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Vol.
29 No. 2
March-April 2007
Securing
and Structural Updating of Information in the NPU Coding System
and Its Environment
Work on C-NPU defining and coding properties in laboratory science has been going on since the mid-1990s. (NPU stands for Nomenclature, Properties, and Units.) The database structure designed in the 1990s was intended mainly to support the actual coding process (assembly of elements into coded properties), and the production of text files with specific fonts and formatting, intended for paper-based publication.
Terminological information about the elements, their sources, and their uses in coded properties has been stored, but frequently in an implicit manner, as part of other information elements, rather than explicitly in the database.
During almost a decade of coding work, principles and rules for the coding practice have crystallized, but have not been systematically filed. They may be extracted from stored material, like advice to users at laboratories, newsletters retiring “malformed” codes or the like, or they may be present as “silent information” in the coding environment (i.e., in the minds of the people working with the system).
The purpose of this project is to review information present in the system and its environment in order to analyze and extract implicitly stored data and register “silent knowledge.” The objective is to preserve the information, render it accessible for future developers and users, and specify the needs for structured information management in the future.
For more information contact Task Group Chairman Ulla Magdal Petersen <[email protected]>.
www.iupac.org/projects/2006/2006-012-1-700.html
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last modified 16 April 2007.
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