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Submitted on 1 Jan 1978
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THE PASCAL SYSTEM : AN IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO THE DOCUMENTATION ON LOW
TEMPERATURE PHYSICS.
C. Degen
To cite this version:
C. Degen. THE PASCAL SYSTEM : AN IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO THE DOCUMENTATION ON
LOW TEMPERATURE PHYSICS.. Journal de Physique Colloques, 1978, 39 (C6), pp.C6-1252-C6-
1253. �10.1051/jphyscol:19786553�. �jpa-00218042�
JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE Colloque C6, supplPment au no 8, Tome 39, aoat 1978, page
C6-1252
THE PASCAL SYSTEM
:
AN I M M E D I A T E ACCESS TO THE DOCUMENTATION ONLOW
TEMPERATURE P H Y S I C S ,C. Degen
Centre de Docwnentation du C.N.R.S., 26 m e Boyer, 75971 Paris Cedex 20
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FranceA b s t r a c t . - We a r e d e s c r i b i n g t h e PASCAL system of t h e C.N.R.S. Documentation Centre which i s a m u l t i d i s c i p l i n a r y a a t a base. PASCAL i s a computer-based system f o r t h e a c q u i s i t i o n , p r o c e s s i n g and
s e l e c t i v e d i s s e m i n a t i o n of b i b l i o g r a p h i c a l information i n wide s c i e n t i f i c and t e c h n i c a l f i e l d s . The PASCAL system s u p p l i e s magnetic t a p e s , " B u l l e t i n s S i g n a l & t i q u e s l ' , documentary p r o f i l e s and r e t r o s - p e d t i v e r e t r i e v a l both i n b a t c h and on-line, p a r t i c u l a r l y i n low temperature physics.
The PASCAL (Programme Applied t o t h e Automa- t i c S e l e c t i o n and Compilation of L i t e r a t u r e ) compu- ter-based system i s used by INFORMASCIENCE f o r t h e a c q u i s i t i o n , p r o c e s s i n g and dissemination of roughly 500,000 bibliographicalreferences every y e a r which add on t o t h e 8,500,000 a l r e a d y e x i s t i n g .
THE PASCAL DATA-BASE.- I t i s a b a s i c a l l y encyclopae- d i c data-base a s r e g a r d s s c i e n t i f i c and t e c h n i c a l i n f o r m a t i o n ; i t encompasses a l l of t h e Fundamental Sciences, t h e E a r t h S c i e n c e s , t h e Engineering Scien- c e s , t h e B i o l o g i c a l a n d M e d i c a 1 Sciences and t h e Agri- c u l t u r a l Sciences.
The major p a r t of t h e sources of t h i s documentary f i l e i s made up of primary reviews coming from every country and covering a l l t h e s c i e n t i f i c and techni- c a l d i s c i p l i n e s . To t h i s must be added t h e s e s , semi- nar accounts, Research and Development r e p o r t s ( t h o s e of t h e D G R S T c h i e f l y ) , a b s t r a c t s of p a t e n t s a n d works, mainly t h e books published and sponsored by
t h e C.N.R.S.
The a r t i c l e s of t h e s e v a r i o u s documents a r e i d e n t i - f i e d a t one and t h e same time : I) by very p r e c i s e c a t a l o g u i n g ; 2) by an a n a l y s i s of t h e c o n t e n t s i n t h e form of a d e s c r i p t i v e summary l i s t i n g t h e essen- t i a l elements of t h e s t u d y ; 3 ) by a c l a s s i f i c a t i o n code ; 4 ) by indexing using c o n t r o l l e d vocabulary ( d e s c r i p t o r s ) and i d e n t i f i e r s .
WHAT IS SUPPLIED BY THE PASCAL SYSTEM.- A l l t h e catalogued, analysed and indexed documents a r e cap- t u r e d on magnetic tape. A f t e r c e r t a i n p r o c e s s i n g , t h i s t a p e w i l l s u p p l y v a r i o u s types of documentary products.
1. The magnetic tapes.- As t h e prime products of t h e PASCAL f i l e , t h e i r d i s s e m i n a t i o n can be pade t o r e f l e c t t h e u s e r ' s c e n t r e of i n t e r e s t (documenta-
r y u n i t , " B u l l e t i n S i g n a l & t i q u e t ' s e c t i o n o r magnetic tape p r o f i l e ) .
