Knimbus integrates and assigns publication catalogues that are subscribed by the institution. We do not store books, journals, or any others; we simply catalogue and categorise the publication metadata. This catalogued metadata is referred to as content. To access the content, you can click on the read button which will take you directly to the landing page of the publication. You will be able to access the records that the institution has subscribed to.

Data is processed and integrated as packages (Standard or Custom) after validation.

Knimbus also has a huge repository of indexed open access content and multimedia collections available for all institutions that can be assigned as per requirement.

Key methods used to aggregate content

• Understanding the nature of content hosted by the publisher or source.
• Checking for any illegal content hosted or plagiarism.
• Validating and proceeding only after confirming that they comply with the copyright laws.
• Confirming if the data needs to be processed as Standard or Custom package.
• Downloading the KBART/Title list/Data dump if available for the metadata.
• If any of the above are not available, we will perform data scraping.
• Data is then cleaned and validated, checked for gaps and duplicates.
• URLs are run through scripts to remove broken links, redirection, and other issues.
• Other data such as metrics, subjects, covers are added (if available).

Processed data is then QA tested and goes live.

Package Integration – Standard and Custom

Publishers share content in two ways:

1. Collections: Publishers often provide collections based on subject, year, content type, language, etc. to make it easier for customers to pick their desired collection as a package. The metadata of these collections are made available to the librarian as a KBART, MARC record, or Title List. How these collections are updated varies from publisher to publisher. We at Knimbus term this as a “Standard Package Integration”. We process the package using the title list or update it to the latest version if we already have one.
   
2. Individual Titles: If a client does not wish to subscribe to an entire collection or if the publisher does not provide collections, they would opt for individual publications based on their requirements. To integrate these publications, the list of titles needs to be shared with us to process them for the respective organization, which we at Knimbus term as a “Custom Package Integration”.
   

The integrated package data will be added under the respective publisher card like this:

Connector Management

Connectors are the underlying mechanism for the Research+ feature on Knimbus. They retrieve real-time results directly from the publisher’s website. A connector must be built for each publisher and then assigned to the library portal.

Key Content Types

Knimbus includes vast number of content types such as:

• Journal: A serialised publication of articles (mainly research articles) published on a particular academic discipline. A journal can be identified by its unique ISSN number (print and online). A journal can be open access or only available post subscription. The journal articles can be available as Full Text (entire article) or Abstract (only the abstract) based on the availability or nature of subscription as decided by the publisher.
• eBook: A monograph publication on a single area or topic of interest. An eBook can be identified by its unique ISBN. There are both paid and open access eBooks available. A book in public domain may not include an ISBN.
• Proceedings: Academic papers presented at a conference/workshop. Can be serial or monograph.
• Standards: Local/Global specifications, guidelines, requirements, or best practices as set by a reputed authority.
• Statistical Data: Statistics
• Video: YouTube Video or Direct Videos
• Magazines: A serialised publication with new editions published regularly. A magazine may have a unique identifier ISSN (not mandatory).
• News: e-Newspapers or news portals. This can contain articles as well as videos.
• Presentations: Presentations available online.
• Reports: Includes academic reports, company reports, Government reports, scientific and research reports.
• Datasets: A collection of data for the purpose of training for ML or AI purposes.
• Database: A collection of records (any content types) by the publisher available through a search system. Eg. Database of journals, database of books, database of art and cultural archives, etc.
• Case Study: Research designs (problem statements) in the form of case study in a hypothetical or real-world context for analytical purposes.
• Thesis: Includes Theses and Dissertations.
• Course Material/Courses: Includes Video and e-learning courses either for a certain duration or non time-bound.
• Web Content: Blogs, websites, etc.
• Clinical Trials: Trials done for research on the use and safety of drugs.
• Question Papers: Past years’ question papers.
• Others: Services or anything that can’t be categorised in the above content types.

A-Z catalogue List

All the publications available in the library can be accessed through A-Z List. To view the A-Z list, hover over ‘eCatalog’ on the header tab and click on the blue ‘A-Z List’ button on the bottom right (refer to the screenshot below)

The results are sorted in the alphabetical order. You can view content starting from any particular letter by clicking on the respective alphabet.

You can also view the results specific to eCatalog, Multimedia or Sections (if added)

Filters

You can filter the results based on your requirements. There are various filters available based on the metadata added for the records. You can easily filter records based on the publisher source, access type, content type, author, subject, Knimbus Collection (only open collections), whether the publication is Full Text or Abstract, and more.

Open Access Content

Open Access (OA) comprises of content/publications available free of any access restriction or charges with the help of an open license for copyright as decided by the publisher and the author. Open Access is widely supported by the research and academic community.

An Open Access publication will be indicated by the following symbol:

There are different types of Open Access based on the restriction of access to articles. However, we at Knimbus only consider fully Open Access content (or Gold Open Access). Any hybrid Open Access publication (mix of Open and Subscribed articles) would be considered as Subscribed content.

We also consider eBooks in Public Domain and Videos/Courses available to access without login/registration as Open Access.

However, we abhor plagiarism and do not index content from sources hosting illegal and plagiarized content available for free as Open Access.

If a publication indexed in Knimbus is open access, the cover will include an orange “OPEN” banner.

To search for all Open publications, look for the ‘Access Type’ filter at the left side of the page and select ‘Open’.

Collections

Knimbus has pre-curated Open collections of open access content covering the four major domains:

1. Knimbus Science and Technology Collection
2. Knimbus Commerce and Management Collection
3. Knimbus Arts and Social Sciences Collection
4. Knimbus Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Collection

We also have two new collections, which are formed as a subset of the major collections:

1. Knimbus MBBS/MD Collection: Pure Medical content; subset of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Collection
2. Knimbus Engineering Collection: Pure Engineering content; subset of Science and Technology Collection
   

Subjects in Knimbus

Knimbus has categorized our own subject listing, inspired by the LCC codes (Library of Congress Classification). The main subjects available with us are:

• General Reference Works
• Philosophy
• Psychology
• Religious Studies
• History
• Geography
• Environmental Sciences
• Anthropology
• Sociology
• Recreation
• Arts and Social Sciences
• Business and Commerce
• Political Science
• Law
• Education
• Arts and Entertainment
• Literature
• Science and Technology
• Computer Science and IT
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Life and Biological Sciences
• Medical and Health Sciences
• Agriculture
• Engineering and Technology
• Library and Information Science
• Education
• Agriculture
• Linguistics and Language

Within these broad subjects, we have narrower subsets of each subject (wherever applicable).

Subscribed and Premium content

Any data not available under open access will be considered as subscribed and premium content. This subscription is paid for by the institution and is catalogued by us after IP registration for easy access to the students and faculty. Subscribed content is indicated with a green lock symbol:

The subscribed content can be also filtered during catalogue search: