German research ministry furthers the setup of a central port of call on the internet for the provision of information to German research and technology
Fiz Karlsruhe and TIB have launched a unique online shop, dedicated to the supply of electronic and print publications in all areas of science and technology.
The special advantage of the new GetInfo service is that it encompasses all of today's publication forms, kinds of delivery, and models of offerings for sci-tech specialist literature of a multitude of publishers and authors - all through one single internet access.
GetInfo combines library lending, electronic single articles sale of journal articles, subscription models, free publications from universities, institutes, and companies, as well as individual literature provision through experienced specialists.
This new literature broker service is a move initiated by public enterprise and specialists in the field in order to help smooth the ever faster growing transition from print to electronic documents.
GetInfo is being supported by the German ministry of education and research in the framework of the German federal government's digital library programme.
A central task of GetInfo is the setup and enhancement of a full-text server providing digitised documents and convenient search options using the bibliographic data of the content.
Scientific authors and publishers are offered the opportunity to submit their documents directly to GetInfo for indexing, online availability, long-term archiving, and marketing.
The new online literature shop is the result of a merger of two well-known electronic document delivery services, Tiborder from TIB, and Fiz AutoDoc from Fiz Karlsruhe. Hence GetInfo offers online technology, functionalities, and service that have been continuously developed over the years to meet customers' needs and proved effective.
This technology will enable users, among other things, to order primary literature directly from the TIB catalogue and in the near future even from one of STN International's specialist databases while in an online session.
Orders of publications that are not available in TIB's holdings are carried out by major international libraries with whom Fiz Karlsruhe and TIB Hannover maintain cooperation agreements.
In total, 50,000 current journals, among them 522 in electronic version, can be accessed. Using the GetInfo 'Browse eJournals' functionality, customers can conveniently browse the indices of these journals for free.
Moreover, GetInfo cooperates with national and international universities and research institutions with the purpose of making available technical research literature.
This so-called 'grey literature', which is not readily accessible through commercial bookselling channels, comprises for example German research reports, papers from universities and research institutions, conference proceedings, dissertations as well as relevant preprints and reports.