2. The " B u l l e t i n s Signaldtiques".- Each month a l l t h e d e s c r i p t i o n s s t o r e d a r e broken down using t h e c l a s s i f i c a t i o n code i n t o one o r s e v e r a l of t h e 49 s e c t i o n s corresponding t o a s c i e n t i f i c o r techni- c a l f i e l d (e.g. : S e c t i o n 145 : E l e c t r o n i c s ; Sec- t i o n 160 : S o l i d s t a t e p h y s i c s ; S e c t i o n 730 : F u e l s , energy). Each b u l l e t i n c o n t a i n s a l l of t h e r e f e r e n - c e s r e l a t i n g t o a f i e l d , s e t o u t a s p e r a c l a s s i f i - c a t i o n scheme drawn up i n c l o s e co-operation with s p e c i a l i s t s i n t h e f i e l d and, a s i s t h e case i n P h y s i c s , t h i s scheme i s cornon t o v a r i o u s French and f o r e i g n documentation c e n t r e s (C.N.R.S.
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I N -FORMASCIENCE, American I n s t i t u t e of P h y s i c s , Physi- k a l i s c h e B e r i c h t e , INSPEC-Physics A b s t r a c t s ) . Au-
t h o r and s u b j e c t indexes f i l l i n each b u l l e t i n and e a s e a c c e s s t o t h e information.
H i e r a r c h i c a l o r permuted indexes (both generated by computer a u t o m a t i c a l l y ) a r e formed fromkey-words chosen
amongst t h e indexing terms s t e m i n g from a c o n t r o l - l e d g l o s s a r y and which h i g h l i g h t t h e e s s e n t i a l f a - c e t s of t h e a r t i c l e : m a t e r i a l s ( e . g . : s u p e r f l u i d helium, s p i n g l a s s , type I1 superconductor, Joseph- s o n j u n c t i o n , phenomena, p r o c e s s e s o r p r o p e r t i e s ( e . g . K a p i t z a ' s r e s i s t a n c e , Kondo e f f e c t , h y p e r f i n e magnetic f i e l d ) , o p e r a t i n g c o n d i t i o n s (e.g. : low
temperature, high p r e s s u r e , i n t e r m e d i a t e e n e r g y ) , c a l c u l a t i n g methods (e.g. : Landau's model, renor- m a l i s a t i o n g r o u p ) , experimental techniques (e.g. : Mgssbauer spectrometry) o r a p p a r a t u s (e.g. : quan-
tum superconductor d e v i c e , c r y o e l e c t r o t e c h n o l o g y ) . 3 . The s e l e c t i v e d i s s e m i n a t i o n of information
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This makes i t p o s s i b l e t o provide "2 l a c a r t e "documentation i n t h e form of :
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s t a n d a r d p r o f i l e s with r e s p e c t t o conventionalArticle published online by EDP Sciences and available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/jphyscol:19786553
problems o r s p e a r h e a d t e c h n i q u e s , t h e l i s t s of which a r e r e g u l a r l y d i s t r i b u t e d t o l a b o r a t o r i e s and companies, and drawn up by t h e Documentation C e n t r e ( e . g . : s u p e r f l u i d h e l i u m ; s u p e r c o n d u c t i v i t y ; ma- t e r i a l p r o p e r t i e s ; m a g n e t i c domains).
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P e r s o n a l i z e d p r o f i l e s m e e t i n g a p a r t i c u l a r ques- t i o n from j u s t a n i n d i v i d u a l . ( T h i s c o u l d b e , f o r i n s t a n c e : S t u d y of t h e c r i t i c a l c u r r e n t i n t h e su- p e r c o n d u c t i v e a l l o y s c o n t a i n i n g l e a d ) .The m u l t i d i s c i p l i n a r y n a t u r e of t h e d a t a - b a s e a l l o w s a l l s o r t s of q u e s t i o n s t o b e answered, i n c l u d i n g t h o s e c o n c e r n i n g i n t e r s e c t o r i a l f i e l d s . I n t h i s way d a t a on s u p e r c o n d u c t o r s and m a g n e t i c ma- t e r i a l s i s a l s o of i n t e r e s t t o E l e c t r o n i c s and E l e c - t r o t e c h n i c s s p e c i a l i s t s .
4 . R e s t r o s p e c t i v e b i b l i o g r a p h i c a l r e t r i e v a l . - T h i s makes i t p o s s i b l e t o d i s s e m i n a t e c i t a t i o n s of documents p u b l i s h e d p r e v i o u s l y , u s i n g t h e computer.
The VIRA programme i s employed f o r t h e docu- mentary r e s e a r c h b o t h f o r t h e p r o f i l e s and t h e re- t r o s p e c t i v e r e t r i e v a l when b a t c h - p r o c e s s i n g . I t i s b a s e d o n t h e d i r e c t u t i l i z a t i o n of n a t u r a l l a n g u a g e
( c h a r a c t e r s t r i n g s ) . The operand c h a r a c t e r s t r i n g s ( d e s c r i p t o r s , c l a s s i f i c a t i o n code, language code e t c
...)
a r e c o l l e c t e d t o g e t h e r i n g r o u p s (26 g r o u p s p o s s i b l e each a b l e t o c o n t a i n up t o 126 terms com- p r i s i n g a maximum of 33 c h a r a c t e r s ) . A w e i g h t i n g e n a b l e s t h e r e f e r e n c e s r e p l y i n g t o t h e q u e s t i o n t o b e c l a s s i f i e d i n o r d e r of d e c r e a s i n g r e l e v a n c e . Al o g i c e q u a t i o n combines groups of o p e r a n d s w i t h va- r i o u s o p e r a t o r s (Boolean, a r i t h m e t i c and t r u n c a t i o n ) .
I n t h e c a s e of t h e documentary p r o f i l e s , a d i a l o g u e l a s t i n g s e v e r a l months b e g i n s between t h e p e r s o n p o s i n g t h e q u e s t i o n and t h e w r i t e r s , s p e c i a - l i s t s i n t h e f i e l d , a s soon a s t h e q u e s t i o n i s r a i - s e d : f i r s t of a l l s o a s t o u n d e r s t a n d b e t t e r t h e meaning t h a t e a c h of them p l a c e s i n t h e words, t h e n
t o modify, e n l a r g e o r l i m i t t h e q u e s t i o n f o l l o w i n g t h e r e p l i e s o b t a i n e d t o t h e f i r s t t h r e e p r o f i l e OlJtpUtS.
5. PASCAL1NE.- PASCALINE o r PASCAL-on-line was s e t up t o improve t h e r a p i d i t y and e f f i c i e n c y of a11 t h e s e r G i c e s s i n c e t h e c o n v e r s a t i o n a l mode p e r m i t s t h e s i m p l i f i c a t i o n of a l l t h e r e s e a r c h - p r o - c e s s e s , o p e r a t i n g f l e x i b i l i t y and d e c e n t r a l i s a t i o n a t t h e u s e r ' s l e v e l .
PASCALINE h a s been o p e r a t i o n a l s i n c e J a n u a r y 1977 on t h e ESANET network l i n k e d t o t h e F r e n c h CYCLADES o n e , w i t h RECON s o f t w a r e o n t h e I B M 360-50
computer based a t F r a s c a t i ( I t a l y ) . From J u n e 1978, t h i s computer h a s b e e n r e p l a c e d b y a n ITEL ASl5. The ESANET network a f f o r d s many a c c e s s p o i n t s i n Europe and Maghreb ; t h e CYCLADES network g i v e s o t h e r s i n a good number of F r e n c h towns ( G r e n o b l e , P a r i s , T o u l o u s e , Rennes, Lyon, e t c
...
) . The s e t t i n g up of t h e EURONET European t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s network ought t o a l l o w s e r v i c e s t o be improved and expanded a s e a r l y a s 1979.Thus computer-based d o c u m e n t a t i o n became a r e a l i t y . A l l we must w i s h i s t h a t more and more s c i e n t i f i c and t e c h n i c a l r e s e a r c h e r s a d v i s e u s of t h e i r r e q u i - rements and c r i t i c i s m s s o a s t o b e b e t t e r s e r v e d , h e l p i n g i n t h i s way, d o c u m e n t a l i s t s i n t h e i r j o b s .
