Presentaci

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8th International Conference on Electronic
Publishing ELPUB 2004 Brasilia, Brazil, 23-26
June 2004 Special session Harnessing local
knowledge via interactive media Putting Local
Knowledge Online does it become
international? Ana María Cetto Octavio
Alonso-Gamboa UNAM, Mexico
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• Background
• Access to Internet-based scientific information
  and knowledge has steadily grown in recent years,
  with special advantages for the information
  generated in developed countries.
• In other parts of the world a number of factors
  are influencing the capacity to generate and use
  scientific information online
• Connectivity problems
• Lack of financial resources
• Weak institutional support and infraestructure
• Poor training in the electronic publishing and
  dissemination tools.

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Source Global Internet Statistics by
Language Available at http//global-reach.biz/glob
stats/index.php3 Consulted June 2, 2004.
Total (World) 157.581,802
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Source ITU (Internet host data Network Wizards,
RIPE). May 2004. Consulted June 2, 2004
Available at http//www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statis
tics/at_glance/Internet02.pdf
Total (World)626.578,900
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Total (World) 584,723,000
Source ITU (Internet host data Network Wizards,
RIPE). May 2004. Consulted June 2,
2004 Available at http//www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/st
atistics/at_glance/Internet02.pdf
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Online Linguistic Population (2004)
Language Estimated population (1) Number of people online (2) of people online (3)
Chinese 874 160 18
English 508 280 55
French 77 40 52
German 100 62 62
Japanese 125 85 68
Portuguese 176 32 18
Spanish 350 70 20
Other 4,158 129 3
Total (World) 6,330 858 13.5
(1) Total numbers of people in each language
family, million inh. (2) Number of people online
in each language, million inh. (3) Percentage of
people online in each language
Source Global Internet Statistics by
Language Available at http//global-reach.biz/glob
stats/index.php3 Consulted June 2, 2004.
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Against this background, in LAC, universities,
higher education institutions and national
research councils promote the web as an ideal
means to put local information and knowledge
online. Cooperation and Technology in LAC The
experience of the LATINDEX System Created in
1995, the mission of the system has been to
integrate the efforts made in the various
countries concerning production and dissemination
of scientific journals, and to create and develop
an information system online that would register
and provide access to the relevant journals
published in the region.
www.latindex.org
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• Latindex partners (2004)
• Argentina CAICYT
• Bolivia Universidad Mayor de San Andrés
• Brazil IBICT
• Chile CONICYT
• Colombia Colciencias
• Costa Rica Universidad de Costa Rica
• Cuba IDICT
• Ecuador FUNDACYT
• Mexico UNAM
• Nicaragua CONICYT
• Peru CONCYTEC
• Portugal Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
• Puerto Rico Universidad de Puerto Rico
• Spain CINDOC (CSIC)
• Uruguay DINACYT
• Venezuela Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología

www.latindex.org
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• Through the cooperative work
• three databases have been developed
• Directory register all active technical and
  scholarly journals produced in the region.
  Available online since 1997 currently offers
  information of 12,787 titles from 30 countries.
• Catalogue set online in March 2002, covers a
  selection of 1,670 titles, according to 33
  previous agreed international quality parameters.
• Index available as of November 2002, offers
  direct access to a growing collection of online
  journals. It currently links to 1,898 journals.

www.latindex.org
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• A digital gap within LAC?
• Latindex uses an IT platform that is uniform and
  compatible among the participating institutions
• The system ensures a sustained day-to-day input
  and continuous update of data
• Our experience shows that the use of electronic
  media is in quite different stages of development
  accross the region
• For those countries that already had experience
  and infraestructure, joining this compiling
  system has been rather straightforward
• However, other countries in the region,
  especially those not having a proper
  infrastructure in place, have inititally faced
  various difficulties

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• A digital gap within LAC?
• In addition, in these countries there is a lack
  of systematic compilation of data on scientific
  journals
• Most often the existing compilations in these
  countries are partial and distributed among
  several institutions
• A number of smaller countries have not yet
  joined the system
• As a result, information on the journals
  produced in these countries is underrepresented
  in Latindex
• This is not an isolated phenomenon in LAC.

