The IAEA's International Nuclear Information System, a multi-million strong digital library, has been further strengthened with addition of a modern repository platform - that offers full text search for the first time.
Founded in 1970, the International Nuclear Information System (INIS) Repository hosts a massive library of nearly five million reports, books, scientific articles, conference papers and other knowledge products covering topics in nuclear science, reactor technology, materials science, medical applications, decommissioning, and all other areas the IAEA is involved in.
Using Invenio, an open-source platform developed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and tailoring it to its own needs the Agency was to make advancements in automation and accessibility as well as a major increase in capacity for handling new knowledge product entries in INIS. The new functionalities built with the platform allow INIS to connect with other repositories, facilitating the sharing of content and expanding the utility of all participating databases. INIS will be the first large repository to implement full-text search with Invenio - searching both the metadata and the text of a PDF.
"In today's knowledge-based economy, information is considered one of the most valuable resources. It is critical for research, innovation, decision making, efficiency and productivity, knowledge sharing and continuous learning," said Dibuleng Mohlakwana, Head of the IAEA's Nuclear Information Section. "This new platform will help INIS expand its role as a global player in open science improving its capabilities as an information hub that facilitates the pursuit of nuclear science for peaceful purposes."
INIS relies on contributions from more than 130 countries and 11 international organizations, with well over 100 000 new knowledge products being added each year. INIS staff supplement national contributions by harvesting information from some of the largest publishers, including Elsevier, Nature-Springer and the Institute of Physics.
The landscape of scientific publishing has changed greatly in the years since INIS was founded, with an increasing emphasis on open access. Publishers are providing more information and making it freely available, while repositories such as arXiv, the Directory of Open Access Journals, PubMed, etc. have made scientific knowledge more accessible than ever before.
"One of the great things about this platform is that whatever we develop here can be shared with all the other organizations. So not only are we sharing scientific information with the world, but we're also sharing what we develop with Invenio," said Astrit Ademaj, Nuclear Systems Support Analyst and Project Manager for the implementation of Invenio. INIS is the first large repository to implement full-text search - searching both the metadata and the text of a PDF.
Knowledge products entered into Invenio will be automatically categorized and tagged with descriptors. This had previously been done manually in what had been a highly time-consuming endeavour. This work will now primarily be handled by NADIA (Nuclear Artificial intelligence for Document Indexing and Analysis), an AI tool developed by the IAEA. Previously, contributors sent their entries using a unique language and format. Now a user-friendly form is provided, so specialized knowledge and training are no longer necessary.
"Many of the items available on INIS are quite fascinating," said Brian Bales, INIS Coordinator. "One of the most popular recent additions is the Prospective Study Bluebook on Nuclear Energy to Support Low Carbon - a cooperative effort between nuclear companies in China and France to address the challenges of climate change. Over the last 5 years, we've added over 600 000 such knowledge products."
