INIS Activities

As a service to its members, INIS has operated on cooperative principles since its inaguration in 1970. INIS Collection consists of a bibliographic database and a collection of non-conventional literature (NCL). It is by far the largest IAEA information source on nuclear science and technology. INIS continually evolves and adjusts to changes in political and technological information requirements, the needs of its users and new information management practices.

Main INIS activities include:

 

INIS Database Updating and Management

In cooperation with Member States and international organizations, INIS updates and manages annual input of around 120,000 new records. Every input record to the INIS Database is checked by experts of the INIS Secretariat assuring the correctness and quality of the bibliographic description and subject analysis (classification, indexing and abstracting).

INIS Members submit input, i.e. nuclear literature published in their country or by their international organization, to the INIS Secretariat in machine-readable form, via Internet (e-mail/FTP), on CD-ROM or other media, in a standardized format conforming to the guidelines in the INIS Reference Series and ETDE/INIS Reference Series.

Most input centres utilize the PC based input preparation package 'FIBRE' (Friendly Inputting of Bibliographic Records) which has been designed by INIS in cooperation with the national INIS Centres of Brazil and the Russian Federation.

FIBRE is a tool used by INIS Centres to streamline their input preparation, ensure higher quality and consistency, reduce costs through fewer corrections, and improve processing time.

Once the input reaches the INIS Secretariat, bibliographic descriptions of records are verified with checking programs; errors are identified and corrected by specialists in INIS Secretariat. Records are then converted by programs into an internal working format and processed.

The indexing and abstracting of records is subjected to a continuing quality control based on an Expert System. This system identifies records with a high probability of error for scrutiny by subject specialists of the INIS Secretariat. Their corrections and comments are passed on to the subject specialists in the national INIS Centres.

At the end of each processing cycle a final consolidated output file is created. This final file becomes the input to further programs that:

  • create the INIS output files in the INIS exchange format (ISO-2709);
  • create the INIS Database for online and CD-ROM retrieval.

An important activity at the INIS Secretariat is the treatment of non-conventional literature (NCL) submitted by INIS Members. Full texts of such literature are received in electronic form or hard copy, converted to pdf (full-text searchable) and processed for distribution on CD-ROM, and via e-mail or FTP.

A user-friendly version of the INIS Database is available on the web. It offers direct on-line access to over three million bibliographic records and many full-text documents of non-conventional ("grey") literature in pdf format. INIS Database is available here.

 

Computer Assisted Indexing

A system for computer assisted indexing was developed to support the subject analysis by suggesting descriptors in analysing titles and abstracts of bibliographic records produced by INIS Members, the INIS Secretariat, or purchased from publishers. 

Preservation of Non-Conventional Nuclear Publications

INIS unique collection of, over 700 000 full-text documents of non-conventional "grey" literature (NCL), available on microfiche, is being digitized and made available through the INIS Database to users around the world.

The INIS NCL collection on microfiche is being digitized at an annual rate of about one million pages. Other IAEA publications, policy documents and full-text reports from Member States are also being digitized and made available in electronic format.

 

Creation of the INIS Multilingual Thesaurus

INIS specialists from Member States and the IAEA have developed a controlled vocabulary for indexing and searching the INIS Database. As a result of systematic study over the years the INIS Thesaurus has evolved to over 30 000 terms. It is available in all official languages of the IAEA: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, as well as in German. It represents a unique multilingual thesaurus in the nuclear field.    Details

 

Capacity Building (Training and Distance Learning)

To assist its Member States, the IAEA transfers knowledge and know-how in data collection and information processing, in particular to developing countries and new INIS Members. It also helps establish national INIS Centres in developing countries. Training seminars for staff of national INIS and the INIS Distance Learning Programme on the Internet and on CD-ROM support these efforts.

INIS Distance Learning is intended and highly recommended for use by staff working in INIS centres for training in all aspects of input preparation and utilization. Currently, the INIS Distance Learning Program consists of 2 major courses for input preparation:

  • Bibliographic Description Course
    This Course provides detailed information on how to provide bibliographic description of input to the INIS Database. Procedures and guidelines for creating a bibliographic record, guidelines for "tags", entering special characters, etc. are all included.
  • Subject Analysis Course
    This course assists the learner in how to collect documents within the INIS subject scope. INIS category codes are identified. Subject classification, indexing, abstracting and title augmentation are also included.
 

INIS Progress and Activity Reports