Information analysis center concept: products, services, and pricing policies

The steadily increasing literature volume in all fields of science and technology has created a need for specialized information centers. The Information Center Complex, a major scientific and technical unit within the Information Division, was established at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in mid-1970 to bring together for mutual benefit several information activities. One of these, the Toxicology Information Response Center (TIRC), was founded in 1971 by the Toxicology Information Program/National Library of Medicine to establish a national and international center for toxicology information. As an information analysis center, TIRC selects, evaluates, and synthesizes comprehensive literature packages according to a user's specific request or to satisfy current needs (chlordecone, vinyl chloride, trichloroethylene). TIRC also prepares and publishes specialized bibliographies, state-of-the-knowledge overviews, and state-of-the-art reviews on topics of current concern. TIRC interacts with a large and diverse user population: government agencies, industry, academia, private citizens, and other organizations--both domestic and foreign. Toxicology information is no exception to the generally accepted axiom that most published literature--even that reporting on a single, well-defined subject area--appears scattered throughout the world in myriad sources. Secondary sources allow the user to cope more adequately with the burgeoning and elusive literature. The presentation begins by detailing themore » overall Information Center Complex organization, moves to the Biomedical Sciences Section, and then centers on the Toxicology Information Response Center describing functional activities as well as the economics involved in operating an information analysis center.« less