Subject Gateways: An Overview

Abstract

Libraries have been undergoing tremendous developments in this era, adapting to the advent of information technology in the day to day working. Electronic, Digital Libraries have arrived. OPAC, CDROM databases, Electronic journals and Internet access exist in most Libraries. Libraries are no longer storehouses but are becoming gateways of relevant 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, hared to find and difficult to access. With the Internet, WWW and Information explosion, identification and extraction of information resources is an essential function of all libraries and information centers. The Electronic information sources are rapidly growing and with a wide variety in form and content it takes a lot of time to get the required information. Using technology the institutions, associations and individuals build a kind if network resource discovery service, called “Subject Gateways” on the web, which is de-facto network use environment. These subject gateways evolved during the last five years among early digital library projects within the library communities of the various countries. Subject gateways allow libraries and related organizations to explore the usefulness of their subject expertise in the organization of knowledge in the word of networkbased, Digital information. This paper gives an overview of the subject gateways, its definitions, feature and lastly some useful subject gateways and their services.