Criteria of optimum database select

Abstract

The resources of institutions are limited when they use scientific and technological information retrieval services from remote databases, as far as costs, time and well educated seareh professionals are concerned. With better utilization of the resources, more searches with higher efficiency can be accomplished for identical expenses. Important tools for the cost effective resource utilization are the proper selection of the online service and the database or databases. The techniques of these selections are analyzed, including factors as database knowledge, the study of the reál information needs of the user, the comparison of costs, the consideration of overlapping etc, which can lead to an optimum decision in any given seareh problem.