SUBJECT GATEWAYS : THE CLEVER WAY TO INFORMATION

Abstract

Technology advances over the past two decades have made data retrieval faster and easier, giving rise to a substantial industry providing access to professional, business and scientific information. Some progress has been made towards increasing the relevancy of the data with the induction of various search engines and subject directories. Despite these activities, information sources remain scattered, hard to find and difficult to access. Using technology, visionary institutions, associations and individuals build a kind of network resource discovery service, called “Subject Gateways” on the web, which is de-facto network use environment. This subject gateways evolved during the last five years among early digital library projects within the library communities of the various countries. Subject gateways allows libraries and related organizations to explore the usefulness of their subject expertise in the organisation of knowledge in the word of network -based, digital information. This paper gives an overview of the subject gateways, its historical development, definitions, features and lastly the burning issues encompassing it. Also some of the international initiatives related to further research and trend are explored.