VII-1-Development of an Information System for Research Papers Related to Hydrology.

Abstract

Any challenging water resources project or research requires the time-consuming task of literature search. The rapid growth of research in hydrology during the last fifty years is of unique interest to researchers as it provides a clear-cut idea of how new concepts and techniques shape the totality of scientific endeavor and the directions it takes. Conventional literature search methods are inefficient and involve manual shifting through a cornucopia of journals, periodicals, conference proceedings, volumes of library indexes and other printed materials. Yet, important research papers and articles related to the work at hand often remain undiscovered and, as a consequence, research suffers. Keeping this in view, a query based software package (HydroAbs) has been developed for searching the water resources engineering literature. It includes a database, consisting of a comprehensive reference library of water resources publications (abstracts of international journals received in NIH library and from some other important journals). The package transforms the time consuming task of literature search into an easy, user-friendly and enjoyable exercise and changes the scenario for water resources engineers and researchers and others who consult water resources publications regularly. The paper presents formulation and application of the software package and its utility to water resources engineers.