28 International Information Systems: Services and Products: INIS

Shalini Lihitkar Waghmare

I. Objectives

• The objectives of this module are: to explain the history of INIS, its structuring, collection, products and publications, and services. The module will also cover India’s role in INIS and its activities and services for scientists requiring nuclear information in India.

II. Learning Outcome

After studying this module, you will learn about the International Nuclear Information system (INIS), its history, Restructuring, Collection, Products and services. INIS a cooperative, decentralized computerized abstracting and indexing system providing worldwide coverage of the literature on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. You will be informed about the history, collection, activities and services of INIS. INIS maintains, in co-operation with its members, a database with currently over 3.3 million bibliographic references and a collection of 300,000 unique full-text publications. You will also be able to know the importance of INIS and its services in Nuclear Sciences for research community. Lastly, you will be acquainted with India’s participation in INIS.

III. Module Structure

1. Introduction

2. History

3. INIS Description

3.1 INIS Restructuring

4. INIS Collection

5. INIS Products and Publications

6. INIS Services

6.1 Outreach and promotion

6.2 Capacity building (Training and distance learning)

6.2.1 INIS Training Seminars

6.2.2 INIS Distance Learning Program

6.2.3 Technical Co-operation Assistance

6.2.3.1 Regional Training

6.2.3.2 Fellowships and Scientific Visits

7. INIS in India

8. Summary

9. References

1. Introduction

The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) is the world’s leading information system on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. INIS is operated by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Vienna started functioning in 1970. INIS covers all aspects of the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, from nuclear reactors, reactor safety and nuclear fusion to applications of radiation and radioisotopes in medicine, agriculture or industry. Many other related topics, like environmental, legal and social aspects associated with nuclear energy, as well as economic and environmental aspects of non- nuclear energy sources are also covered.

INIS maintains, in co-operation with its members, a database with currently over 3.3 million bibliographic references and a collection of 300,000 unique full-text publications, which has been in operation since 1970 with127 countries and 24 international organizations are INIS Members at present.

INIS is not only having conventional literature which is commercially available through regular distribution channels, such as books and magazines, INIS also makes available other forms of literature such as scientific and technical reports, patent documentation, conference proceedings, doctoral thesis and some legal documents, commonly referred to as non- conventional or grey literature and which are difficult to obtain elsewhere. The INIS collection is freely available online since April 2009, providing easy access to reliable nuclear information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, and making nuclear knowledge readily available worldwide.

2. History

INIS represents a wealth of experience and an extensive pool of information in the nuclear field. The first INIS output products, the printed Atom index and associated magnetic tapes, were issued in April 1970. INIS has since grown into one of the most successful and comprehensive information systems on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.

Year	Development
1966	International system proposed
1967	INIS Secretariat established
1969	IAEA Board of Governors approved the system
1970	First products generated in printed and electronic forms INIS membership comprises 39 Member States and 11 international organizations First training course held
1971	INIS Thesaurus developed and adopted for documents indexing
1973	Full subject scope covered
1976	Abstracts added to references

1977	100 000 NCL full texts on microfiche available
1978	INIS Database accessible on traditional online system
1979	French INIS Thesaurus completed
1981	Russian INIS Thesaurus completed
1982	German INIS Thesaurus completed
1983	INIS Multilingual Dictionary (English-French-German-Russian) completed
1985	First definition of Membership Arrangements distributed 250 000 NCL full texts on microfiche available
1986	One million database references available
1990	Expert system for indexing quality control implemented Input preparation software FIBRE introduced
1991	INIS Database available on CD-ROM
1992	Expansion of subject scope to include the environmental and economic aspects of non-nuclear energy sources
1993	Routine receipt of input to the system by electronic mail
1994	Definition of membership arrangements INIS Mission Statement revised Spanish INIS Thesaurus completed
1995	INIS Multilingual Dictionary (English-French-German-Russian-Spanish) completed
1996	INIS Web Site launched 500 000 NCL full texts on microfiche available
1997	Two million database references available New electronic technology implemented, and INIS NCL full texts available on CD- ROM; Start of electronic document delivery service INIS computer based training package on CD-ROM released
1998	INIS Database on Internet launched INIS Data Processing System launched (all processing done on-line)
2000	INIS Web services launched INIS Distance Learning Program on Internet launched Definition of membership arrangements revised
2004	INIS2 – a regional portal site – opened at the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) INIS given new role in nuclear knowledge preservation and management Computer-assisted indexing (CAI) system started in the INIS Secretariat Two and a half million database references available
2005	INIS 35th anniversary (1970-2005)
2006	INIS membership comprises 116 Member States and 22 international organizations INIS Multilingual Dictionary (Arabic-English-Chinese-French-German-Russian- Spanish) completed INIS Database includes 2.7 million bibliographic references and about 700 000 full-text documents
2008	Three million bibliographic references available on the INIS database INIS Database Open Access Pilot Project launched in seven countries
2009	Opening of the access to the INIS Database on the Internet
2010	INIS 40th Anniversary (1970-2010) INIS membership comprises 123 Member States and 24 international organizations INIS launches a new website

