China modernizes scientific communication system

摘要

Description of progress made over past 10 years in building a modern network of scientific and technical information services in the People's Republic of China. Major accomplishments include development of a comprehensive thesaurus for natural and social sciences; some 30 computer installations searching approximately seventy Western and Japanese databases in batch and local interactive modes; and near-operational capability of computer processing Chinese text. Overall structural and functional characteristics of the planned national STI network are described.Decimated by the “cultural revolution” of the late 1960s, Chinese scientists had seen university research programs closed, colleagues relocated to physical labor in China's vast and undeveloped hinterlands, primary and secondary scientific publishing fall into disarray, and library collections destroyed. For ten years since 1974, the People's Republic of China has been re-building and modernizing the country's system of scientific communication. A high-level meeting in October 1985, the Beijing Symposium on Computerized Information Retrieval organized by the China Society for Scientific and Technical Information, has provided an opportunity to not only observe the progress made during the past decade but also gain insights into the methodology of the plan to couple China to the global networks of science communication. The intention of this paper is to offer such observations and insights, as gathered from selected Chinese presentations [1] made at this invitational conference, a bibliography of about 350 Chinese papers published between 1980 and 1985 [2], discussions with senior Chinese information engineers and administrators, and from visits to key installations.