The Role of Data Centres in the Era of Electronic Publishing

Abstract

The astronomy data centres, and in particular the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), have been building electronic information services for many years. References of publications, observational data related to objects, data tables, nomenclature, have been homogenized and organized into information retrieval systems.This undertaking implied an effort of collaboration between data centres, data providers, agencies, journal editors, etc. Evolution in recent years has brought the data centres closer from the publishing process. General standards for electronic tables, tabular data, and catalogues have been proposed and implemented.With the emergence of fully electronic publication, new digital library services are being organized, and pave the way to innovative new services, linking publications to information from other sources, and making use of new methods for textual information retrieval. The data centres expect to play a key role in these new developments, taking advantage of their expertise in the development of value-added services, and of their long-term involvement towards a fully linked astronomy information system.KeywordsData CentreKluwer AcadElectronic PublishingAstronomical DataAstronomical ObjectThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.