Sample digest. Digest as a form of providing information in various areas of social and scientific communications
Digest- a collection containing the most interesting materials reprinted from other publications. (OST 29.130-97. Industry standard: publications, terms and definitions). Digests(from lat. digest - summary) are fragments of the texts of many documents (citations, excerpts, summaries, less often abstracts), selected on a specific topic, not provided with generalizing publications, and which are in the field of interests of real or potential readers. Most often they are made up when servicing managers, but in last years the creation of digests began to be practiced by libraries educational institutions(in the absence of textbooks for any new sections of the courses). The compilers of the digests are usually bibliographers and teachers of the given discipline. Their authorship is shown:
In the panoramic "vision" of the problem, which is initial stage may be inaccurately outlined;
in search of information;
In extraction, extracting the necessary fragments of text;
In the grouping of material, but in fact - in the "cultivation" of a new text "subtask": under the decision made by the leader; under the educational task offered to students; to the needs of the teacher, including training course new material etc.
Digest Methodology:
The main steps in compiling a digest are:
Familiarization with the topic, compiling a rubricator;
Identification of literature on the topic, compilation of a bibliographic list;
Copying fragments of texts of microdocuments reflected in the list;
Grouping fragments of texts from documents;
Designing a table of contents for a thematic collection and a list of viewed sources, writing a preface.
The specificity of the preparation of digests, as well as the preparation of problem-thematic manuals and the formation of problem-oriented databases, is manifested in the establishment of thematic boundaries for the selection of information, the involvement of a wide range of various sources, the development of such a method of grouping material that would allow characterizing an object (phenomenon, problem) in all the richness of its connections with various industries. Establishing thematic boundaries begins with identifying and analyzing the information needs of readers. Scientific and technical (agricultural, medical) libraries of institutions involve planning documents and terms of reference for this purpose. Universal scientific libraries refer to program documents that determine the directions and stages of development of the region and the country. Then, staging, prognostic and review materials on the problem or issues close to it (if they can be found) are viewed. If there are at least a few monographs, textbooks or manuals, their table of contents is analyzed (as a draft layout of the future heading of the problem). For the same purpose, the rubricators INION and VINITI, as well as other ILPs, are looked through. Then, the collected information is normalized and diverse data are combined within the rubricator of the problem. At the same time, synonyms are eliminated, generic and associative relationships are established. The rubricator acts both as a search prescription, and as a future table of contents, and as a layout plan used in the analysis of texts and extracting the necessary fragments from them.
The unit of grouping when compiling a digest is - fragments of texts (sometimes very small in volume). Digests are characterized by:
The narrowness of the subject;
Difference of aspects of consideration of the problem;
Difference in terminology used by specialists different industries;
Possible inconsistency of information, discrepancy between the points of view of different authors.
All this imposes special requirements on the grouping of material and the form of its presentation, which should be visible, facilitate the perception of information and focus on inconsistent concepts, conclusions or results.
Each fragment extracted from the text must be accompanied by a link to the description of the document as a whole.
The digest structure is as follows:
Title page;
Foreword (from the compiler);
Body text, usually divided into paragraphs;
List of used literature;
Applications (illustrative material - tables, graphs, diagrams, revealing the main text);
Glossary of basic terms (if necessary).
Digests are created electronically and provided to readers in their preferred form. Experience in compiling ongoing digests of local history with an annual cumulation of material has been accumulated in St. Petersburg. Such digests are prepared, for example, by the Central Library Service of the Moscow Region, processing a wide variety of publications on the economy, industry, cultural life, and medical care for the population of this territory.
8. Convoluted information as a kind of secondary information
Collapsing (expanding) information- a change in the physical volume of a message (document) as a result of its analytical and synthetic processing, accompanied by a decrease (or increase) in its information content. At document folding we get new document(in general case secondary). When a document is collapsed, separate fragments can be extracted from it at the "zero" level of information folding.
Collapse (deployment) of information (document) is carried out by methods that underlie all types of cognitive activity people - analysis and synthesis.
ANALYSIS(from the Greek "decomposition") - method scientific research, consisting in the division of the whole into its constituent elements.
SYNTHESIS(from the Greek. "connection, combination") - a method of studying a phenomenon in its unity and interconnection of parts; generalization of information into a single whole of data. Analysis and synthesis are interdependent and mutually transitional operations.
In the field of information activity, the methods of analysis / synthesis of information (document) received the definition of analytical and synthetic processing (processing).