2011

INIS web-based popular topics replace topical CD-ROMs

INIS launches new Google-based web search of its collection

On 1 September INIS moved to Google-based search and retired old INIS online database

2012

INIS, together with the IAEA Library and the Systems Development and Support Group become part of a newly formed Nuclear Information Section (NIS)

INIS implemented a mobile version of its website

Table 1: Major developments in INIS

3. INIS Description

The International Nuclear Information System (INIS)hosts one of the world’s largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. It offers online access to a unique collection of non-conventional literature. INIS is operated by the IAEA in collaboration with over 150 members.

The International Nuclear Information System (INIS) is a decentralized information system operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria in co- operation with its Member States and co-operating international organizations. It is the world´s leading information system on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. INIS maintains a database of over 3 million bibliographic references and announces the availability of scientific literature published world-wide on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It also maintains a collection of full text documents that would be difficult to obtain elsewhere.

3. 1 INIS Restructuring

The Director General of the IAEA approved the overall restructuring of the Department of Nuclear Energy (NE) on 20 January 2012. This included the creation of the Nuclear Information Section (NIS) and the establishment of a separate Nuclear Knowledge Management Section.

The newly created Nuclear Information Section consists of:

• INIS Unit

• IAEA Library Unit

• Systems Development and Support Group

This restructuring and creation of NIS provides an opportunity for further enhancement of existing information products and services, and the introduction of new ones – all geared towards the goal of higher organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

4. INIS Collection

Participants of the INIS comprise member states of the IAEA and some international organisation. The scope and subject matter of INIS is peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology; other aspects of nuclear energy and nuclear documentation. Input is received from participating countries and international organizations.

• INIS is having 3.3 million bibliographic records. It offers online access to a unique set of non conventional literature (NCL) of over 280,000 full-text documents, such as scientific and technical reports, conference proceedings, patents and theses, not available through commercial channels.

• Leading reference collection for scientific literature published worldwide on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology

• Comprehensive international coverage of scientific and technical literature carried out by INIS Members and the INIS Secretariat

• over 3.4 million bibliographic citations and abstracts of journal articles, scientific and technical reports, conference papers, books, patents, theses, laws, regulations and standards, and web documents, covering publications in 63 languages; all records include keywords and most have an abstract in English

• Includes a unique online collection of over 350 000 full-text documents: scientific and technical reports, conference proceedings, patents, theses, and preprints. This “grey” non-conventional literature (NCL) is not easily available from other sources

• Average annual increase of over 100 000 records.

5. INIS Products and Publications

• INIS Atom Index: a semi-monthly journal with semi-annual and annual cumulative indexes. Derived from the INIS database. It is an abstracts journal containing indexes to authors, report numbers, corporate names, subjects and conferences.

• INIS Reference Series: a set of documents containing rules, standards, formats, coder and authority lists used by the participants in the decentralized INIS program. The series is an essential tool for users, such as cataloguers, indexers, abstractors or searchers. The series has been published by the IAEA since 1969.

• IAEA-INIS/ETDE Thesaurus: “A thesaurus is a terminological control device used in translating from the natural language of documents, indexers or users into a more constrained ‘system language’ (document language, information language)”. It is also “a controlled and dynamic vocabulary of semantically and generically related terms which covers a specific domain of knowledge”. The INIS/ETDE Thesaurus is a major tool for describing nuclear information and knowledge in a structured form. The Thesaurus is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish languages. It is of great assistance in multilingual and semantic searches. Over the years the INIS/ETDE Thesaurus has evolved as a result of systematic study and it contains over 30 000 terms.

6. INIS Services

6.1 Outreach and promotion

Outreach and promotion of INIS is undertaken jointly by the INIS Secretariat in Vienna and INIS Liaison Officers in Member States. Its aim is to increase awareness of the INIS, its products and services, and to highlight the benefits for current and potential users. INIS Member States are responsible for organizing promotional activities in their countries while the INIS Secretariat assists by providing promotional and information materials. Activities include:

• Promotion at IAEA and other nuclear conferences, meetings, symposia and exhibitions with online and/or other demonstrations;

• Publishing articles in professional journals;

• INIS advertising in professional journals;

• Provision of promotional materials to hosts;

• Preparation and distribution of brochures, information sheets, and other promotional tools;

• INIS entries published in directories world-wide.

