1. Access to information sources

1.1 Distribution media

For a long time, the only way to preserve scientific and technical memory was in printed form. Today, it remains the preferred form for the intellectual exploitation of information. However, new technologies are in the process of dethroning it for data storage (at least for the archiving period covered by electronic distribution), dissemination and retrieval. Today, the Internet makes sources, indexes and thesauri, specialized search engines and query interfaces widely available at a distance. Typically, information producers (from periodicals to databases) distribute their products on different media. The data is identical, but the support and search environment may vary from one medium to another. When subscribing to a product, the choice of medium is not neutral....