ABSTRACT
An abstract is a summary of the essential content of another, longer, document. An abstracts service is a form of current bibliography in which contributions to periodicals, other collections and sometimes books are summarized. They are accompanied by bibliographical citations to enable the publications to be traced, and are frequently arranged in classified order. They may be in the language of the original or translated. Abstracts may be indicative, mainly directing the reader to an original item with relevant content; informative, giving much information about the original, summarizing the principal arguments and giving the principal data; or evaluative, when they comment on the quality of the original. A general abstract is one that covers all essential points in an article, and is provided where the interests of readers are varied and known to the abstractor only in general terms. A selective abstract contains a condensation of parts of an article known to be directly related to the needs of the clientele and is prepared by a librarian or information officer (1) for the executives, research workers and specialists within an organization or those normally making use of library services, (2) in response to a request for a literature search or (3) to keep the staff of an organization informed of developments revealed in the daily periodical press, documents or reports. An author abstract is one written by the author of the original article.
