Abstracts

Databases and GIS Technologies

Studying the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe consequences is of cross-disciplinary character, which arouses interest among scientists, physicians, politicians, decision-makers, etc. from various countries. Meanwhile, in foreign libraries literature on the subject is presented extremely scantily. Particularly in USA, there are only 1055 such references in Mid-Atlantic Libraries System, North-Atlantic Libraries System, ILLINet Libraries System, and Library of Congress (including about 50% in English, i.e. useful for English-speaking users). PubMed system contains 2177 bibliographic records, as a rule no abstracts are available.

Since 1991 the Department of Scientific Information and Informatics elaborates two projects: 1) CHEDIBASE – cross-disciplinary information database on post-Chernobyl effects in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine and 2) “Chernobyl Digest” – an interdisciplinary bulletin of Chernobyl information in Russian and English. Six issues of the “Chernobyl Digest”, an official edition of the UNESCO Chernobyl Ecological Science Network since 1992, have been published in 1991–2001. To regret, their circulation (200–500 copies in English and Russian) can not satisfy the requirements of all researchers engaged in studying and over-coming the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe consequences in NIS countries and abroad. CHEDIBASE, database of review, abstract and bibliography information on publications from three victim states, contains much more information stored, including publications that were not presented in paper editions in view of their limited size. In recent years information about other cases of technogenic impact on the environment (Kyshtym, Semipalatinsk, Novaya Ziemlya) is included in the database. Now the database contains above 4000 abstracts in Russian, about 1500 in English.

For the Chernobyl information movement to the West, we began to use Internet technologies. Internet version of “Chernobyl Digest” can be visited at http://biobel.bas-net.by/igc/ChD since May 2000. This project is a base for the future WEB journal “Chernobyl Digest International” with user access to CHEDIBASE. Advantages of the system proposed consist in low price of spreading information materials, their operative publication, possibility of organizing remote access to data and feedback with users/potential contributors, etc.

Note. Abstracts are published in author's edition

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