Various Purposes and Role of Selective Dissemination of Information Service in an Academic Library

Introduction
Selective dissemination of information (SDI) designed and developed by the Indian school of thought and it was tested by Hanspeter Luhn at the IBM for personalized information service to serve the IBM scientists and engineers fascinated many as a new channel of communication and several information scientists and system analysis began to develop the Selective dissemination of information service as a sub system of the total information services provided by the information centre.
Definition of Selective dissemination of information service
Selective dissemination of information is defined as the system to be one, which selectively and automatically disseminated information about new documents, to research workers who had potentials interest in these materials.
Objectives of Selective dissemination of information
1. To provide current information on a particular subject.
2. To receive, scan and provide the literature to right users.
3. To notify the latest information about the particular subject clearly.
4. To delegate the computer base technique for relating current profile of information to the interest of users.
5. To achieve current requirements through the scan of journals, current awareness bulletins, and other important resources.
6. Expeditious service/time saving.
Characteristics of Selective dissemination of information
It is a current awareness service meant to keep its user abreast of the latest development in the field of his interest. Selective dissemination of information is a personalized service meant for an individual or a group of the users having identical information need and it is a quick service which provides the pinpointed information.
Need Selective dissemination of information service for Academic Library;
? The literature output is at present doubling every decade.
? The volumes of record information are growing exponentially.
? The users don’t have time for reading.
? To satisfy the researchers information requirement and their needs.
Purpose of Academic Library.
The following are academic library purposes
? Providing user friendly services to users.
? To encourage and motivate the users to develop the life long habit of good learning.
? To provide standard current periodical literature and good reference books.
? To motivate the users reading habit and improve their research knowledge skills.
Steps involved in Selective dissemination of information
The requirements of information is being collected from each user and converted into machine readable form called User profile. Every new document enters the system. A document record is prepared and this is also converted into machine readable form called document profile. The new record is compared by the computers with profiles. When a document record matches a users profile. It is recorded as Hit for that file. The details of the hits corresponding to each profile are then printed on the computer and sent to the client whose profile it has.
Mechanism or procession of Selective dissemination of information
The mechanism of Selective dissemination of information requires few basic components which are as follows;
? Construction of user profile
? Construction of document profile
? Updating of user profile
? Matching document profile with users profile.
Role of Selective dissemination of information service in Academic library.
The academic library provides various services particularly SDI service is important part in the library services. Because the fundamental aim of library is to provide the right information at the right time to right users. The following are benefits of SDI service.
? To invite research scholar and interest users.
? To satisfy the researchers requirements and their needs.
? To access latest and particular subject information very quickly.
? To motivate the research mind and knowledge skills.
? To avoid the time less and unwanted information utilizes.
? To provide quality and current awareness literature.
Conclusion;
Most contributions in the Selective dissemination of information service have provided the current information on particular subject and it is received, scanned and provided the literature to right users. This paper concluded that the Selective dissemination of information service is major role in the researcher and interest users. Selective dissemination of information system is a very dynamic system for catering information to the users and it can be go a long way for buttering the scientific communication.
REFERENCE
Guha, B. “Information and its communication”. World press: Calcutta, 1983.
Khanna, J.K. “Administration of Academic libraries”. ESS publication: New Dehli, 1985.
Prasher, R.G.Ed., “Library and Information Science: Parameters and perspectives”. Concept publishing limited.
Syed Fazle, “The changing Frontier of Library and information science”. Comment wealth publishers: New Delhi, 1994.