Analytical-synthetic processing (ASP) - transformation of a text (document) in the process of its analysis and extraction of the necessary information, as well as evaluation, comparison, generalization (synthesis) and provision of information in a form corresponding to the request (need).
As a result of processing, the document is provided with new qualities that contribute to its identification, search and distribution. At document folding we get a new document. In the ideal case, the task of folding a document is to create a number of arbitrary texts that are smaller in volume than the original text, while maintaining its main content.
There are six main types of information coagulation:
1) Indexing is the process of expressing the content of a document and (or) a query in an information retrieval language (IRL).
ILP is an artificial formalized language created on the basis of natural language.
As a result of indexing, the document is assigned search image of the document (POD), and the request - search query image (POZ).
POD is a search image that expresses the main semantic content of the document.
POS is a search image that expresses the main semantic content of an information request.
2) Classification (systematization)- type of indexing, in which the content of the document and (or) the request is expressed by classification indices in accordance with the rules of any classification ILP (classification system). The process of classification (systematization) is the distribution of documents by branches of knowledge. Classification systems: LBC, UDC, DKD, GRNTI. Types of indexing:
· Subjectization- the content of the document and (or) the request is expressed using an alphabetical list of lexical units called subject headings.
· Coordinate indexing- a type of indexing, in which the semantic content of a document and (or) a query is multidimensionally expressed by a set of keywords.
3) Bibliographic description (BO)– a set of bibliographic references given in a certain sequence, both about the document as a whole and about its part or group of documents. The BT contains a minimum of information about the document that makes it possible to identify it in the document stream. BO is compiled in accordance with GOST 7.1 - 2003 “Bibliographic record. Bibliographic description. General requirements and rules for drafting.
4) Annotating and summarizing - these are formalized methods of information folding, as a result of which a brief description of the document is given in natural language in terms of purpose, content, form and other features. These two processes are strictly regulated GOST 7.9-95 SIBID “Abstract and abstract. General requirements". The result of annotating a document is an annotation - this is a document containing brief description primary document in terms of its purpose, content, type, form and other features. The result of abstracting is an abstract - a summary of the content of the primary document, including its main factual information and conclusions, without additional interpretation or critical remarks of the author (in educational institutions abstracts are called scientific reports as a result of the study of a topic).
5) Survey and analytical activities- a type of analytical and synthetic processing of documents for the purpose of compiling reviews.
Review- the result of an in-depth analysis of many primary documents similar in terms of development topics, nature of activities, stages performed, tasks, performers, etc., in order to generalize, establish differences and similarities, evaluate, ways of developing the problem, the degree of their development and possible forecast. Distinguish bibliographic, abstract and analytical reviews.
Bibliographic overview contains a summary of publications and documents. The intended purpose of such reviews is the orientation of consumers of information in documentary flows.
abstract review aims to orient consumers of information not in documentary, but in information flows, that is, in the totality of facts and concepts, regardless of which documents they are extracted from.
Analytical review is created with the aim of not only orienting specialists in the information flow in a given area (problem), but also assessing the state of the problem, identifying trends in its development, that is, its goal is an interpreted orientation in the information flow.
Digest formatting requirements
Abstracts extended to three pages are submitted to the conference - digests of reports that will be published in the collection of conference materials.
For publication in the collection of conference proceedings, digests are accepted that have not been previously published, and also not provided to another journal for consideration and publication.
The material to be sent must be typed in a text editor Microsoft Word (2003–2007), DOC format, without headers and footers; schemes, figures and tables placed in the text should be in the appropriate place, and not at the end of the digest.
Page settings: top and bottom margins - 2.5 cm, left and right margins - 2.0 cm. Font Times New Roman 10 pt. Paragraph - 0.5 cm. Line spacing - single. The volume of the digest is two or three full pages along with an annotation and literature.
The text of the digest should contain the following elements:
- posing the problem general view and its connection with important scientific and practical problems;
– analysis of previous studies and publications in which the solution of this problem has begun, on which the author relies; highlighting previously unresolved parts of the general problem to which the digest is dedicated;
– formulation of the purpose of the work;
- presentation of the main material of the study with the rationale for the obtained scientific results, with the presentation of the obtained graphs, diagrams, etc.;
– conclusions from this study and prospects for further work in this direction.
