Developments in electronic access to biomedical information: a database producer's view
| Date | 01 April 1995 |
| Published date | 01 April 1995 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045376 |
| Pages | 287-292 |
| Author | Annette Herholdt |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
Developments in electronic access to
biomedical information: a database
producer's view
Annette Herholdt
Secondary
Publishing
Division,
Elsevier Science
E-mail:
annette.herholdt@cityscape.co. uk
Abstract: In the
past,
the convergence and simultaneous appearance of
technological innovation and change has brought about the means and the
methods for accessing biomedical information
online.
The
situation has not
changed but the means and the methods are themselves beginning to undergo
innovation and change, mainly as a result of technological progress but also,
most
importantly,
as a result of changing patterns of usage and new user groups.
This paper will discuss various emerging technologies as the basis which will
determine how biomedical data in electronic
format,
such as that held in the
EMBASE database, could be accessed in the future. From the point of view of the
database producer, the questions on this topic which have to be answered are, in
order of importance: given an ideal
world,
what is the user wish-list?; what are
the new technologies and how do they affect our current products?; and, using
this new
technology,
how can we make products which will meet the
user
wish-list?
It will be seen that the results of applying technological development to online
access to biomedical
data,
or any other type of bibliographic data for that
matter,
will be transparent to the
user,
and that
online
searching for the end-user will
become easier than we could ever have
imagined.
What I will say
is
not an announcement of
where
EMBASE
is
heading
over
the
next
decade,
but some speculation in the most general terms of where any
bibliographic database could develop in this period Much depends on the
simultaneous arrival on the information scene of mutually-compatible
technologies. Much also depends on the desires and preferences of
the
customers,
for as much as they may malign us at times it
is
true that they are at the heart of
our business.
'Even die-hard media sceptics
will... recognise that, within 20-30
years,
"the machine" will be the
normal means of information access
and information communication.
The big advantage of "the ma-
chine" will be that everyone is con-
nected to it, and information can be
stored and imparted via "the ma-
chine" in the medium, or combina-
tion of
media,
best suited to the in-
formation (text, still pictures,
graphics, sound, motion video)'
(Collier
1993,
p.21).
1.
Introduction
Developments in electronic access to
biomedical information are dependent
on three elements:
• the people who create that
information: both the primary
producers (researchers, etc.) and
the secondary producers
(database producers);
• the available technology;
• the people who access and use
the information thus presented
(the users).
This paper will discuss various
emerging technologies as the basis
which will determine how biomedical
data in electronic format, such as that
held in the EMBASE database, could
be accessed in the future. For obvious
reasons the emphasis in the paper
is
on
biomedical information, but of course
it could apply to information in any
field of science and technology and
even in the human sciences.
From the point of view of the data-
base producer, the questions on this
topic which have to be answered
are,
in
order of importance:
• given an ideal world, what is the
user wish-list?
• what are the new technologies
and how do they affect our
current products?
• using this new technology, how
can we make products which
users want?
It will be seen that the main results
of applying technological develop-
ment to online access to biomedical
data — or any other type of bibliog-
raphic data, for that matter — are:
• a wider choice of information
products;
• different, simplified, means of
gaining access to these.
2.
Background
If we begin to examine where we are
going and by what means we are at-
tempting to get there, in the context of
access to electronic information,
it
will
be seen that although the creators of
the information play an immeasurably
important role, the process of gaining
access to it has been largely deter-
mined by technological progress.
The Electronic Library, Vol. 13, No. 4, August 1995 287
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