, author, abstract, caption, item type, date, language etc. To access the article free of cost individual must register their personal details after which they can log in with the individual username and password. The individual member can only have access to online reading of the article and do not have facility to browse archives or save any article. Any institution or library can subscribe to JSTOR database which entitles the institution to acquire archival information about the journals and also allows for download of full text of the articles. The user can also refer to video tutorials of JSTOR which serve as a guide to search information.

Popline – URL -

Popline (Population Information online)is a free database containing bibliographic citation and abstracts of worldwide literature in population, family planning and reproductive health and development. These database is maintained by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health under the Knowledge for Health Project that is funded by United States Agency for International Development.

Areas Covered:Popline provides information into 12 main categories under Population, Family Planning and health related issues. These categories are :

Adolescent Reproductive Health
Family Planning Methods
Family Planning Programs
Gender
Health Communication
HIV / AIDS
Maternal and Child Health
Population Dynamics
Population Law and Policy
Population, Health, and Environment
Reproductive Health
Sexually Transmitted Infections

It provides citation and abstracts to a variety of materials including journal articles and other scientific, technical, and programmatic publications as well as unpublished documents and project reports (grey literature).

Process to Access the Database – The 12 categories mentioned above are hyperlinked broad categories and a click on any of these topic will lead to the sub-information under it. The Searcher can search the document by Title, Keyword, Region/Country, Year, Author, Source, Language, Years, Document type. Detailed guide for search as displayed in Website is given below:

POPLINE Advanced Search

Top of Form
All Fields

Title

Keyword

Region/Country

Author

Source

Language

Years
From To

Document #

Bottom of Form

Advanced Search Features and Tips

Advanced Search Features:

Click + to add another search box of the same field.
Boolean operators to the left of the search boxes connect concepts between fields.
Boolean operators to the right of the search boxes connect concepts within the same field.

Entering Search Terms:

Enter Boolean operators ( AND, OR, NOT) in uppercase characters to combine search terms.
Search for a phrase by placing the words within quotation marks. Limit phrase to 4-5 words.
Use the asterisk * as a wildcard to truncate, or shorten, a word.
Use parentheses to group search terms to control the logic of the search. For example, to search for either population or family and planning enter: (population OR family) AND planning
Separate keywords selected from the autocomplete list with a comma to OR them together. To combine keywords with AND, add another Keyword search box.

More Help Searching POPLINE

World Development Indicators (WDI) - URL:

It is a World Bank initiative that provides access to national and international statistics. The data on this site can be accessed free of charge with very few limitations. These data are the subset of World Bank Databank which contains exhaustive collection of the data. World Bank Data Catalogue gives complete information about the data and data sets available.

Areas Covered: Topics related to Agriculture and Rural Development, Climate Change, Aid Effectiveness, Economic Policy and External Debt, Education, Energy and mining, Environment, Gender, Health, Infrastructure, Labour & Social Protection, Poverty, Public and Private Sector, Social Development, urban development along with Science and Technology and Financial Sectors are covered into this database.

Process to Access the Data: The data can be searched by Country name, topics or the indicator page. The search through country name will display the data for all the years and all topics related to that particular country. Similarly, the search through topic will display all the results on the topic with separate indicators for the different countries and year.

Open J-Gate- URL -

J-Gate launched by the initiative of Informatics India Limited in 2001 is an electronic source to open access of worldwide journal literature. J-Gate is an exclusive e-journal portal and only contain information about journals that are online. J-Gate provide link of union list to the subscriber to check the availability of journal in local libraries.

Areas Covered: J-Gate provides subject-wise indexed Table of Contents of around 32263 e-journals with its linkages from publishers sites. It consist of 33293809 vast searchable database of articles. This database is increasing rapidly by large additions of articles daily. It provides basic bibliographic data along with abstracts in cases where it is available. It provides links to both open access and subscribed full text. At present J-Gate provides links to e-journals from 10197 publishers.