Digest structure:
- UDC index (in the upper left corner of the page), indent 0.5 cm, Times New font
Roman 10 pt);
– title of the digest (centered, Times New Roman 10 pt, bold, all capital letters, spacing before and after – 6 pt; without hyphens, abbreviations and abbreviations);
– initials, surnames of all authors (located after the title of the digest, left-aligned; indent 0.5 cm, a space must be placed between the initials; two or more surnames are allowed on one line if the authors are from the same organization, Times New Roman 10 font pt, bold);
- from a new line, the full name of the organization, indent 0.5 cm;
- from a new line postal address and e-mail (Times New Roman font 10 pt, indent 0.5 cm);
- the author's summary (abstract) (7-10 lines) should have the same structure as the main text of the digest, be concise and logically complete part of the document, independent of the main text; the abstract should contain the following elements: introduction, goals and objectives, methods, results, practical significance, conclusions; keywords (no more than five words, one line) (Times New Roman font 10 pt; the phrase " Keywords» – bold);
– one line after the annotation, the main text of the digest, which should contain the following elements: relevance of the work, MATERIAL AND RESEARCH RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS; each section must begin with a paragraph, the title of the section is written in capital letters; digest formatting - in two columns with a gap of 1 cm, justified alignment, Times New Roman font 10 pt, automatic hyphenation);
– drawings are submitted in black and white or in shades of gray. The axes on the charts should have an explanatory name (Fig. 1).
Figure 1 - Figure title
Drawings cannot be created using the built-in functions of the MS Word editor; only drawings in standard formats (JPEG, TIFF, etc.) or those implemented in MS Visio can be inserted. Center alignment, empty line before the picture and after the picture name;
– formulas are typed only in the MS Equation Editor and are numbered with Arabic numerals in brackets on the right. Indices only with Latin letters. Dimensions are shown on
rice. 2, the format of symbols and styles in the MS Equation Editor is shown in fig. 3. All variables are described in the text above or immediately after the above formula:
- bibliography (LITERATURE) - a numbered list of references as they are mentioned in the digest, one line after the main text of the digest, the word LITERATURE - in capital letters in the center ( );
- after the bibliography - the title of the digest in English, the interval before and after - 6 pt; initials, surnames of authors; Information about authors; annotation with keywords in English is drawn up according to the same requirements as in the original language;
- one line after the abstract in English - bibliography (REFERENCES) - is given, completely repeating the list of references, regardless of whether it contains foreign sources ( reference list template ); links are made in accordance with the rules of the Harvard standard;
The last page of the digest must be at least 75% complete.
An electronic version of the digest is sent to the address of the editorial board E-mail: ic*****@*** with an indication of the scientific heading for further review and editing. The authors are responsible for the content of the material.
Digest review: The purpose of the review is to present the digest in accordance with scientific and editorial requirements, to exclude methodological errors and falsifications.
Digests submitted to the editorial office are reviewed by specialists with a Ph.D. or Doctor of Science degree in the specialty of the scientific subject of digests. The reviewers give a reasoned opinion about the expediency of publishing the digest. If the digest does not meet the requirements or scientific topics, it is sent to the author with comments.
Digest is a publication containing a concise summary of publications for a certain period in an abbreviated and systematized form, short review periodical press; in a broad sense - a thematic collection of fragments from materials belonging to different sources.
The ancient origins of the digest
Digests began to exist in ancient Rome. In 530-533 n. e. in Byzantium, under Emperor Justinian I, Digests, or Pandects (Digesta, or Pandectae), were compiled - extensive systematic collections of excerpts from the writings of Roman lawyers, which had the force of law and were the main part of the Roman civil law in the modern name "Code of civil law" ("Corpus iuris civilis"). Thus, the Digests contributed to the formation of the theory of law, the development of Roman jurisprudence.
The method of short, systematic presentations was also widely used in theology. Based on the writings of John Chrysostom, a book was written in the Old Slavonic language "Golden Jet" (c. 1461), consisting of the most complete edition of 136 articles.
According to the principle of a modern digest, the third oldest monument of the Old Russian manuscript after the Ostromirov Gospel and the Novgorod Codex was written - the first "Svyatoslav's Izbornik" (1073) and the second "Svyatoslav's Izbornik" (1076), compiled for Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich. Unlike the first book, the second contained not only excerpts from the teachings of the church fathers, but also extracts from biblical and narrative literature, collections of sayings, etc. The Catechism, a book in the form of questions and answers, belongs to a similar type of publication. which is a summary of Christian doctrine.
