The NASA Astrophysics Data System Digital Library: Introduction, Use,
and Bibliometric Investigations.

Michael J. Kurtz
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

ABSTRACT


By way of introduction I will begin with a quick tour of the ADS
system.  I'll continue by showing how the worldwide use of the ADS
permits the scientific output of a country to be accurately estimated,
and I will use these estimates to derive a model describing the
scientific output of individual countries.

Next I'll describe how second order relational operators can be used
with bibliometric data to permit new classes of powerful, highly
subject specific search and discovery queries.

Finally I will discuss the bibliometric properties of per article
readership information, and will compare it with citations.  Then I'll
use the similarities ond differences of reads and cites to develop new
bibliometric productivity measures for both individuals and
institutions.

BIO

Michael Kurtz is an astronomer and computer scientist at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, which he joined after receiving a PhD in Physics from
Dartmouth College in 1982.

Kurtz is the author or co-author of over 200 technical articles and
abstracts on subjects ranging from cosmology and extra-galactic
astronomy to data reduction and archiving techniques to information
systems and text retrieval algorithms.

In 1988 Kurtz conceived what has now become the NASA Astrophysics Data
System, the core of the digital library in astronomy, perhaps the most
sophisticated discipline centered library extant.  He has been
associated with the project since that time, and was awarded the 2001
Van Biesbroeck Prize of the American Astronomical Society for his
efforts.

Recently Kurtz has been investigation the bibliometric and information
retrieval properties of the ADS usage logs.  He received the 2000 ISI
Citation Research Award from the American Society for Information
Science and Technology for some preliminary work in this area.