Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : Issue 4, 2005

A Century of Engineering Indexed: Inspec^® Now Back to 1898

As library space becomes a premium, print copies of early abstracts journals are becoming scarce. To overcome this, Inspec digitized the entire collection of Science Abstracts Journals (back to volume one) dating from 1898 to 1968. The Science Abstracts Journals were the precursor to the Inspec database. The subject coverage includes:

• All aspects of physics (originally published as Physics Abstracts)
  
  
• Electrical and electronic engineering (introduced as a separate journal in 1903, and originally published as Electrical and Electronic Abstracts)
  
  
• Computing and control engineering (introduced as a separate journal in 1966, and published initially as Control Abstracts, later renamed to Computer and Control Abstracts)

An archival backfile has been produced containing:

• Over 873,700 records
  
  
• The original value-added indexing and classifications
  
  
• Enhancements in the form of the nearest equivalent current Inspec Thesaurus Terms and Inspec Classification Codes
  
  
• Conference proceedings, books, journals, reports and dissertations
  
  
• Longer abstracts than today varying in length from half a page to several pages including diagrams and complex mathematical proofs because hard copy originals were less accessible

Dialog Implementation

On Dialog, the archive has been loaded into a separate file—File 202. The archive is available either on a purchase basis (i.e., ownership in perpetuity), on a site-license basis or transactionally. Transactional pricing is listed on the Bluesheet; for purchase or site-license pricing contact your account manager. To accommodate the addition of the archive and to make searching for customers as easy as possible, the following changes have been made to the current file numbers:

• File 2: now covers all data from 1898 to date (previously covered data from 1969 to date)
  
  
• File 3: 1969 to date (previously covered the time period 1969 to 1982 which has been discontinued)
  
  
• File 4: 1983 to date (no change)
  
  
• File 202: 1898 to 1968

For any questions regarding the Inspec Archive or the changes in file numbers, please contact your account manager or the Knowledge Center. The DataStar service is also in the process of loading the Inspec Archive. Look for notification in future newsletters.

top