Distribution of modern digests
In the XVII-XVIII centuries. publications similar to digests were widely distributed - “chimes” (from the Dutch courant - newspaper) - the first hand-written newspapers of a political nature, compiled in the Embassy Prikaz based on Dutch and German newspapers and other foreign printed materials. Since the 18th century the digest includes not only a brief review of the press, but also handwritten or printed statements of other documents, which are called extracts, notes, excerpts and are published under the respective titles - "Extract", "Anmerkungen", "Auszuge", etc.
The term "digest" entered the literature only in the twentieth century. Currently, a digest means a type of periodical publication (newspaper, magazine, etc.), consisting entirely of reprints, fragments or alterations of artistic, journalistic, scientific works, which, due to their simplified form, are available to readers. In this function, the digest is often adjacent to mass literature.
First digest
The first and still one of the most popular digests is the monthly American magazine Readers Digest, founded in 1922 by David and Leela Wallace, after L. Wallace decided to collect a selection of favorite articles published by in different monthly editions, and combine them into one magazine.
The word digest comes from English digest, which means a summary.
In the review presented to your attention, we will talk about the digest. What it is? In the age of the Internet and information technologies many areas of activity are moving to an automated level. The media space is no exception. Nowadays, there are many Internet browsers that release news fragments on an hourly basis about this or that event. This means sites with political, sports, social, economic and other news. If all these resources are considered under the prism of the "fundamentals of the media", then they are all united by such a thing as a digest. What is it? Let's find out!
Digest - what is it? Definition and features
Literally translated from of English language"digest" is a summary (digest) or summary (the word digerere is translated from English as "to divide"). In Russian, the word "digest" is most often found in this concept. This concept implies any information product (collection, article or publication), which contains brief annotations to the topic under discussion. The digest, as a rule, contains the main provisions of the articles, which present the most interesting and relevant publications in short form(for a certain period of time). The popularity of this format is due to the fact that compressed information allows you to get acquainted with popular news, a separate topic or a whole study in the shortest possible time.
Digest - what is it? Format Meaning and Application
In the generalized concept of "digest" - excerpts (quotations, epigraphs, etc.) taken from several information sources. The output is a compressed form of a particular genre, topic, or summary. Following the example of this format, the Gramota.ru online publication operates, which publishes brief news information from the journal Russian Language Abroad. And the chemical portal ChemPort has an "organic digest" that is based in the "Science News" section. In general, the concept of reprinting other people's materials in an abbreviated, systematic form is invested in the word "digest". There are over a hundred other examples of popular online publishers that work this way. These include "Reader's Digest" - a well-known American magazine, which contains the most relevant political and news events over the past month.
The history of the creation of the format
The principle of writing compressed thematic collections has been known since ancient times. The most notable example is the "Digests" - brief summaries and excerpts from the writings of ancient Roman jurists, which made up the main provisions of Byzantine law. Later, the Digests were renamed the Code of Civil Law.
Old Slavonic digests
So digest. What is it and where did it appear? In the history of the ancient Slavic peoples there is also a place for the concept we are considering. The famous book "Golden Jet" (written in Ancient Bulgaria) was created on the principle of a collection of concise presentations. It contains all the moral teachings and creations of John Chrysostom (in the extended version, there are about 136 writings).
"Izbornik Svyatoslav" is the third oldest (after the "Ostromirov Gospel" and "Novgorod Codex") Old Russian manuscript book, which presents the works of the Church Fathers in a brief and exhaustive form. In ancient times, this principle of compiling books was widespread and popular. This category also includes the book "Catechism", which contains the basics of Christian beliefs (the book is written in a question-answer format, which also falls under the concept of "digest").
Based on these connotations, we can conclude that the modern media information platform (books, media, news portals, etc.) adopts most of the principles and formats from antiquity. Then there was no such thing as a "digest". This formulation was named in modern world. Previously, collections of brief information and writings were called "extract", "note", "excerpts", etc.
Digests in Russia
And what is the digest through the eyes of a Russian person? What is it and how was it used in Russia? The first digest formats in Russia appeared in the 17th century. However, even then there was no such word. All publications, magazines and collections that worked on the principle of information compression were called "chimes". Now the word "chimes" is used as a historical term for Russian-language reviews of the European press in the late 17th - early 18th century. Later, in the middle of the 18th century, the word "extract" began to be used. The first to do this was the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. The definition of extract meant not only reviews of the European press, but also condensed thematic presentations of other documents (in printed or handwritten form).
Where are "digests" used now?
