The most technical document information system

The Mobile Sonar Technology (MOST) Technical Document Information System (TDIS) is designed to enable scientists and engineers doing exploratory development in mobile sonar technology to find scientific and technical information quickly and easily. It is most commonly used to conduct comprehensive literature searches, although it can also be used to produce state-of-the-art summaries, lists of authors publishing on a particular topic, and historical summaries of developments in certain areas. Thus, the TDIS can serve the needs of system or program managers as well as those of individuals working on a single project. The system is being evaluated as a subset file (a special collection of reports relating to mobile sonar technology) of the Defense Documentation Center´s (DDC) technical reports file. It differs from other automated information retrieval systems in that the workers who will use it are participating in its development and operation. The system is under development as part of the Navy´s continuing effort to improve the efficiency of its research and development program. It is expected to yield substantial monetary savings by eliminating lengthy literature searches (often unsuccessful) and duplication of work. Additionally, it will free much time and energy for more productive work, A description of the system will show one way in which the problem of too much information that is too difficult to access is being attacked. It is hoped that others can use a comparable approach to ease similar problems in other areas of research and development.