The Bibliographic Database of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) and its Characteristic Features

1990

S. 321

Unselbständiges Werk

200086014

Since its foundation in 1892 the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) has published several thousands of documents, which are of high scientific value for forestry and wood industry. They reflect the results of almost one hundred years of worldwide research activities in these fields. Storing and dissemination of this information, which is usually compiled in the form of proceedings volumes, is essential for documentary work, because these proceedings are usually edited in very small numbers and sometimes also as so-called "grey literature". Thus the access to such documents is often very difficult, it not impossible. Bearing this facts in mind, the IUFRO Secretariat has decided, in the course of its reorganization started in January 1988, to bridge this gap by installing a database for the documentation of IUFRO literature. The choice of the appropriate software was based on the following main items: - The nature of literature requests received by the Secretariat. - Time and labour needed for data capturing from monographs and all articles contained therein. - Cost. - Technical features and user-friendliness. - And, last but not least, easy transferability of the data to compatible computer equipments of IUFRO Member Organizations. Taking these conditions into account, the IUFRO Secretariat, at the end of 1989, has installed a software called "LIDOS" (Literature Documentation System) for the administration of IUFRO publications. LIDOS is a small-scale retrieval system for personal computers, designed to record unstructured data. Each file includes a list of field names, such as author, co-author, year of publication, title and keyword. These five fields are given by the system. Additional field names, e.g. conference title, venue, data, IUFRO Division, Subject Group, Project Group, etc., can be defined by the database administrator himself and can be disposed of instantaneously. The main advantage of LIDOS is that it allows data input, storing, and updating during the same operation. It has different levels of access, protected by password. The lowest level permits only regarding, the highest level provides all available features. The user is guided by menus which are displayed upon operaton of the function keys.