New Articles by UT Faculty: Chemistry | Main | Nucleic Acids Research: Database Issue

February 25, 2007

Database Trial: ILLUSTRATA

CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences is the first in a series of CSA Illustrata databases of searchable tables, figures, graphs, charts and other illustrations from the scholarly research and technical literature.

CSA employs what it calls "deep indexing" to categorize data, variables and other content represented in tables, maps, photographs and other figures. Usually, indexing of research articles is done at a rather high, general level where only the key concepts of the work are represented by a dozen or so index terms, but by going deeper and specifically indexing the content associated with all the individual tables and figures, CSA Illustrata enables the researcher to find information that otherwise would not be retrievable in traditional, article-level indexing systems. Search results - the objects - can be viewed in full along with the caption, author and source information and additional index terms that can be used for further searching. A link back to the parent record provides a summary view of all the objects associated with that paper. In most instances, the parent abstract is displayed and context is further preserved by links to the full-text documents when available. Thus the researcher can find relevant data faster and, because of the visual impact of the results, can quickly determine whether or not to spend time reading the source documents. The visualization of data and the interdisciplinary nature of CSA Illustrata: Natural Sciences can also lead to unexpected discoveries or connections between seemingly disparate pieces of work.

Search this Database>>
Send Feedback to your Subject Librarian>>

Posted by Donna Braquet at February 25, 2007 05:16 PM