Virtual library of
electronic resources in Linguistics with special reference to India.
Dr B.A.Sharada
CIIL, Mysore
Abstract
The present study focuses on
electronic information in Linguistics available on internet and provides a
guideline to the users where to locate what in the enormous world of digital
environment.
Introduction
“SAVE THE TIME OF THE
READER” is one of the laws of library science derived by S.R.Ranganathan that is applicable to library of documents in any form such as
books, microforms, digital/electronic, etc. In the broadest sense, a virtual
library is a system by which users access information that resides solely in
electronic format on computer networks, without respect to physical location of
the information.(Pacifici 1997). Many articles are published on both virtual
library and electronic information resources and their advantage over printed
media. Among the electronic formats such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, Magnetic
tapes, OPAC’s of library collection, the information available on internet,
etc. the last one is focused in the present study.
Understanding the users’
need in the present day circumstances and helping them with right information
at right time has become absolutely necessary. The information technology has
innovated tremendously in achieving these goals. Aspects relevant to our needs
could be picked up and applied in appropriate manner. This adds to the
responsibilities of the information scientists. Design and development of
domain specific Virtual library is one of those. The present
study concentrates on
the discipline Linguistics.
Purpose
of the study
There is no second
thought about the abundance of information in the internet. Keeping this in
view, getting the right path and going through each and every link file is time
consuming for the researcher. Though meta data is helpful in getting the
required document, to get in touch with the domain specific meta data is also a
point to be thought of. One simple and practical example: In the
process of collecting
the data for the present study, the phrase “linguistics search engine” was
given to the following:
Google search retrieved
44,500, Altavista 38,992 and Alltheweb 90,430 results.
From this, one can
ascertain up to what extent we can rely on these search engines. All listed
ones will not be actual search engines. It includes an individual’s
contribution, those of organizational, commercial, etc. In fact it is not an
easy task to go through all the sites they list out. Many studies have proved
that no single search engine is self sufficient in any information retrieval
process. Google is the most popular example of a search facility. While discussing search engines,
Phil Bradley compares two popular search engines and suggests that Alltheweb
has overtaken Alta Vista in terms of general usefulness (Hunter 2001).
Alltheweb combines many of the best features of other search engines and has
customizable interfaces I have seen in a very long time (Bradley 2001).
Following Table displays how many web sites
are there in each theme in Linguistics. And most of the sites cover all aspects
such as printed and electronic books, journals and dissertations,
Institutions, etc.
Applied Linguistics (14)
Bilingualism (70)
Comparative Linguistics and Typology (6)
Computational Linguistics (85)
Computer Assisted Language Learning (28)
Constructed Languages (328)
Dialectology (21)
Discourse Analysis (11)
Graphemics and Orthography (57)
Historical Linguistics (45)Morphology and Syntax (25)
Natural Languages (3,252)
Onomastics (13)
Philosophy of Language (154)
Phonetics and Phonology (71)
Pragmatics (20)
Psycholinguistics (25)
Semantics (43)
Semiotics (94)
Sociolinguistics (11)
Translation (151)
To bring the web nearer to the user in a
user friendly manner, if research libraries take up the creation of domain specific virtual
libraries and design the information media with pointers, it will be of immense
help to the whole research community.
Kinds
of Information Available
Information
in the internet at the global level is a representative of many kinds of
information available in different forms such as:
Books,
Periodicals, Dissertations, Reports, etc.
The
information requirement can also be seen in
·
Biographical information of Linguists
·
Reference Works
·
Institutions/Organizations in Linguistics
·
Other information resources on the
internet
Also
linguists can basically get two kinds of information:
§ Information on ‘Publications’ both
printed and digital that are published
§ Information itself such as papers,
articles, etc., that are sometimes unpublished.
The former includes digitized
bibliographic database which can be accessed online by registered members and
in few cases non-members also. In some cases even the membership is charged.
Some sites are commercial and some are academic. Based on this criterion the
sites listed in the present study are chosen. One thing the reader has to keep
in mind is that, the web sites change
their agenda quite often wherein time is immaterial.
Tools
to Access the Information
The
Home page named as Virtual Library in Linguistics (VLL) is created using the
Microsoft front page. Under each heading, its related sites are listed with
link to each one of them to the internet..
