Down Load PDF  

 

ABOUT LITERATURE

 
 

Type of documents : All primary source documents including fugitive literature have been chosen. Due attempt and importance is given to the availability of hard documents in both the participating institutions while selecting records for data entry. The entire database is restricted to the sociological aspects of tuberculosis.

Literature search and period covered : The period of literature coverage for this project has been from the year 1939 2000. Efforts for literature procurement started by issuing request letters to the National research institutions, Governments, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Private sectors and Senior experts in the field. In spite of repeated requests/personal approach, only 7 out of 25 institutions have responded. Records received from them were scanned and included in the database.

Strategy adopted for selection of records began with scanning of following documents;

1 Proceedings of National Conferences on TB & Chest Diseases : The NTI library has the resource documents from the year 1939. A thorough, systematic and factual search was carried out in all the proceedings for selection of pertinent records for the database. Here it is relevant to note that 37 records in a total of 142 records were chosen after scanning.

2 Indian Journal of Tuberculosis : Scanned author and subject index for selection of records. While scanning, weightage was given for identification of the word "sociology", wherever it has appeared to prevent missing of relevant articles. It is interesting to note that out of 1,550 records scanned from 1954 onwards, 75 were selected.

3 Indian Journal of Chest Diseases & Allied Sciences & Indian Journal of Public Health : In the beginning, some literature search was made, but discontinued as the emphasis was mainly on either chest diseases or public health aspects.

4 Bulletin of International Union Against Tuberculosis : Twenty-five records were selected out of 820 for the period 1957 1992.

5 Periodical Abstract Bulletin : This is an in-house service initiated in the year 1967 to keep the users abreast of new development and progress in the field of TB with due importance to original articles originated from the developing countries. Since the bibliography is classified subject wise, scanning of selected records did not consume much time.

6 Excerpta Medica Sec 15 : Chest Diseases, Tuberculosis & Respiratory Diseases: This is a secondary periodical which covers abstracts with affiliation address of first author of all biomedical literature published. Locating relevant articles was not at all a problem, as each volume has been provided with cumulative subject index and broad subject headings on TB were also listed in the contents. Selection of records for the database was based on its availability in libraries, as the non-availability of hard copies cripples the utility of database.

7 Index Medicus : As a secondary periodical, it lists only the bibliographic details. The coverage of literature on the "sociological aspects" was not very much encouraging. However few sample computer searches were made at the NCSI (National Centre for Science Information), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, British Library on MEDLINE, retrieved the records that were already entered. It was not cost effective. Hence to prevent missing of relevant records, manual search was conducted in Index medicus from 1960 95. Similar to Excerpta Meidca sec 15: the records were looked under the specific subject heading "Social welfare, social change, under social research" and under "prevention and control social aspects" under tuberculosis.

8 Index to Indian Medical periodicals : This was being published as a secondary periodical by the National Medical Library, New Delhi from 1949-1977. Few records were identified and request letters for hard copies were issued as they were not available locally. Had this been continued, it would have been a good resourceful document.

9 Follow up of records identified for data entry : While entry of records for which hard copies were available was smooth, search for the hard copies of records selected for the database was another task. Availability of primary periodicals was traced through the Union catalogue of Scientific Periodicals issued by the INSDOC, New Delhi and requisition letters were issued to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; FRCH, Mumbai; National Medical Library, Delhi; & Madurai Medical College, Madurai.

10 Books : To make the database more viable, search was also conducted in the important and authenticated books on tuberculosis available at NTI Library. These are referred to as Monographs in the database. Few very important and relevant information / chapters from these are also included.

SELECTION OF RECORDS

Following criteria was observed while selecting records for data entry:

1. Relevance of records to the database.
2. Availability of hard copies.
3. Review / Oration articles highlighting short paragraph on sociological aspects of database.
4. Major importance to the articles generated in India, SAARC countries and other countries (Pl. see Chapter 8 for analytical entries of countries).
5. Fugitive literature i.e. papers generated by NGOs and private sectors presented at Workshops, Seminars & CMEs are included in the database. These have not been published in the regular periodicals.

Selection of abstracts : Author's summaries & abstracts wherever available, have been directly entered. Wherever not available, the summaries are developed by the developers & writing committee.

ARRANGEMENT OF RECORDS

A total of 297 records directly dealing with the theme of the database are grouped as follows:

Chapter 1 : The records pertaining to the existing sociological characteristics including Socio-cultural, Socio-economics, Behavioral and Psychological factors, which are likely to influence health care in general, and TB in particular are grouped together

Chapter 2 : The records dealing with the influence of the above sociological characteristics, on the formulation of health care policy, health programme & health services delivery have been considered. The role of private sector, which includes non-governmental organizations, as a part of health sector, has also been taken into consideration.

Chapter 3 : Social awareness of the diseases including TB, health-seeking behavior, utilisation of health facility are grouped together. Records based on the community and health centre based research studies are included.

Chapter 4 : Records dealing with treatment dynamics of TB patients viz. default, compliance, motivation and health education are grouped together.

Chapter 5 : Depending on the treatment outcome of TB patients, rehabilitation (physical & Social) to meet the demands of the society and the social service rendered to the patients have been grouped under this.

Following abbreviations are used in rendering of each document:

1. Arabic numerals : Indicate the record number of the particular record in the database.
2. AU : Author/s
3. TI : Title
4. SO : Source
5. DT : Type of documents viz., Periodical (PER), Monograph (M), Conference Proceedings (CP), Annual Report (AR), Souvenir (S), WHO information series on tuberculosis (WHO/TB).
6. AB : Abstracts

 

 
  January 2002
Bangalore
Sudha S. Murthy
Sr. Librarian
NTI, Bangalore
 

  Down Load PDF