Download of documents

Afterwards the relevant documents are downloaded to the hard disk of the user s computer. Every host offers pre-defmed download formats, for example full document, title and keywords only, bibliographic information without abstracts, etc. Download formats can also be individually designed by naming specific fields. When discussing the individual databases in this book, we will mention important predefined download formats and fields. 

Documents can also be printed and delivered by the host. Some hosts offer to send the documents on floppy disks or via mailbox (Sect. 6.2.7). This service is called offline-print. 

Until now we assumed that each query is effected singly. If, however, one would like to receive information on certain topics on a regular basis, it can be carried out by the hosts SDI services. SDI stands for Selective Dissemination of Information. The host processes a fixed search strategy regularly, i.e. according to the database s update intervals. The user will only receive the documents, that have been added since the last update. In many cases the searcher has the opportunity to determine the periods of SDIs. For queries of high topicality with many publications, he will most certainly choose a shorter period than for a search with a restricted amount of publication material. 

A growing number of hosts offers mailboxes for their clients. They present the following advantageous facilities of electronic mail  

The last mentioned function is the most important Instead of sending paper printouts via mail, the files can be directly retrieved from a mailbox. Mostly costs for document display in offline print are higher than a direct download, since you have to pay the host s additional service, e.g. printout and mail. The 

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