CONTENTS
1. Books 2. Journals
3. Linguists 4. Institutions
5. All in One 6. Other
E-Information Resources 7. Supporting
sites
How
to use Specific Tools
Books
in VLL
Priority in this venture
is to help readers to refer to books. First and foremost thing is to create a
place for books in linguistics in the VLL Home page. With the result, Home page
acts as a base that links to the sites from where one can retrieve information
about books. A single click on one of the sites listed under books will open
the particular database on Books on Linguistics in most of the cases. It is not only helpful to readers but also
helpful in selecting the relevant books for the library.
Etnologue is available
in CD-ROM version also. In addition to
these sites, few Universities and Academic Institutions where the section on
faculty gives publications under each faculty and some professors allow open
access and down loading of their papers. For example: The site of Education
Policy survey of Arizona
State University is useful for information on Language planning.
Journals
Journals are seen in
print format and electronic journals. Example : For print journals in
linguistics, a click on CIIL journals will list out the journals subscribed by
CIIL library in print format. Link file for each journal shall give the
holdings page.
For electronic journals,
a click on Virtual library shall lead to many links. For example: Under
the title, Arts - Language Studies and Linguistics NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
lists Electronic Journals. A click on latest journals in the web page
lists those journals. Each journal has link files. The same site further
classifies into the following categories and links those items to the
document.
Working
papers in linguistics
Monographs
Journals
Conferences
Lectures
In the item Journals
mentioned above, list of publishers are given. For example, a click on
Oxford University Press will list
out few journals with full link files. A click on each journal will open
up wide information about the
same. In case of EBSCO database since
it is ready to use database, no
work remains to be done
on our part other than just guiding the users to go in proper way to retrieve
the data. Full text is available either in html or pdf formats for few articles
here and abstract available for the most. The EBSCO database monitors
journals referred at the global level
irrespective of discipline. But one has to subscribe for
the database. One important on line journal devoted to Indic articles in Linguistics is Language in
India available at the site
http://www.languageinindia/ .
Linguists
AltaVista has sites dedicated to searching in
21 countries. Choose a country and a click on that will display the Linguists
of that nation. If the names are not listed, the required information may be
provided in a prescribed form in the same site. In the similar way sites such
as Excite and The
Linguist List.
Institutions
The http://www.ciil.org/
site gives the Directory of Organizations and Institutions devoted to Language
and Literature in India. A provision is made to update the Directory by
providing the contact ID in the site. Also a click on All India shall take to a
site that covers most of the Organizations and Institutions in India
alphabetically. Linguistic Institutions are also included.
Other
E-Information Resources
Bibliographies, Census
data-India, Tribal Languages-India, Dissertations, Languages of the world,
Indian languages, Language map of India, IT News and Reference Sources.
Reference
Sources
The
Oxford English Dictionary, the Grove Dictionary of Art, and the large reference
works published by the Gale Group are pioneers in this gradual mobilization of
reference resources to the worldwide web. (Hodgkin, 2001). Many Dictionaries
and Encyclopedias are available in CDROM form .For reference sources on Indian
languages, one may depend upon
http://www.internetcount.com/~educa.
End
remarks
The
E-world keeps on changing as well as expanding. Best to keep oneself updated in research development in a
discipline is to keep in touch with the popular sites in that particular
discipline.
References
Bradley,Phil.2001.Goodbye
Altavista,hallo Alltheweb. Ariadne Issue 30
Hunter,Philip
2001.Centering the periphery: A new equity in information access?
Ariadne Issue 30
Pacifici(SI)1997.Virtual
Libraries:Myth and reality.Posted January.
Vol.3;Archived
February 14,1997.(http://www.llrx.com/features/virtual.htm)
Perez,
Ernest 2002. Web Search Agents.Online,Mar/Apr,Vol 26(2), p20
Marieke
Napier 2001.The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search
Engines
Can't see. Ariadne Issue 30 [Review on
the book Chris Sherman and
Gary
Price The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines
Can’t
see Cyber Age Books, 2001. ISBN 0-910965-51-X
Adam
Hodgkin, 2001.Reference books on the web, Ariadne Issue 30
BACK