The Model and Principles of Building an Automated Library and Information System

Abstract

The concepts of a scientific library and a network scientific library are clarified. The role of scientific network libraries in solving issues of information support for scientific research and specific scientists is shown. It is noted that the Library of Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (BEN RAS) is a classic online scientific library, with more than 50 divisions. In this paper, the network technology of an automated library and information system (ALIS) is understood as a single automated library complex, which includes a geographically ungrouped system of terminals combined into a single system by means of connections, communication equipment, software, data transmission protocols, and control and computing tasks. The main requirements for network technologies include their ease of use; the ability to access other networks and systems and the internet; high data transfer speed; and high information security. The generations of the development of the ALIS are considered, and it is noted that the attention is attracted by open source ALIS. The basic principles of building an ALIS network library are formulated, which are presented in the form of three blocks: methodological, technological, and linguistic. A general model of network ALIS has been developed using the example of BEN RAS, which includes the main technological blocks: management of all processes; acquisition of information funds; processing of all information resources entering the AIS and resources of its own generation; storage of information resources: traditional and electronic, to be stored and used in information service processes; and user services. The key connecting element is the information need both for the formation of information resources included in the ALIS and for the organization of an information support system for scientific research. The peculiarities of the network structure are that the information support unit uses different classification systems and different levels of categorization to match user requests more accurately, whereas the formation of information arrays takes place, as a rule, at the upper level of one or another classification system chosen as the main one.