6.2 Capacity building (Training and distance learning)

The INIS Training Program is designed to meet a number of objectives:

• Establishment and improvement of a national information infrastructure in Member States

• Transfer of modern information technology

• Fostering exchange of scientific and technical information

• High quality and coverage of the INIS Database

• Maximum utilization of INIS output products

• Responsiveness to Member States’ needs Currently the INIS Training Program comprises:

6.2.1 INIS Training Seminars

INIS Training Seminars are generally held usually every other year in Vienna. The seminars are funded and staffed by INIS and emphasize INIS input skills and use of INIS output products. All aspects of INIS operations are addressed in the training events organized by the IAEA for INIS members, including selection criteria, abstracting, descriptive cataloguing, indexing, retrieval, marketing and promotion. The training events are aimed at assisting INIS Members in training personnel newly involved in input preparation and utilization of output products.

6.2.2 INIS Distance Learning Program

The INIS Distance Learning Program provides comprehensive instructions about input preparation in both: Bibliographic Description and Subject Analysis, and usage of the INIS database. The program is available free on CD-ROM, for individualized, self-paced study addressed to the staff of the INIS Centres.

6.2.3 Technical Co-operation Assistance

Through the IAEA Department of Technical Co-operation, the INIS Secretariat provides assistance to developing countries participating in INIS in establishing and operating information systems on nuclear energy.

6.2.3.1 Regional Training

Regional Training is sponsored by the IAEA Technical Co-operation Department in conjunction with the INIS Secretariat. It is generally related to Technical Co-operation Projects and is hosted by a Member State in the Region.

6.2.3.2 Fellowships and Scientific Visits

Fellowships and scientific visits are also sponsored by the IAEA Technical Co-operation Department in conjunction with INIS. A Fellowship is designed for junior staff members in Member States, generally has two to three month duration in a single geographic area, and constitutes on-the-job training. A Scientific Visit is designed for senior staff in a Member State and has duration of one to three weeks in more than one location.

7. INIS in India

India has been actively participating in INIS from the very beginning. The Library and Information Services Division of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, is the National Centre responsible for INIS activities in India. BARC is a Government research institute in the field of nuclear science and technology under the Department of Atomic Energy, India. The Centre has been quite successful in collecting information on the subject, sending the same to the centralized processing unit and the receiving and passing on the output the users in the country. From Indian centre, total number of 54554records have been input from 1970-Sep 2013. The average number of records input in the last five years are 1967, except in the year 2013. More than 2000 records have been input from the year 2011 onwards. Collection of literature in the centre is from various sources of the country which includes conferences, journals (print/online/open sources), books/monographs and technical reports.

7.1 Activities

Some of the activities of the INIS inputting Centre, India are:

• INIS DVDs service Area Network (LAN) and online INIS through online getaway of BARC,

• Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI),

• Demo-Cum-Training on INIS Database,

• Distribute of INIS Brochures and promotional materials at conferences/symposia in India,

• Conducting training programmes on setting up INIS Inputting Centers in other member countries,

• Document Delivery Service, for example, countries like Brazil, Canada, France, Korea are regular requesters

• Development of INIS supporting software tools:

• INIS Libsoft (for converting DVD Rom bibliographic data to MS Excel sheets), and

• Libdata: a software tool (Winfibre matrix file support with features like reverse author name with affiliation, insert automatic country code in tag).

• Arranging INIS Database demonstration at various conferences/symposium/poster presentation,

• Nuclear News Collection: This involves selection of nuclear and Department of Atomic energy related news from subscribed newspapers, their digitalisation in order to provide the scientists and engineers in the BARC campus through LAN as a current awarness service (CAS), and

• SIRB-Scientific Information Resource Bulletin: A Monthly News Bulletin published as an promotional activity of subscribed and open Database including INIS, conference proceedings, journals, and other digital resources within the centre.

8. Summary

INIS is the world´s leading information system on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology. INIS maintains a database of over 3.3 million bibliographic references and announces the availability of scientific literature published world-wide on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It also maintains a collection of full text documents that would be difficult to obtain elsewhere. Currently the INIS database on Internet contains over 3.3 million bibliographic references. Bibliographic metadata is often supplemented by an English abstract. Full-text documents represent around 10% of the collection. This unique set of non- conventional or grey literature is also fully searchable. INIS offers news and information, such as special events, presentations, training, newsletters or information materials, from INIS Centres around the world.

9. References

“http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_Nuclear_Information_Syste m&oldid=543516003” Retrieved on 2-6-2013.
“INIS research database available on-line”. Stanford.edu. 2009-04-14. Retrieved 30- 05-2013.
“International Nuclear Information System“. UNESCO. Retrieved on 5-5 -2013.
“Nuclear information system on the web”. iGovernment.in. 2009-04-09. Retrieved – on 30-05-2013.
http://www.iaea.org/ Retrieved on 2-6-2013.
http://www.iaea.org/inis/products-services/publications/index.html Retrieved on 2-6-2013.
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2010/inis-faqs.html Retrieved on 12-10-2013.
Information Sources, Systems and Programmes-2. Course material of IGNOU School of Social Sciences. Unit -8.pp.81.,1994, New Delhi.
Video about INIS in the 70’s Retrieved on 2-6-2013 www.iaea.org/inis Retrieved on 2-6-2013.