And if we talk about modern Russia and the concept of "digest"? What is it in the current sense? The word "digest" appeared in the vocabulary of the Russian-speaking population at the end of the 20th century. The National Corpus of the Russian Language first registered the term in 1993. However, this word was already used in the 80s. At the beginning of the 2000s, the concept of "digest" became incredibly fashionable, so it is very often used in various fields. Because of this, the meaning of the word has not been fully formed. This concept is constantly investing more and more new meaning. For example, “Review Digest” is an already established concept on the popular YouTube video hosting.
As mentioned above, many popular news portals work on the principle of reprinting information from other sources in a short form. However, the distribution of "digests" does not end there. This principle has long been used in television programs, serials, films and cartoons, etc. For example, on the Russian television talk show “Let them talk” on Channel One, digests are very often used. Before the studio begins to discuss anything, you will first be presented with a video clip about the topic of the program. Thus, you quickly understand the essence of the discussed topic and continue to watch the program from the middle. Such video inserts (i.e. digests) are shown after the advertisement. Some TV shows insert the digest before the commercial break as well. This is done in order to interest and keep the viewer after the advertisement (because most often, when the advertisement starts, the viewer switches to another channel). The most notable example is the Comedy Club digest. The best fragments from the comedy show are available to the viewer in a matter of seconds.
Reading time: 4 minutes
Newsletter digests are always a large amount of information that needs to be collected in a readable form and presented to the subscriber as a finished product. Digests inform readers about news and help increase traffic to the site.
When creating a digest, it is important to remember 3 things:
- Content hierarchy.
- Balance between pictures and text.
- Navigation.
Before you rush to create a template, calmly sit down and analyze the content that you will place in the letter. Will it be just headlines, headlines plus short description or a detailed news announcement.
There are several ways to design digests, let's look at each of them:
Image + text in one column
Pros: enough space is allocated for each news, you can see the accompanying photo / illustration, you can add additional text after the picture. Good format for viewing on mobile phones.
Cons: at in large numbers news, few of the subscribers have the patience to scroll to the end of the letter.
When to use: when there are beautiful photos / illustrations that reveal the topic of the heading, when you want to reveal the topic of the news with a detailed announcement.
News digest Invision App chose the path “image + text”. Large, interesting pictures, well-placed content, but after the third scroll down, attention and interest begin to disappear.
Portal vc.ru placed the big picture at the beginning and added “social proff” in terms of the number of likes and comments.
Image + text in 2-3 columns
Pros: the information is compact, easy to read.
Cons: if you make a non-responsive layout, then headings and text can be poorly read on the mobile screen, especially if the layout has a 3-column layout.
When to Use: The perfect combination for this layout is image + headline.
The creators of the mailing list went the same way
For some news, they use GIFs instead of static images, and you immediately want to click on the very news in which the picture is moving. But we must remember that if you make all the news animated, then attention will immediately dissipate and there will be little sense from such a mailing list. In everything you need to know the measure.
Pictures
Pros: you can arrange the content in an interesting way, attracts attention well.
Cons: if the subscriber has any problems with the display of pictures, then your newsletter will remain unread. Spam filters don't like emails that consist only of images - you can fly into spam.
When to use: when there are visual pictures and it is on them that you want to focus.
Text
Pros: The template is easy to assemble, and the text will always load and display.
Cons: a large amount of text is difficult to perceive. Think about whether your target audience will appreciate this approach? If so, then take care of readability: break it into paragraphs and highlight the main thing.
When to use: when there is no time to do something global, but it needs to be done. Also, the digest can be made similar to personal correspondence.
Text mailing example - , where once a week the editor summarizes and embeds links to articles in the text. At the end there are pictures and links to popular articles, but the emphasis is on the text and the personal opinion of the editor-in-chief.
Sometimes you can experiment and send a newsletter in verse, as I did (but keep yourself within limits!)
Mixed
Pros: you can put emphasis on more important news, more interesting to read at the expense of different types blocks.
Cons: if different blocks are poorly arranged, then the eyes will diverge.
When to use: when there is strength, time and a designer)
Lifehacker uses a picture for the main news, the rest of the information is just headlines.
Our colleagues from the office in Riga also make a selection of articles from the blog for a month. Each news has its own “card”, the largest picture is the most important or interesting news.
Each type of digest has its pros and cons, the main thing is to understand what exactly is suitable for your goals and go ahead! Need help from professionals - write to We will help, advise, guide you on the right path)
