Computerized personal information systems for research scientists

摘要

A personal information system is defined as a system for supporting the acquisition, storage and retrieval of information by individuals. For research scientists, such a system is centred around the storage and retrieval of bibliographic references. A survey of the literature, not only of computerized personal indexes, but also of the information needs of research, and the use of information by scientists, provides guidelines for the design of computerized personal information systems. It is concluded that the personal information system should not only help scientists to manage their document collections, but should enable them to represent the structure of the literature by creating and storing links between document records. A computerized personal information system should also be integrated with other personal software, such as electronic mail and word-processing packages.