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• Impact of electronic tools on the role of
  Latindex
• Since its inception, Latindex has been
  electronically based
• The system is becoming a standard reference for
  those interested in LAC scholarly journals, as
  shown in a revision of recent literature
• A first reason for this is the fact that
  Latindex offers a comprenhensive and specialized
  information about print-on-paper-journals
• More recently it is becoming a useful
  information tool on what goes on in the realm of
  electronic journal publishing in the region

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• Impact of electronic tools on the role of
  Latindex
• Through the Index, Latindex functions as a
  specialized electronic online source of
  information and means of access to journals that
  make extensive use of these electronic tools
• It also provides an already representative
  picture of LAC scene, by linking directly to a
  growing number of e-journals
• For each title the system includes information
  on their online history, their display formats,
  their limitations on access and subscription
  conditions.

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• Visibility of journals in Latindex
• Traditionally, one major difficulty faced by the
  scientific journals produced in LAC has been
  their lack of visibility
• The system provides basic information on all
  journal titles produced in the region,
  irrespectively of their history and specific
  features
• The three services provide different and
  complementary information on the journals the
  presence of a title in one or more of these
  services depends on its editorial quality and
  degree of development
• The journals registered in the databases
  constitute part of a large family of journals
  they are not presented in isolation.

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Statistics of visits to the pages of the Latindex
website most visited pages

• 2003
• Directory 31
• Catalogue 21
• Guidelines for editors 3
• 2004 (June)
• Catalogue 39
• Electronic resources 37
• Directory 10
• Quality parameters 5

• 2001
• Directory 56
• Guidelines for editors 20
• News 11
• 2002
• Directory 40
• Guidelines for editors 10
• News 6

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Visibility of the Latindex web site

• Visibility has been measured by the number of
  links from other websites to Latindex.
• The information was gathered with the help of
  Alta Vista search facilities (www.av.com).
• 349 websites were found to offer a link to
  Latindex, with the following breakdown

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Visibility number of websites with link to
Latindex By type of site
Type of site Number
Full text journals (individual or collections) 149 43
Bibliographic and reference sites 79 23
Specialized sites with information on Latin America the Caribbean 55 16
Universities 28 8
International organizations 22 6
National ST 16 4
TOTAL 349 100
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Visibility number of websites with link to
Latindex By geographic origin of the linking sites
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Use of the mail service latindex_at_servidor.unam.mx

• Out of 994 messages
• 53 from journal editors
• 34 from users, including librarians and
  reference experts
• 13 are from Latindex partners
• Main questions from editors
• How do I register a title in Latindex
• How can information on my journal be modified or
  updated
• Main questions from users
• How do I get a copy of a paper published in a
  Latindex registered journal
• How do I access a Latindex-registered journal of
  restricted access.

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• Positive outcomes
• A unique information system no other region in
  the world has its own scientific journals
  information system
• Three comprehensive and up-to-date databases
  related to a broad family of scholarly journals,
  but offering differentiated information
• A strengthening of links among different
  specialized institutions within the region and
  external to it, with actual possibilities for
  cooperation with relevant international bodies
• A substantial increase of titles of local
  production made available through the Internet

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• Positive outcomes
• A system that provides support to editors,
  publishers and librarians by way of advice,
  training workshops, documentation, etc.
• A possibility to influence and support the work
  of policy makers and evaluators of academic
  achievement, through the setting of international
  quality standards for locally produced scholarly
  journals
• A forum for exchange of national experiences in
  the field this expertise is intensely shared
  during the annual Latindex technical meeting, and
  has been applied in the development of the
  existing databases.

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latindex_at_servidor.unam.mx